Paul Miles is an Information Technology Specialist who earned a BA in Journalism from the University of South Carolina. After college, Paul worked at Geek Squad for two years and then spent nine years climbing the IT ranks at Agape Senior, where he had the honor of completing one of the SC Technical College System’s own Apprenticeship Programs—in LTC Management. Paul joined the System Office in August 2016. Paul specializes in informing “front of house” helpdesk service and communication with a “back of house” understanding of the needs of the rest of the organization. He was voted SBTCE Associate of The Year 2017 and is a lifelong South Carolina resident.
What three words would you use to describe yourself?
I would describe myself as adaptive, diligent, and a long-form thinker. Professionally speaking, IT is a field where quick answers have long-term ramifications, and I enjoy the challenge of bringing it all together into a coherent plan of action.
Please tell us about your job.
As a member of IT, my role has been to consolidate lines of communication into a semi-formal helpdesk interface. I also generally manage new hardware deployments and, more recently, individual training on new products/functionalities like video teleconferencing. I am a liaison to the individual needs and concerns of other departments that do not immediately warrant engaging more formal lines of communication.
What have you been doing during the covid crisis?
The events surrounding the ongoing pandemic have been a challenge and an opportunity for success for IT departments nationally. The past month has seen a meteoric rise in use of services like Zoom and Office 365. I have been heavily engaged in facilitating and training users on not just telework, but anywhere-work. We are using remote-support applications to maintain responsible social distancing. We have been testing college and employee audio and video endpoints of all kinds for inter-office video conferencing. We are scheduling and facilitating not only basic and high-level meetings but even interviews via video conference to keep everyone from being in the same space unnecessarily. We repurposed our loaner laptops and computers into a modest telework fleet for employees who did not have other hardware options to work from home. We implemented significant additional security alongside this extension of services.
What is something you like about your job?
I genuinely enjoy helping people. I enjoy making a call to IT something people look forward to, or at least don’t dread. I like leaving situations better than I find them, be that through training someone on a function or replacing a dead laptop. I enjoy trying to predict tomorrow’s problems and get out ahead of them. I decorated my office to look like a mid-century firewatch tower because IT is always going to be equal parts preparedness and looking for smoke.
