An Eye for Detail
By Rodger Nichols
Life happens behind the keyboard and behind the lens
Eduardo Garcia recently joined Northern Wasco County PUD in the information technology department.
Eduardo grew up in Hood River and graduated from Hood River Valley High School in 2014. He wasn’t sure where his career path would take him, so he enrolled in the general studies program at Columbia Gorge Community College. At the same time, Eduardo took a job at internet provider Skylink Fiber in The Dalles, which introduced him to the IT world.
“It was very challenging at first—climbing roofs, installing gear and getting to know people,” he says. “I really didn’t have that communication skill then, but I do now, which I’m really grateful for.” In 2016, Eduardo graduated from CGCC with a general studies degree, an Oregon arts transfer degree and an associate of science degree.
His next move came after he was on a job site managed by Radcomp Technologies. He later came across a social media post advertising a job with the company and applied. The owner remembered him.
“I started from the bottom up,” Eduardo says. “I didn’t really know too much about technology. I just knew that I really loved messing with technology.” From setting up computers and answering phone calls, he moved up through the ranks of technician positions.
“From there, I took over the onboarding process,” Eduardo says. “I traveled all over Oregon, Washington and Idaho, familiarizing all the new clients with Radcomp’s services and programs.”
Eventually, Eduardo wanted to move away from working on multiple businesses to focusing on a single company. “That would give me time to understand how everything works in a business and more time doing research and learning new things,” he says.
That led to a job with Insitu for a few months before he moved on to Mid- Columbia Medical Center, where he worked for about two years.
Eduardo lines up his next shot as a videographer.“I was taking care of all the third-party systems and applications for the whole hospital,” Eduardo says. “It was a total of about 300 to 400 systems and then another 200 to 300 applications I had to manage. Of course, I didn’t manage them all right away, but it was a new position they created. They saw there was a demand or need for somebody to be able to support all of them.”
Eduardo says he came to the PUD partly because of the level of stress at the hospital and partly because of the opportunities the PUD offers.
“I missed that hands-on work to be able to communicate with people and build that relationship with people,” he says. “At the PUD, I could apply literally everything that I wanted to do from day one.
“The really cool part of this job is that I’m not just limited to front-end work. I am able to work on back-end systems and applications and really a little bit of everything. It makes the job really interesting and really fun. I have time to research, time to communicate with people and help people out. It’s just a really good work environment. It’s exactly what I was looking for.”
The IT field is constantly changing. The PUD is careful to stay abreast of those changes for maximum efficiency and security.
Eduardo says he is excited about the potential for major expansion with the proposed new Google facilities. He says the PUD has a nurturing culture.
“It’s really nice to be able to bring my ideas and be able to have IT Supervisor Jason Pfister so supportive of my ideas,” he says.
When Eduardo is not deep into IT at the PUD, he says he enjoys a number of hobbies and tries to keep himself busy. “I have a side business as a videographer, and it seems to be going pretty well,” he says. “I do events like weddings and promotional videos for businesses. It’s a lot of fun, and I make a few dollars at it, so I can’t complain.”
