Meet the Winners!
Windows IT Pro is excited to announce the winners of the first-ever IT Prolympics. Congratulations to gold medalist Steven Schullo, silver medalist Michael Royer, and bronze medalist Nathan Casey. The most useful preparation for this contest was "definitely real world experience combined with the recommended reading to hone up on aspects that I do not deal with on a daily basis," according to Schullo.
This competition, sponsored by Microsoft and Culminis, was designed to recognize the most proficient Active Directory (AD) experts in the US while encouraging friendly competition within the IT community. "It’s always fun to see how your skills stack up against those of your peers," said Peg Miller, associate publisher of Windows IT Pro. "If you participated, we hope you enjoyed the challenge and the chance to show off your AD prowess. If you didn’t participate this time, look for future IT Prolympics competitions that will test proficiency in other technology areas."
Here's how it worked
The IT Prolympics competition began by asking IT pros to study a reference guide and recommended reading about AD and Group Policy. Competitors qualified to compete against their peers by taking an online multiple-choice test. They then performed a timed AD-deployment task, using a virtual AD lab. The top three competitors with the best overall combined scores were honored as IT Prolympics medalists and received prizes and recognition from Windows IT Pro and Microsoft. The exam and virtual lab are still open if you’d like to take the tests for fun. Your score will no longer count toward prizes in the competition, but you can still test your knowledge against your peers. Go to www.windowsitpro.com/itprolympics.
Meet Gold Medalist Steven Schullo from Hixson, TN
Editor's Note: Since this interview was conducted, Steven Schullo has changed jobs and now works as a Microsoft Professional Services Consultant for Quest Software.
Schullo is 35 and happily married to Virginia for 8 years. They have one son age 5 and a daughter age 2. What are Schullo’s hobbies and pastimes? "I like to spend time with my wife and children. My son and I play football in the front yard, we go hiking and camp in the Smoky Mountains as well as explore nature. Reading is also a big pastime for our family."
With 16 years of IT industry experience, Schullo works for UnumProvident (UNM), the largest provider of group and individual disability income protection insurance in the US and United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, UnumProvident Corporation insures more than 25 million people. With primary offices in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Portland, Maine, the company employs 12,500 people worldwide.
Schullo explains that his official title is "Systems Consultant II. My actual responsibilities include acting as the primary subject matter expert for AD. I was hired for the express responsibility to research, design and implement a viable AD infrastructure for the company's international organization of 12,000+ users and 600+ servers."
He manages an infrastructure of multi-forest mixed mode Windows 2000 environment. Multi-forests allows UnumProvident to have dedicated and isolated development and acceptance testing environments. The production AD forest has 600+ servers and approximately 12,000 workstations across the US and worldwide.
Gold medalist Steven Schullo wins an expense-paid trip and special recognition at TechEd 2005 in Orlando, FL; a subscription to Windows IT Pro and an AD t-shirt (shown). "I entered the contest for the challenge and the possibility of attending TechEd 2005 at no cost!" said Schullo.
Why Choose IT as a Career? "I got hooked on Donkey Kong and the rest is history," said Shullo.
Meet Silver Medalist Michael Royer from West Hollywood, CA
"The answer is out there if you know how to look for it"
Silver medalist Michael Royer wins an iPod, a subscription to Windows IT Pro and an AD t-shirt.
Royer is 39 years old and enjoys spending time with "Kathryn, my partner of 15 years, doing nothing or traveling. And I love spending time with my nephew (he's 6 now) though I don't get to do so nearly enough."
When asked about his hobbies and pastimes, Royer replied, "There's life outside work? What blasphemy! :-) I love a good read, especially non-fiction historical. Lately I've been reading a lot of politic-based books." Royer says he used to do a lot of "cycling and swimming," but has found that "they get in the way of growing old, so I've cut back on them."
With 7-1/2 years of experience in IT, Royer works at Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company. Ticketmaster sold 100 million tickets in 2003, through one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet, more than 3,300 retail Ticket Center outlets and 19 worldwide telephone call centers.
Royer is a senior IS systems manager. "I manage the Enterprise Systems group," he explained. His group’s "responsibilities include administering our AD and Exchange environment, line of business applications, SharePoint Portal system, intranet development (a custom .NET intranet portal and content management system), and all core Windows networking services (ddns, wins, dhcp, vpn, etc)."
Royer manages an infrastructure of Windows servers (NT4, 2000 and 2003), geographically dispersed throughout North America and the United Kingdom (and expanding). "My team is responsible for all email service, workstation access, and line of business access for the company, including several thousand client seats in locations across the globe. I find the challenge of developing better, faster, more efficient, cost-effective processes to be tremendously gratifying and feel very fortunate to have a career that is both personally and professionally rewarding."
Why did you choose a career in IT? "During a time of change and upheaval in my life 7 1/2 years ago a career in IT chose me, rather than the other way around." Royer told us. " I nearly fell into IT while investigating career change opportunities in 1997, and my current job is my first IT position. I'm extremely happy to have made such a career change and now can't imagine working in any other type of work."
What do you like most about your job? "I have always felt fortunate to be in a position where I get to investigate new technologies and new ways of doing things, and then actually implement them if they pan out. I couldn't stand being in a position where my role was to simply follow a script or task list, where I wasn't permitted to think on my own and take calculated risks to improve my environment. I view my position as being mandated to make the business better through technology use, and I feel very lucky that my employer seems to agree with my view."
Why did you enter this contest? "Seriously, it was on a lark," Royer admitted.
What was the most useful preparation for this contest? "I didn't [specifically] prepare for the contest in any way. My responses in the contest were governed by two simple principles: (1) no one knows everything and (2) the answer is out there if you know how to look for it."
Who is your favorite Windows IT Pro author? Royer replied, "Michael Otey and Mark Minasi. They always provide something for me to begin thinking about to which I hadn't previous given much thought. And that's what makes the best IT authors, getting readers to think."
Meet Bronze Medalist Nathan Casey From Santa Rosa, CA
Casey is 35 and says, "I enjoy spending time with my wife, Becca, and daughter, Madison. I like reading, technology research, and anything Active Directory. As a licensed pilot I also enjoy aviation history and flying."
Casey has been in the IT industry for 7 years. His certifications include 2000 MCSE, CCNA, and CNA 5.1. Casey works for the County of Sonoma Information Systems Department, a local CA County Government with approximately 3700 users encompassing 42 different businesses and roughly 20 sites.
He is a network analyst on the Centralized ISD Network Team. "Among many other projects," Casey explained, "I am currently involved in the county’s migration from Netware 5.1/NDS and NT4 to Active Directory. In addition to Active Directory design/implementation, I also maintain Application Center, ISA Server and IIS, NetPro, AutoProf, etc." Casey described his infrastructure, saying, "With a staff of 6 people, the Network Services team supports 130 Windows and 36 NetWare servers, and 80 LAN/WAN sites (100 percent Cisco shop). We are required to support and maintain it all. Also, I am currently involved in the migration from NetWare/NT4 to Active Directory. Additionally, at previous employment, I was involved in several AD migrations. All my past IT experiences have prepared me for this contest."
Why did you choose a career in IT? Casey said, "Because of the challenge. I love it! The field is always in flux, nothing remains the same, especially in networking!"
What do you like most about your job? "I thrive solving complex problems, and working at it until I have resolved the issue. Additionally, I appreciate working with the other members of our team; everyone shares their knowledge with one another. My job requires me to be on top of the current technology, which means there is always something new to learn."
Why did you enter this contest? "Of course, I wanted to try to win the trip to TechEd 2005. Also, I wanted to challenge myself and gauge my Active Directory experience and knowledge against other people in the field. It was an all-around great feeling to have done as well as I did."
What was the most useful preparation for this contest? "I reviewed the Prolympics PDF, which was a good overview of AD. All of the IT Prolympics ’Recommended Reading‘ articles were excellent references for AD administrators and were useful preparation tools. Knowledge Base articles were an excellent resource, as well. However, the best preparation for me was real hands on experience with AD."
Who is your favorite Windows IT Pro author? "I have three: Robbie Allen (because he maintains one of the only AD BLOGs I can find), Jeremy Moskowitz, and Mark Minasi."
"I love it! The field is always in flux, nothing remains the same, especially in networking!"
Bronze medalist Nathan Casey wins an XBox, a subscription to Windows IT Pro and an AD t-shirt. "I thrive solving complex problems, and working at it until I have resolved the issue," said Casey.
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