GDIT has helped me get to the point where I’m at in my career - giving me the resources and training I need to stay where technology is today.
Michael joined GDIT after six years in the United States Air Force where he gained experience in technology that has served him well at GDIT. Four years and four roles later, he continues to help protect and maintain mission-critical networks for military sites and facilities. He now leads a team as an Information Systems Supervisor.
Bringing expertise to military networks. My team owns it.
My transition from the military to GDIT felt seamless. I had a security clearance. I had certifications and a strong background in technology and system servers from the military that I continue to use in my day-to-day job.
My team is the backbone of the network capabilities across the sites we support.
We’ve encountered issues where one of the servers wasn’t talking to the network. In one instance, we went through all our standard operating procedures - is there power? Are there indicators that are displayed so we know what to troubleshoot? This time, we were able to determine there was a bad card inside the server so we worked with our customer to get a replacement and then help them get back online.
It’s mission critical. If we aren’t able to deliver, analysts and other customers could end up losing a lot of the capabilities they rely on every day.
Cooking up a community.
What I enjoy most is working with the people on my team. I’m the supervisor of three, but we have 20 people in my area without a lot of turnover so we’ve become very close.
I’m the team chef. We celebrate birthdays, accomplishments, and new team members every month and I’m out there grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, and sometimes steaks. For Thanksgiving, we deep fry a turkey.
Not every organization would let you take time every month to celebrate each other like this.
Uncovering opportunities to give back.
GDIT Cares is a program where team members spend time giving back to their communities. My manager and I noticed we didn’t have a group locally. So, we took it upon ourselves to create a GDIT Cares team and put together several school supply drives.
We raised over $1,500 worth of school supplies for three different low income schools. A teacher at another school reached out asking for help after she heard about what we did. I decided that we could provide more, even though we already made our commitment for three schools.
We were able to raise an additional $400 worth of supplies for that teacher and her classrooms. She was deeply grateful for what we were able to do and it felt incredible to be able to give more.
Creating an impact that receives national recognition.
I was recently awarded the Black Engineer of the Year Legacy Award. A few months ago, my manager nominated me for the award based on my character, my time in the military and at GDIT, as well as my community involvement.
When I received the letter saying I was selected, I was like, really? There’s no way. I looked at my manager in disbelief. I thought it was such a long shot. My focus is on my work and projects - I didn’t realize the overall impact I was making.
I’m one of 33 recipients, selected out of roughly 10,000 people for this national award. It’s a great honor.