The West Virginia Coding Club was privileged to have Richard Wilbur, Founder, President & CEO of Advantage Technology, speak at one of our recent meetings.
Richard attended West Virginia University in 1993-1997; however, didn’t study in computers. This was a time when the main operating system was in DOS, not Windows. After a while working in a different profession, Richard decided to research other job opportunities that were growing and had better salaries and found IT (Information Technology). Richard worked to get a certification in MCSE - Microsoft Engineer (Certification working on Servers)
Richard then joined a small local IT company and ended up dealing with the Love Bug virus. This was not a normal 9-5 job, and when a customer’s computer storage equipment went down, he had to drive the equipment up on Sept 10, 2001, to the Data Recovery Center, in the Washington, D.C. area. . . then Sept 11 happened, and he got stuck there to wait and pick up storage system.
That time was difficult for the small business and his employer decided to not continue the business. So, Richard decided to start his own business with the small group of customers he inherited. He started out of a spare bedroom, and over time his business grew and grew and grew to the point now with 80 - 85 employees. When naming the company, phone books were still a thing and he wanted to list his business first, alphabetically. He named the company Advantage Technology (and this area of West Virginia is called Advantage Valley, so it made the connection to this area).
They now have offices in Charleston, Bridgeport and Williamsport, MD. Advantage Technology is the largest Information Technology service company in WV with customers throughout the United States. Richard has high level specialists; developers/coders, servers, networking, computers, cabling, and salespeople for software / hardware. They are able to do special projects, even for companies that have full IT departments. They provide service through the State of West Virginia to 750+ schools, to support wifi, switches, routers, cabling and related technology.
Richard shared that time to work these types of jobs are the (normal 8-5), but also evening and weekends, because businesses need support 24/7. It can be stressful and frustrating, but also very rewarding to help solve problems and support their customers. Richard, himself, still works on server projects and is involved in the service of their customers.
Richard’s advice to the students: To excel and do well, find a speciality! You can find better salary and benefits and you can focus on one area.
Certifications are also important to businesses looking to hire staff. It shows the employer that you have some base knowledge in an area and helps businesses as it has more certified employees. Examples of some key certifications today are CISCO, Azure (MS Web Hosting), .NET.
Dan McElroy, President of the West Virginia Coding Club stated, ”I appreciate the reality of Richard's talk and telling it like it really is in this environment. This is the kind of information that will help our students as they work towards careers in the Technology industry."
Richard shared that Advantage Technology has both women and men involved in the organization. He highlighted Amber Bostic, who runs their software development department. “She has a great story to tell and is a leader with her knowledge of backend database programming.”
Richard emphasized that Advantage Technology also has internships available each year, starting at age 16. He also discussed areas that he felt were in high demand in the coming years, including cyber security.
We thank Richard for his time and insights into the Technology industry and appreciate him sharing that knowledge with our West Virginia Coding Club students!
For more information about the West Virginia Coding Club, go towww.wvcoding.org