Today is IT Pro Day! Here Are Three Questions with SailPoint Desktop Support Specialist Nancy Acosta

Today is IT Pro Day, a holiday to say thank you to all the dedicated people out there working their magic behind the scenes—keeping our essential technologies performing and our lives running smoothly. At SailPoint, we are lucky to have an army of IT Pros. Meet Nancy. As a desktop support specialist, Nancy joined SailPoint at a critical time back in December 2019. In the throes of 2020, the ongoing global pandemic required IT pros worldwide, including Nancy,  to troubleshoot from home, scaling remote capabilities, and ensuring companies didn’t miss a beat. Luckily, Nancy is used to solving problems and, despite being new to SailPoint, was ready to hit the ground running. Rewind a few years earlier, a friend recommended her to a helpdesk position (leaving smoothie making behind) because of her innate ability to approach the issues and find the best solution. Six years later, this IT pro is ready for any challenge headed her way. Here are three questions with Nancy Acosta.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I would have taken more certification courses. Most of my IT experience comes from being thrown into a task. I learned a lot on the fly. The phrase “sink or swim” comes to mind when I look back on my early IT days. Now I’m more aware of courses and certifications that would have assisted with some of the know-how on how infrastructure tends to be setup. I also wish I had been more outspoken for my work/life balance. If I had learned to stand up a bit more for myself, I would be further along in my career because I would not have known about burnout the hard way.

2020 has been an interesting year. What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past six months?

One of the most important things I’ve discovered is that keeping your cool in stressing situations impacts the outcome even if things do not resolve. SailPoint was ready to mobilize and have everyone work from home, but some learning curves and frustrations were to get everyone up to pace with the correct procedures. That being said, it’s been wonderful meeting many new people that I wouldn’t have been able to meet if I wasn’t helping them fix an issue. 

What is the biggest challenge you face as a leader in your role?

One of the biggest challenges I have personally faced in my role is self-doubt. Sometimes I get too anxious that what I’m doing or presenting is not correct, or the process is too convoluted for it to make sense for anyone else, but I’ve started to have more confidence in the work I do. It’s been great to have the reinforcement from my manager and peers that my work is good and make valuable contributions to my team.