On March 13, 2025, Joven, the marketing coordinator at LG Networks, and I conducted an interview with Charles Collard, or CJ for short. As our Employee of the Month, we wanted to learn more about him and his daily life both on the job and outside of work. We covered many points on the ins and outs of the job as an MSP technician, as well as what he enjoyed doing in his free time. Let’s dive into the interview:
First of all, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us today! So, my first question is, what inspired you to pursue a career in IT?
“It started when I was doing physical security right out of the Navy. I worked at McAfee in the fusion center with a bunch of the cybersecurity analysts, just listening to a bunch of their mumbo-jumbo in the office, and it got me interested. They started handing me their books—some Security+ books, some A+ books—and in my free time, I started reading them and getting familiar with how Windows operating systems and computers work. From there, it grew and grew until I took the time to go to school. I went to MyComputerCareer, got all my certifications—it blossomed from there, and now it’s opening up other pathways that I would like to explore in IT. Cybersecurity was what got me interested in it to begin with.”
How long have you been working at LG Networks, and what do you enjoy the most about working here?
“I have been here for a little over three years now, but the best thing about working here is the people I work with. The other help desk technicians are great—everybody from Nancy to Lou to Pete, John, Joven—everyone I work with, I have great relationships with them, and they make a really hard job not as tough when you have a lot of friends around.”
What does a typical day look like for you as an MSP technician?
“I get in at 8, go over my backups for all the companies, servers, and workstations. After that, the typical day includes phone calls coming in and resolving them. If you have any on-sites scheduled, you go to them—installing firewalls, servers, racking them, racking switches, doing patch panels, or installing a PC at company sites. It kind of varies from day to day.
And that’s kind of what I like about working here. You’re not stuck like most MSPs doing one specific job title—here, you have a grasp of everything.”
Joven: “I think that also works against the wrong kind of person because some people prefer to work on one thing and one thing only.”
“Yeah, they just want to do password resets.”
[collective laughter]
“Yeah, that’s not me. That’s too boring for me. I’d like to learn and get more advanced in IT instead of just doing password changes all day.”
What’s the most rewarding part about helping our clients?
“They kind of depend on us a whole lot, but just knowing that they’re taken care of and that they’re actually able to get back into production whenever they’re having issues is rewarding. Discovering a really challenging issue and being the first person to find the solution is really nice.
You know, kind of being that IT ninja—trying to give everyone else the details for something they haven’t seen before. But just getting everybody up and running production-wise—that’s probably the best part, figuring out solutions to problems that nobody else could.”
What’s a common IT problem you see clients face, and how do you help solve it?
“That’s going to be networking. That’s really common. It’s usually DNS issues with networking, and figuring that out. You really just have to dig down into the server in the event viewer, figuring out where the DNS issue started.
Another common issue is printers. Now, if you are not familiar with printers, they can be the devil. But once you get a good grasp on how printers communicate with servers and workstations, it’s actually quite easy. You know—getting the drivers updated, getting communication established between the workstation and the printer—that would be the best approach for that.”
I agree with the printer statement. They can be a big headache sometimes.
Let’s see—can you share a memorable customer success story?
“So, one of our customers is Estes Electric. They had the same ISP (Internet Service Provider) for about eight or nine years, and they were using outdated D1 and D2 lines. They had to upgrade to get internet again, but nobody in their area could hook them up with new internet services.
Clint and I spent about a month digging through everything in Waxahachie, trying to find an ISP for them. If they couldn’t get internet again, it would have pretty much ruined them—they wouldn’t have been able to operate anymore. They had just built a new location, and finding that ISP for them and getting them back online was the biggest reward I’ve had here so far.”
What’s one best practice you wish more businesses followed?
“Communication. There are so many issues that we have because people do not communicate between their internal offices. It’s so fundamental to communicate big changes, yet many customers don’t inform their lower-level employees.
For example, we have one customer with two remote workers who often get left out of the loop. They had been using the wrong VPN for a year because nobody informed them that they had switched over.”
What do you like to do outside of work?
“Do we have enough time?”
[laughter]
“So, I’m a big fisher. I love going fishing with my wife. I’m a big gamer—kind of nerdy.”
Joven: “What are you playing right now?”
“Right now, I’m playing Rivals—I am a Diamond Grandmaster.”
Joven: “You play with Leon?”
“I don’t play with Leon because he’s on PC. I don’t play on PC—I play console, Xbox. But other than gaming and fishing, I like taking the dogs out to dog parks, letting them have a little social life. I used to be a bar-goer, but that kind of slowed down. I’m really into gaming and fishing.”
So nice. That sounds peaceful—pretty chill.
What’s your favorite piece of technology, past or present?
“The Xbox—yeah, that’s definitely my favorite piece of technology. I mean, it’s my stress reliever. It’s my go-to for calming down, and it brings so much fun into my life.”
Joven: “And they run on Azure, right?”
“The Xbox does, yeah.”
Joven: “So that ties in with the whole IT support thing.”
If you weren’t in IT, which career would you choose?
“That’s a really good question, actually. I’ve thought about this a lot. If I wasn’t in IT, I’d rather be in animal hospitality—kind of like a veterinarian. My only struggle with that is I wouldn’t be able to put a dog down, so I didn’t pursue the veterinary field because that would break my heart.
But if I wasn’t in IT, that’s what I would do, I think.”
Do you have any advice for someone looking to start a career in IT support?
“If you’re trying to get started, you need to read. If you don’t like reading, it’s going to be hard to get into IT because it’s always changing, and you need to have a good work ethic to keep up with the changes. You’re going to have to take the first step forward because no one’s going to do it for you.
It’s going to be scary to get out of your comfort zone, but you’re going to need to start taking classes, going to school, working, or even just getting books and familiarizing yourself with IT. Once you have a good foundation, you can find a job that gives you more experience.
And then from there, it’s up to you. The sky’s the limit.”
And one last question—what’s a goal you have for next year, either professionally or personally?
“My goal for next year is to have my truck paid off.”
Joven: “Oh, are you almost done?”
“Yeah. Like $11,000 left on it, and it should be done in about 16 months. That’s very exciting because that’s an extra $900 a month for me.”
What kind of truck do you have?
“I have a 2019 Ram Rebel.”
Joven: “What’s your APR on that one?”
“It’s like 14%.”
Joven: “Oh my—yeah, that’s why.”
“Yeah, I make about three extra payments a year.”
Joven: “Oh, that’s smart.”
“Yeah, so it actually hasn’t been too bad. But yeah, that’s going to be real nice because I won’t have to worry about that $1,000-a-month payment.”
Alright, well again, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us. I think we’ve covered some great points today and learned something new about you, so thank you!
“Thank you as well!”
And that concludes our interview.
