Alumni Spotlight- Bonnie McNamee
Posted on September 11, 2020 by Keith Lynn
A Degree in Computing
“I entered South in the Fall of 1971 just as businesses were beginning to appreciate the value of computer processing in the workplace. At that same time, I began a part time job at a local insurance company as a key punch operator, recording the daily policy updates and other key data. The IBM contractors asked if I could punch their program modifications while they were onsite, and as I looked at the input on graph paper with all the formatted numbers, letters, symbols, and strangely placed punctuation, I was intrigued. One of the IBM engineers patiently explained the logic at a high level and told me that this language was “Fortran IV.” On the first day, I punched in his request and he showed me a generated report based on my changes. I was hooked at that moment and knew what my career path would be.
After 40 years in this industry, I am very grateful for that offbeat first job and the IBM engineer who took 10 minutes to introduce me to what would result in a rewarding career as the technology – computing – automation arenas evolved.”
Finding Inspiration
“During my Computer Science education at South, one instructor stands out who was not only well versed in the technical subject matter, but also emphasized how to apply this information in a real world environment – Dr. Bart Longenecker. I applied these learnings during my early years as a programmer, systems analyst, Unix administrator, and Oracle DBA, but even more so in my later IT management roles. Over the decades, the technology constantly evolved, the electronic devices made business life easier, and the world now heavily relies on network performance and the Internet. But Dr. Longenecker’s understanding and emphasis that whether you are dealing with management or your customers, the “people” component can make the difference between success and failure of your project.
An IT professional often becomes a change agent as new initiatives are rolled out and change is not always a popular experience for the users. There are approaches the IT leader can take to resolve this tension before the project is even implemented!”