EMPLOYEE PROFILE
With a decade of tech experience, William Mullins joined Domino as a Senior IT Specialist. Below he discusses what he enjoys about the company, and how the culture at Domino empowers him to do his best work.
I’m a senior IT support technician, which means I pretty much do anything revolving around fixing computers. From integrating different applications to creating Zoom rooms, I’m all over the place. Right now, I’m doing a lot of application integrations. I’m pretty much starting from scratch because there’s a lot that has to be done within our different systems to make sure certain stuff works correctly. It’s a lot of programming and trial and error.
I actually found this job on LinkedIn, and it sounded great. One of the things that jumped out at me in the post was Domino only uses Macs. I hadn’t been on a Mac in a while, and I’m a Mac person, so I thought, “Oh yeah, I could do something I actually like.” I wasn’t really happy at my old job, and I was looking for something more fulfilling that would give me satisfaction in my day-to-day work.
When I spoke with the recruiter, she told me about how Domino was a smaller company, but it was growing, so there was a lot of room to have different responsibilities. That sentiment was echoed when I had my first talk with my hiring manager. He said there was only one other IT person here, so if I saw an area I liked and wanted to get into, I’d have the freedom to do that.
Right now IT is implementing a lot of automation to certain tasks that will make our lives easier, but we are also working with other teams to automate their tasks. One example is with HR; when new hires start we are working on automation that will be able to send out both HR and IT welcome emails so that there isn’t a delay on receiving information and everyone has a similar experience when starting.
Collaboration is a must in the company because it helps us know how we can help each other. It also lets us know how other departments complete certain tasks, and then we can see if we can give input on how to accomplish those tasks better. The fruit of our collaboration is that both departments can now benefit with new processes to make our work flow more efficient.
An IT support technician at Domino has to be great at thinking outside the box. A lot of things that I have done here have been as easy as me wondering if a process can be done better. After I come up with a plan I reach out to my manager, and see the best way to get it implemented. If someone is great at figuring out better ways to iterate on certain tasks, Domino is a great fit. We love iterative thinkers. Also anyone that is eager to learn new technologies. I have worked with software in the past few months that I never had experience with, and I am now one of the go-to people at the company. So if someone likes learning new things Domino will give you the opportunity to do so, and help you be an expert in those spaces.
One of the things we went through in IT orientation was how to find specialized Slack channels created for niche areas of interest. For example, there’s one if you’re a parent, one if you have cats, one if you like photography, etc. I was surprised to see that before I even started, I was already added to the cat Slack channel based on the fun facts I had submitted. Someone wrote, “Hey everybody, I’m adding Will to the cat channel. Everybody say, ‘Hi.’” So, I added a picture of both my cats, and I had emails before I started from people welcoming me to the company.
Then a couple days later, somebody added me to the dog channel. It was a cool experience to start someplace and already have people happy to meet you. That made my first week stand out.
I like how I can follow my passions within my role. A couple months before I started, Domino moved into our current office space. It had a bunch of equipment already here they wanted to utilize. In the conference room, there were projectors and screens all connected to a central thing that needed an owner to deeply learn and manage. One of my hobbies is doing audiovisual stuff, so I asked my other IT colleague if I could figure it out. I was eager to jump in, and by the second day I had a grasp on what I was doing. They asked me to take it over. There were no instruction manuals, so it was a real process of learning what was useful and not. However, I found workarounds, and I was able to get pretty much all of it working.
Now we’re utilizing that space as it was intended to be used—All Hands, monthly meetings, and other things take place there—and that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone down there and said, “Let me see if I can figure this out.”
One of the best things about Domino is that even though the company is small, the people know there are areas they need to invest in to make everybody’s life easier. When it comes to IT, my department can be kind of expensive. Before coming here, I was used to waiting for months after requesting something, and I had to fight to get stuff done because the only thing anyone evaluated was the cost. At Domino, they see the value in me solving problems in-house, and they’re willing to cover the cost of expenditures. Of course, they have to think about the bottom line, but they also consider how things will affect how people get their jobs done.
I was pigeonholed at my previous job. It was very much, “This is what you’re doing,” and “Oh, that doesn’t look right over there, but don’t look over there. Just look straight ahead.” At Domino, if you bring up an issue—even if you see something that isn’t in your lane—they’ll try to connect you to the right person to help solve the problem. It’s a more collaborative environment. You feel heard when you say things around here.
It’s been somewhat surprising how understanding the people are at Domino. Every interaction I’ve had here has been nothing but positive. Being in IT, I’m used to people taking out their frustrations on me. When somebody’s computer is broken and all their stuff is on it, I’m the last line of defense. They can’t really complain to anybody else, so they usually complain to us even if we have nothing to do with what’s currently going on with their computer. I’ve come to expect that as part of the role.
However, sometimes you get people who want to be aggressive about it, and throughout my years I’ve learned how to deescalate situations like that. But I’ve never had to do that here. It’s one of the best things about being at Domino. I’ve never had a bad interaction with anybody here.
