Name: Rusty Bruns
Title/Employer: CIO/Charleston Southern University
Age: 45
Education: BS Education, draduate dual major (business and computer information management), working on PhD in business emphasis in MIS
Tenure In IT industry: 27 years (includes 14 years Navy)
First Tech Job: US Navy electronic technician 1980
Job Duties: The CIO is responsible for all campus information technology.
Duties include: Planning, budgeting, and management of voice, visual, electronic and data communication, data administration, computer labs, networking, Internet/Intranet. In addition, the CIO supervises all campus computer maintenance, technological training, postal operations and user support to faculty, staff and students. This position envisions how information technology can be applied in innovative ways to increase productivity and efficiency while continuing to satisfy all levels of user needs.
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What's been your best job and why?
The one I am in currently. The president gives the senior officers the latitude to breath and imagine. Freedom is a commodity that is rarely mentioned but should be high on anyone's list for employment. Imagine an environment that is more like a family of 400+ employees all with the same focus of creating an environment that is conducive to learning and faith. For my part, I have enjoyed great success with my team by giving them the same freedom that I enjoy. I do not watch the clock or watch them. All but one of my employees, I have personally hired. They are all adults ranging from age 24 to 63. They come to work because it is fun and challenging. I hire adults that are high initiative, responsibility that can work with limited of no supervision. My team and peers make my job enjoyable. The latitude of creativity ensures our success.
What do you think is the number one non-IT skill IT professionals need today?
Communication. Unfortunately many IT individuals who come from IT, can speak IT but cannot communicate effectively to other non-IT individuals. Example: bandwidth. Bandwidth is like a bathtub drain, as long as the drain is clean and not receiving more water than it can handle, it drains as fast as it receives water. However, turn the water on full blast, the drain cannot handle the input of water and starts backing up. A larger drain would have to be installed to accommodate the additional water. In this example, the water is network traffic and bandwidth is the drain. This is a tangible explanation that is easily understood by anyone who has ever been in a bathtub.
What do you credit your career success to?
I have been very fortunate to have mentors over the years that have taken the time to teach me and provide me with challenges that I passed and failed. I received praise when I passed and explanations when I failed. My need to be a sponge for learning and education and philosophy of not asking any employee to do something that I would not personally do myself, working late, picking up trash, what ever needs to be done is done. I do not approve of egos or whining. I tell my new and old employees if you are not happy please leave. Poor attitudes are contagious and I cannot afford to have that in our environment. I try very hard to lead by example versus by authority.
What are the top three skills a high-level IT manager needs today?
A strong business background with knowledge of budgets, contracts, RFP, HR and all that goes with personnel, and the ability to communicate that both up and down the chain of command.
Communication. Many IT individuals who come from IT can speak IT but cannot communicate effectively to other non-IT individuals. A thorough understanding of how technology works. When I arrived here 11 years ago, I have a staff of four. Over the years, I have been a technician, network administrator, wireless network administrator, DBA, programmer, cable guy, telephone guy, etc. My employees know that when they talk techie to me, I get it because I have done it.
What's your favorite IT resource site and why?
I have a few, Educause, TechRepublic, Business Officer, CIO, PCWorld, Campus Technology and Network World come to mind first. They all serve to provide unbiased information that I can use to lay down a strategic plan based on the direction of technology and business and how my university can stay ahead of our competition.
What is the best career advice you've ever received?
"Be careful for what you wish for, you may actually get it." Sometimes our dreams achieved looked better than the reality of the dream.
What's the top advice you'd give to a new IT staffer?
Never stop learning, do not be afraid of losing one's job, and learn to listen and not speak.
What would you advise someone looking to find the type of role you currently have?
Make one's desire known and ask for guidance. I have three employees that would like my job and they have voiced that so I send them to training to teach areas where they are weak and include them in decisions that I make and why. I also ask them to respond to situations and then I explain my decision.
What is the one career decision you would change if you could?
I know cannot be true but career decisions, I have no regrets. I have set my goals, achieved them and set new goals. This is taped to my computer monitorI do not know who authored it:
THE VALUE OF TIME: Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account
for you. Every night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
If you had the choice to jump into any other job, tech or non-tech, what would it be?
I am happy with my current job and life that my family and I enjoy. I am free, challenged, my team is an extension of my family, I never tell any employee what to do, I always form it as a request, "would you or could you, I need a favor." We say thank you. These are very simple principles but it removes egos, anger, hate, discontent, whining, arrogance, and sets a foundation that we are all the same. I am a boss when a situation requires me to be. In 11 years, I believe I have raised my voice three times. A family (team) working together versus a job.
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