From Art Student to IT Manager with Mike Green

Episode Information

Show Notes

Mike Green didn’t start out planning a career in technology. As a passionate art student in small-town New York, he faced a tough decision: pursue a field he loved with uncertain job security, or pivot to the growing computer industry. He chose computers, and 25+ years later, he’s never looked back.

Today, Mike manages the Digital Services Division for Clark County, Nevada IT, leading four distinct teams that deliver enterprise platforms and applications. His journey from a 16-week network technician program to IT leadership wasn’t smooth. It was filled with layoffs, career pivots, and hard lessons about professional communication.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
Mike shares the moment he realized art might not provide long-term security and decided to explore “a job in computers” (they didn’t call it IT yet). He got his start through a 16-week certification program that included a two-week unpaid internship and recruiting support. His first placement was at a telecom company that eventually became part of Verizon.

One of the most memorable parts of Mike’s story is how he learned professional communication the hard way. His first few consulting deliverables at a shipping and transportation company were torn apart by his manager. He was using colloquial phrases, plain language, and missing the professional tone clients expected. The feedback stung, but it transformed how he wrote and communicated with leadership.

Mike discusses the value of personality assessments, particularly DISC, which helped him understand not just his own working style but how to adapt to people with different personality traits. This skill became crucial when working with elected officials and diverse teams at Clark County.

His commitment to giving back shines through his work with Tech Impact, a Las Vegas organization where he mentors students entering technology. His perspective: “If what I had then got me to where I am now, if I help them with this program now, they will be so much farther ahead of me by the time they’re my age.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Career transitions require honest assessment of long-term security vs. passion
• Changing jobs every 3 years built diverse technical experience across systems administration, networking, and leadership
• Professional communication skills separate good technicians from great leaders
• Personality assessments (like DISC) provide valuable insight for working with diverse teams
• Keep your resume updated and practice interviewing regularly, even when you’re not looking for a job
• Community involvement and mentorship create lasting impact beyond your own career
• Thinking two steps ahead helps you spot opportunities before they pass
• Adaptability doesn’t mean losing your authentic self — it means understanding how to work effectively with different people
• Service to others provides meaning and helps you work through your own challenges

ABOUT MIKE GREEN:
Mike Green is the IT Manager for Clark County, Nevada, where he oversees the Digital Services Division with four teams focused on enterprise platforms and applications. Since starting in IT in 1998, Mike has built expertise across networking, systems administration, and IT leadership. His career has included roles in telecommunications, education, shipping and transportation, and public sector technology. Mike is actively involved in the Society of Information Managers (SIM) and serves as a mentor for Tech Impact, helping shape the next generation of technology professionals in Las Vegas.

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TranscriptionManuel Martinez: Welcome, everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads. Each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences, to help you gain some actionable advice as you’re managing your own career. For today’s episode, I have with me Mike Green. Him and I met at a couple of networking events through SIM, which I’ve covered before in the past. That’s the Society of Information Managers. We got to talking about just some of the video production and have since collaborated on a number of different projects. Got to know a little bit more about his career, a little bit more about him as well. I’m excited to share a lot of that information with you. With that, I’ll go ahead and introduce Mike.

Mike Green: Hi.

Manuel Martinez: Appreciate you coming on and similar to what I do for all the guests, if you don’t mind telling me about what your current role is and some of the roles and responsibilities.

Mike Green: Sure. My current role is IT manager for Clark County, Nevada IT. I am a manager over the Digital Services Division, which is… our primary focuses, enterprise platforms and applications. I have four teams underneath me and they do very different things, but we all try to work very cohesively together as a larger group. That’s what I do by day.

Manuel Martinez: I know that you’re also involved in a lot of like SIM and Tech Impact, a number of organizations outside of work. That’s part of the conversation. We’ll get to that and understand how you got into that and why you decided to be involved in these organizations to the level that you are, you’re not just a member or somebody who shows up like you’re actively involved in these organizations. To get started now, tell me a little bit about where you grew up and then eventually what led you to get your interest in technology and eventually start your career. I don’t know if you were one of those that right away got into tech or if there’s a lot of twists and turns along the way.

Mike Green: There’s always twists and turns along the way. I grew up in a small rural town in New York, Palmyra, New York. It’s close to Rochester so that when people ask me that I say, “Oh, I’m from Rochester, New York” which is like a Western area. people will sometimes call it upstate. If you’re talking about the nuances of New York, upstate’s like the Adirondacks and we call it Western New York, which is like your Rochester and Buffalo area. My graduating class was barely over 100. You knew everybody in your class. It was just like a very, I would say small town environment. Then I was originally a big art student, art person. That was going to be my career of choice. I was very much into drawing. I loved painting with acrylics. Sculpture really was something I enjoyed, both subtractive and additive sculpture. I really enjoyed that and I still do. I came to a crossroads towards the end of high school. Something else that I actually really enjoyed was video games. I played Nintendo, I played Sega Genesis. I really liked computer games and things like that. As I’m nearing the end of high school, I’m thinking about what’s my career path going to look like if I continue down the art. I’m like, “Well, it’s probably only like a one or two percent of the people out there that do art that are really successful that can make a good living at it and everybody else is like an art professor and art teacher.” That’s not to discount it, but I felt like, “Is that going to give me job security long-term?” For me, I didn’t see that for me. The other avenue was like, we didn’t call it IT back then. We just called it, the career counselor’s like, “You should look at it for a job in computers.” That’s what it was. I was like, “Okay, you’re right. I think I could do that.” I said, “If I could make a decent living at computers, I saw that only growing.” This is like the mid-90s at that point. Then I could make a decent living and I could do art on the side if I really wanted to. I never looked back and I don’t regret that decision. I was 18 years old, about a year out of high school. I wanted to just dive into a career in computers. I didn’t go to college until later in life, so I didn’t have a college degree. I was like, “How am I going to do this?” Then a friend of mine is like, “I’m going to this program. It’s a 16-week course.” At the end, you get a certification for a network technician. I was like, “That sounds really cool. Obviously, he’s my friend too.” We took the class together and the same cohort or group. They had a two-week internship at the end. It was unpaid, but it got you some experience. They partnered with a recruiting company to help place you at the end. I got placed at a telecom company. Eventually it became part of what’s known as Verizon, but at that point it was still early in the when local companies had their own phone business. That’s how it started. I just got work experience as I went along and layoffs happened. I looked back, so I’ve been doing IT since 1998. On average, I changed jobs every three years. I looked back and I’m like, some obviously were longer than others, but I was just like, “Wow, in IT, that was something I got used to.” It was always keeping my resume updated, always making sure that I could interview well, knowing how to write a good cover letter, knowing how to interact and speak with people. I learned that from my parents as well. My mom was always like, “Always keep your resume updated,” kind of thing. That really resonated with me. I gleaned a lot of good wisdom from her on those subjects.

Manuel Martinez: With regards to similar to you, looking back, I think we were about the same. I averaged about three years, some