Welcome to chrislcarson.com, a site dedicated to my professional journey. My career path has been anything but conventional, spanning multiple disciplines. For the past 30 years, I've worked in the IT industry, beginning in cybersecurity where I focused on protecting healthcare data. Prior to that, my formal education and early career were in medicine - a field I transitioned from to technology.

Throughout my adult life and across various career fields, I have built a strong foundation in leadership, management, and team development. While these experiences have been a consistent part of my professional journey, they have never been the sole focus of my roles. I thrive on the responsibility of leading, especially in chaotic situations, and enjoy taking charge when things are in flux.

My leadership and management style is direct, accessible, and centered on growth. I believe that a leader's primary role is to provide their team with the tools, resources, and knowledge needed to succeed. I am committed to continuous personal and professional improvement and work to instill this mindset in my teams. While I have successfully led large teams, I value the effectiveness of a small, agile "tiger team" approach, where diverse expertise and focused collaboration drive exceptional results.

Throughout most of my IT career, I've served as a System Integrator and Consultant, collaborating with clients across diverse industries. This breadth of experience has provided me with valuable insights that inform my work today. As a system integrator, I've helped client's architect, develop, deploy, and refine solutions. Often, clients lack the necessary expertise or resources to solution on their own, and that's where I come in.

I thrive on managing multiple challenges and clients simultaneously, choosing a variant approach versus staying in any one environment - though I have led several long-term projects. As a consultant, I combine my deep experience in both technology and business to guide clients toward effective, practical solutions. I pride myself on being efficient, detail-oriented, and always focused on delivering results.

A bit about my personal life. I keep most of my personal details off social media and out of the public eye, but I enjoy good conversation and storytelling. I've led a life full of adventure and experiences, always seeking out new challenges, which often make for the best stories. I'm known for making the simplest of adventures into memory making events with some landing us in trouble, adding to the richness of the tale.

Cooking is another passion of mine. I attended culinary school for four years and began working in an Italian restaurant at the age of 11. While I never pursued cooking as a career, I'm well-versed in a variety of cuisines. I also love to travel and immerse myself in different cultures. Whether I'm fixing things or tackling a new project, I'm always focused on learning something new.

Qualifications

I bring 30 years of experience in technology, security, and leadership. My career began with entrepreneurship at a young age, where I found early success, but I eventually transitioned into enterprise IT seeking greater challenges. I wanted to work with large corporations and governments. While IT remains my primary focus, I still maintain an entrepreneurial mindset and explore other disciplines.

Throughout my career, I've always taken on leadership roles, whether formally or informally. Managing teams and guiding individuals has never been my primary focus, but it's something I naturally excel at and enjoy. I thrive under responsibility and take pride in mentoring and coaching others - many often seek my guidance in these areas.

As an autodidact, I am self-motivated and goal-driven. I've also evolved as a recovering perfectionist, learning over time that perfection isn't always necessary. While I still strive for improvement in everything I do, I've come to appreciate success in its many forms.

My technology expertise spans a wide range of disciplines. I began my career in cybersecurity, focusing on workstations, servers, databases, and networking. From there, I expanded into the SMB market by owning and acquiring a service provider. However, I soon sought more complex and dynamic challenges, so I transitioned to larger, more intricate environments. I joined a service provider serving mid to large enterprises, including local and state governments - this is where I truly thrived.

In this role, I became part of the senior team, one of just five members. I was one of two on retainer, sharing global travel and on-call duties. I took great satisfaction in always being prepared for the unexpected - often traveling to unfamiliar locations, facing unfamiliar technologies, and problem-solving on the fly.

Over the years, I've also been entrusted with turning around failing technology projects, even in areas where I had no prior expertise. These experiences have given me a wealth of stories, but what stands out is my ability to step into high-pressure situations, where all eyes were on me, and deliver solutions. I've traveled extensively, sometimes under tight deadlines or even in challenging environments with security details. My reputation as a trusted problem solver has led me to handle numerous special projects - both within IT and outside of it. Leaders consistently turn to me for these mission-critical tasks, knowing I'll find a way to achieve success.

My expertise is broad and, depending on who you ask, could range from cybersecurity and networking to cloud, sales, leadership, management, and business. Some colleagues and clients see me as a deeply technical expert, while others may view me as a dependable account manager, with little awareness of my technical skills. I'm highly adaptable and have worn many hats throughout my career.

How do I describe myself? First, I aim to be a technical expert. I enjoy diving deep into the details of technology, although my current role doesn't always allow for that as much as I'd like. However, when I can, I still dive into new technologies. Second, I like to be hands-on - whether it's coding, configuring, or troubleshooting. Lastly, I enjoy leading people, collaborating with teams, strategizing, and executing plans. Helping others - whether individuals or businesses - brings me fulfillment, and I take pride in being the person others rely on to get things done.

Below are some of the highlights of my qualifications.

Certifications

In 1999, I began earning industry certifications, and over the years, I've accumulated numerous credentials, always seeking to stay ahead as the IT landscape evolves. The industry changes rapidly and staying on the cutting edge requires an ongoing commitment to learning while investing countless hours in reading, studying, and preparing for exams to master emerging technologies.

While my focus has shifted to leadership and management roles, I remain deeply connected to the technical side of the industry. I continue to study, engage in technical discussions, and explore the latest advancements in technology. Although my time spent on the keyboard has decreased, I still code, troubleshoot, and contribute when needed - my technical mindset is as strong as ever.

Below are just some of the IT certifications I've earned over the years.

Clients

The following client list represents over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. Projects undertaken for these clients range from extensive IT department restructuring initiatives spanning multiple years, to diverse technology implementations, large-scale technology solution sales, and the introduction of new products and technologies tailored to client requirements. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, as some clients are protected under non-disclosure agreements.

News Events

What I Learned from Taking a Sabbatical

Being a workaholic left many of my personal interests behind. I was never one to take real vacations and when I took time off, it was not to relax and replenish. It was to do some other interest that was typically like work e.g. going to a week long convention where I walked the convention floor and met with people to make connections. I also enjoyed doing things that were dangerous, serious, and high adrenaline which makes it difficult to relax.

A time in late 2017 came were I started evaluating my priorities. Thankfully, no major event happened to cause me to evaluate things. I like to think I am very self-aware and knew at some point it would be too late. Time waits for no one. So, in March of 2018 it was time to act.

My biological father whom I have never been on a vacation with asked for the last few years to take a trip with him. At first, I was not interested and made excuses to not go (mostly I was too busy at work). Then, he and I were planning a trip abruptly once I went on my sabbatical.

First on my list of things I needed to accomplish while on my sabbatical was traveling the world. The trips were great and I have lots of memories I hope to never forget. And because I am me, I always found ways to turn an average adventure into a worthy story. One adventure involved an alley, basement, and a feeling I was going to lose a kidney. Another involved what I am pretty sure was an “agency” tailing my father and I. I will leave those stories for another time.

Besides the traveling, I had a host of other things I wanted to accomplish pertaining to old hobbies and interests. I'm guessing most of us have things we did throughout life and when we grow older we think about doing them again. A few of those things I did seriously for years prior to putting my career first. I thought those things like billiards and golf would be the things that I would spend a lot of time doing on my sabbatical. They weren't; my deprioritizing them years ago was because they weren't important and that part of my life was different. Then some things that I really enjoyed years ago that I did not have on my list became the priority on my sabbatical like cooking, woodworking and yard work. I'm guessing age plays a part in my interests (even though I'm not that old) but I don't consciously feel age played a role in those decisions.

My sabbatical is one of the greatest decisions I have made. Leaving a great company and compensation with no intention of thinking about my career for a year was not a hard decision. The day I announced I was taking a sabbatical was so freeing and empowering. I was fortunate to be able to take a year off to travel, relax, meditate, learn, listen, and become balanced (even though I took a position in the middle of my sabbatical for a few months).

The lessons I learned or validated from my sabbatical are:

• Do it before it is too late, we're not guaranteed tomorrow
• It does not need to be well planned but make sure you are not financially restrained so you are not worried about your livelihood while you are trying to replenish the batteries
• Your mind will guide you to what is important, try lots of things new and old
• Expect your sabbatical to affect your relationships with the people around you, both positively and negatively (it helped grow my relationship with my wife)
• Don't come back from the sabbatical before you are ready!!!
• Follow your gut, I typically always follow my gut. But one time during my sabbatical I didn't and it was not my best decision-making

Chris L Carson is an Executive Consultant with a deep technical and cybersecurity background. Chris has also been an author and technical editor on multiple IT books. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.

Chris is open and ready for his next challenge. He is looking forward to networking with new and old contacts to determine the possibilities.