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Meet the Staff: Caitlin Baer

January 27, 2017

Meet the Staff: Caitlin Baer

Caitlin Baer

Note: Meet the Staff is a new feature that ASCTech will be publishing over the next few months to introduce staff members to the College of Arts and Sciences. We welcome your thoughts on it.

What's something not a lot of people know about you? My birthday is on Festivus. "SERENITY NOW!" Also, I never get brain freezes.

What is a successful day for you at work? We have a pie chart that shows the number of tickets closed by each of us per day. Any day that I have the biggest slice is a good day!

What's your favorite client feedback? My favorite compliments to receive are “I am so excited that ASCTech has women working in it now! It’s so refreshing to have a woman work on my computer. Good for your department for diversifying!”

Ask Caitlin Baer, Systems Manager for the Arts and Humanities Service Desk, about her background, and she describes the origin of her empathy for people having computer problems: "It wasn't that long ago that I didn't know anything about computers. Since I didn't grow up thinking I'd go into IT, I can remember that feeling well. So, I understand people's frustration, and it's nice to be able to teach people and say, 'Hey this is what's going on; this is why this isn't working the way you want,' and make sure that they understand what's going on."

Baer's career path has a lot to do with her views: "I started out working as a receptionist for the OCIO, and later became a student employee at 8Help. At first, I knew NOTHING about computers, but I’m a hands-on learner, and I gained a lot of knowledge by helping people at the BuckeyeBar. I quickly found that I had a knack for IT, and working in IT was something that I enjoyed more than my studies, which is why I work in IT even though I have a BS in biology."

On any given day, you can find Baer managing the Arts and Humanities Service Desk and supporting desktop computers in arts and humanities departments. "I was recently promoted to systems manager, so I'm getting more into the management role, which has been really exciting and new. It's been a really interesting learning experience to make sure that people work well together and seeing what I can do to make sure that everything's running smoothly." 

But it's interacting with clients that Baer likes best: "When I teach, I find holes in my knowledge and learn the technology better myself."

Need help with your computer? Request help from ASCTech and maybe you'll email or talk to Caitlin Baer.