Career Conversations with Dave Schultz

Janice Chaka [: 00:00:04

Hello and welcome to another episode of the travelling introvert career conversations. I am very excited today to talk to the 1 and only David Schultz. And, David, say hi.

Dave Schultz [: 00:00:18

Hello.

Janice Chaka [: 00:00:19

Hi. I like that. It's just hello. So, David, the question I ask everybody, always, the first question is, what does introversion mean to you?

Dave Schultz [: 00:00:30

I wanting, needing, desiring, feeding off of that alone time. You know, just that to me, that's it. And almost also kinda coupled with it, a fear of Going out and having to deal with people in public.

Janice Chaka [: 00:00:49

Okay. Alright. Thank you for that because everyone Everyone has roughly the same thing, but normally the way they express it is so different. So it's really nice to hear, like, the different ways of the and you're like, oh, yes. I feel that. I feel like Oh, totally there. So can you tell me what you do and then followed up by that, what are some conceptions that people have about your role or industry.

Dave Schultz [: 00:01:15

So what I what I do in it for a living right now, I am an I, Well, it's 2 parts. I have 2 titles. So I'm a IT, tech support for, an insurance company Here in the area, and I'm also the what they call the practice development specialist, so it's kind of just like a corporate trainer. It's all based off of the the, Customer relationship management software that they use, and I'm supposed to be learning that inside out and backwards and being the resource and teaching it to everybody and Things like that. I'm relatively new at the position, so I'm still learning a lot about it and diving into it, but, it's This where I'm working right now has been great so far.

Janice Chaka [: 00:01:58

Oh, okay. So what are some misconceptions people have?

Dave Schultz [: 00:02:03

A lot of misconceptions people have is, like, arrogance about people that are are introverted. I've I've come across that, like, I'm ignoring you, being rude, things like that. Yeah. Things along those lines. Shy and quiet, which in a way, yes, but I there's also ways where like, once I get to know somebody, feel comfortable around somebody, I don't shut up. So it it's Lots of things like that.

Janice Chaka [: 00:02:41

And within, like, the jobs that you've done, has that affected your jobs in any way?

Dave Schultz [: 00:02:50

Not necessarily my ability to do jobs. Well, let me let me take that back a second To think about it more, it has because I'm not the I'm working, I'm getting better at it. It's Something I have to consciously do, but I would be the 1 person I'm I'm gonna do it all myself. You put put me on a team. Nope. I'm gonna do it all myself. I'll Take all do everything myself. It's just that those kind of interactions, you know, I use the excuse of I I know what I'm doing.

Dave Schultz [: 00:03:27

I I I I know this better. Used all those excuses, but it was trying to avoid the interaction with people.

Janice Chaka [: 00:03:39

Super interesting. And so You said you're trying to get better at it. What made you wanna change?

Dave Schultz [: 00:03:50

One of the It's coupled along like, you've probably heard of, I'm assuming, interviewing a lot of people, and I'm sorry for making an assumption, But the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement that a lot of businesses have, through that, I came across a book called, Inclusify, and forgive me for not remembering the author author's name. I think I wanna say Stephanie Johnson, but I'm Not a 100% sure off the top of my head, but, she really hammered home the the The idea of, you know, you don't want groups at work To be all of the same type of people, you wanna have a diverse with lots of different people, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different everything Because instead of having all the same people, all the same ideas working on it, you want to have All these different types of people, like I'm saying, I don't know if I'm repeating myself and I apologize for that, but they fill in the gaps. They fill it they go together like puzzle pieces and make whole instead of everybody piling on top of each other because they're all the same type. So that, to me, realized, you know, I I will be the 1st to tell somebody I don't know everything, But I I will do everything I can to learn it, but there's somebody there that does know something that I don't know, and I need to that helped me realize that and cement that in my head that, yes, I can reach out and ask that person for help because I don't know it, they know it, and it's okay, and it's gonna help get the job done, and We're gonna work together on things like that, and a lot of it is, a real conscious effort to do it. Like, I I'm, of course, being an introvert, you're very introspective. You think about things while you're doing them. You you Relive things after the fact, and, you know, I always, like, go back on on situation think about situations. Oh, here.

Dave Schultz [: 00:06:05

I should've spoke up and asked this. Oh, here. I should've said this. So I'm doing that, and I'm, like, catching those cues now, Putting them in my internal toolbox of, like, okay. Now I can use those when the situation arrives to ask the person I need to ask Whatever I need to ask them, you know, not not just be stubborn and do it all myself.

Janice Chaka [: 00:06:30

That thank you for that. That is wonderful to hear. And so, you know, as you've mentioned that something that you're trying to do that's helping you. Is there anything else is there anything else that you can think of that you do regularly that has improved your career over the years?

Dave Schultz [: 00:06:53

One thing I I constantly do, and, You know, being where I'm at right now, before all of this, I was a teacher for 16 years in the classroom. You know, I love being up in front of a class and teaching and everything like that, and I remember a conversation at a previous position with a manager. Oh, you're so good with people and everything like that, and I'm like, no. I'm an introvert. What do you mean? You get up in front of the the group, and you teach every so that's an act, because it is. To me, it it's a I'm performing at that time, and I love doing that performance. So that, to me, is another thing, but it it Where's on on me? But, anyways, I work on perfecting that. I again, like I mentioned before, being the introvert, being introspective, I'm Always I'm recording what I'm doing for for my own sake, but, for also for The people that I'm teaching to use as a reference in the future, but I'm using that recording as what I did wrong and what I can do better.

Dave Schultz [: 00:08:00

So that those kind of things, I'm always looking to improve myself that way.

Janice Chaka [: 00:08:06

Okay. Is this something that you always say no to?

Dave Schultz [: 00:08:15

I try to say no as much as I can to going out to parties.

Janice Chaka [: 00:08:22

I At what types of parties? Is it all parties?

Dave Schultz [: 00:08:26

Pretty much.

Janice Chaka [: 00:08:26

Okay.

Dave Schultz [: 00:08:27

Yeah. I can't remember. Like, yeah, family get togethers, I don't think count. They'll those don't count in it, But just like social engagements, work related, I can say one thing that introversion has caused me is, like, to It's damaged a lot of relationships with friends and stuff like that, but, yeah, so I don't do that as much. But everything to me is either work related or through Stuff with my my involving my children, and I just I avoid it. I don't wanna go out. I don't I fear The interaction with people, if I I get with the interaction with people. It's so much effort that I'm so drained By the time that I I leave the events.

Janice Chaka [: 00:09:14

That the cost benefit isn't worth it for you?

Dave Schultz [: 00:09:17

Yeah.

Janice Chaka [: 00:09:19

So speaking of drainage, and that sounds like a surgical technical term, what kind of things do you do to recharge?

Dave Schultz [: 00:09:34

A lot of it is Watching getting to watch my shows, and it's usually after everybody else in the house is asleep. I get to go down And watch the shows that I want to watch, on on my time and keep up with that. Like, I'm a Sci fi nerd at at the core, so, like, keeping up with all the Marvel shows on Disney plus and then the the Star Wars shows and Things along those lines, you know, that's that's what I try to keep up on. And I also like a I like a good true true crime or true story documentary Here and there, so I I watch those also.

Janice Chaka [: 00:10:14

It's almost a full time job trying to keep up with Marvel and Disney though at this point.

Dave Schultz [: 00:10:18

Yes.

Janice Chaka [: 00:10:21

Okay, so thinking about the role you had from teacher to tech support. I get the training and the teacher. I see the the parallel there. How did you jump from teaching to tech support?

Dave Schultz [: 00:10:37

I love I love teaching as as we kinda established already. But I was a music teacher and hear often on on the wrong side of budget cuts. And also My love of teaching, I'm so laser focused on the students and what they need and what to do to improve them that I, for lack of a better term, I didn't really care so much about administration or parents and what they were doing and what they thought. Like, I I knew I wanted them as partners, but if They didn't see my view of how things were. It was it was not the best relationship. So My wife, she said to me after one of the times getting, having my job cut because of budget cuts, She said, you know, you're really good with IT also, and I throughout my teaching career, being The geek nerd person that I am. I always, like, got to know the computer teacher, got to help with setting things up and Doing all that stuff. So all that knowledge was there, and she said she should go into IT.

Dave Schultz [: 00:11:59

So I did. I got, My a plus certification in IT and was able to get a job on a help desk and move up through the company They're with different IT jobs, and now I'm back doing IT again along with the training.

Janice Chaka [: 00:12:17

The a plus certification that that put back some memories to me. I was like, oh, yeah. Mhmm. A lot of you listeners might not know what that is. You need Google it. Yes. Very much a thing. And so Making that change, how easy was that for you, or was that scary? Like, what I mean, yes, your wife suggested it, but you had to make that final decision to, like, Do something very different.

Dave Schultz [: 00:12:45

Yeah. It it was it was scary because, You know, as teaching, for the most part, you know what you're going into every day. You you you know what classes you have. You know what Children you're going to see, yeah, somebody could be having a bad day and be extra fun to deal with and things along those lines, but in general, for the most part, you're knowing your what you're gonna deal with. Being on a help desk to start, You get that phone call, that phone rings, and you have no idea what's coming on the other end of that line. You know? You have people that know text really well and can talk the the same jargon that I talk, and then you have people that barely know how to turn on a computer itself, And you gotta help them out, and then you have people that are frustrated and just start off the whole conversation yelling and screaming at you. And Throughout all of it, you have to to keep the good demeanor and and be helpful, and do what you can to diffuse the situation and calm them down, and The the that was that was a big difference there too.

Janice Chaka [: 00:13:58

And so the question I have on the back of my head is how is It different for you dealing with people on the phone as opposed to going to parties and in person?

Dave Schultz [: 00:14:09

I know the call's gonna end soon. Yep. That I mean, that that's that's The gist of it. You know, I've the call is only gonna take 5, maybe 10 minutes at most.

Janice Chaka [: 00:14:24

Alright. So having that endpoint insight makes it Bearable. Uh-huh. Oh, that's really genius. Okay. Thank you. And so With the teaching, are there any misconceptions people have about teachers and their role?

Dave Schultz [: 00:14:41

Oh, there's lots of misconception. My wife is a teacher also, so I'm Still living with with a lot of it today. Just the hard thing that How much teachers actually get paid as versus how much they're being asked to do? And, like, you hear the news stories about the gun violence in the schools and everything like that, and now teachers are being trained how to protect their kids in case of gun violence. And Back when I even my wife is, few years younger than me. Back when we were in college and training for this, that wasn't even a thought, And now it it's standard. So it's just things like that, A lot of things where, like, parents will dump off the kids and expect you to raise them. Those things make it difficult to be a teacher. And The other misconception, since we're we're recording this, and is the misconception is that, well, teachers get paid through through through the summer for doing nothing.

Dave Schultz [: 00:15:45

That's a misconception. Teachers get paid from day 1 of the school year to day the last day of the school year. They choose to have that pay spread out through the summer, so they could get continual paychecks. They're not getting paid for time that they're not working. They've just spread out their pay throughout the year, so they can keep getting a constant paycheck rather than that. So Once since you asked me about misconceptions about teachers, I I wanted to put that one out there.

Janice Chaka [: 00:16:15

I would own I would also guess that, yes, there is the summer, but I'm sure there's the prep for the upcoming year that eats up some of that summer.

Dave Schultz [: 00:16:26

Yes. My my wife is constantly prepping. I wanna say maybe 2 weeks after school, and she's already starting To prep for the next year.

Janice Chaka [: 00:16:39

Yeah. Okay. That's so thanks. Yes?

Dave Schultz [: 00:16:43

And me being a music teacher, back when I was a music teacher, like, having having the band program, I was planning for the next year, probably, Like, school ended in June, I was started planning, I wanna say, April for the next year. You know, I gotta get the marching band show ready. I gotta Start planning for the concerts. I gotta get auditions ready so the existing kids can find out what group they're gonna be in next you know, all that stuff. It it was constant. It was cyclical. You know? Just kept going. Kept coming.

Janice Chaka [: 00:17:15

Yeah. Never ending. Alright. Thank you so very much. I have really enjoyed talking to you today and hearing your viewpoints on a bunch of stuff. Can you tell The wonderful audience where they can find out more about you or not. Yeah.

Dave Schultz [: 00:17:34

It's it's hard to say. One thing to look for, my wife and I are starting this this Help page, we wanna call it online. We we have 3 great kids, but they're all considered the the the Terminology nowadays neurodivergent.

Janice Chaka [: 00:17:51

Mhmm.

Dave Schultz [: 00:17:51

They all have different things going on. We have to we've scoured the Internet, and there's so many different areas Where we've been able to find things to help us out. So we kinda wanna take our experiences, group it along with all these things that we found everywhere else, and kinda put it in one place. So, we're calling it figuring it out on Firwood. So Trying to get something along those lines. Eventually, the the site is gonna be furwood5.com because that's what we call our our family. So, Based on the street where we live, so we're we're in the Firwood five. So we're gonna get that, launched pretty soon.

Dave Schultz [: 00:18:33

So look for that. It's it's coming. It's in the works. So we'll get that taken care of, get that out there.

Janice Chaka [: 00:18:38

Alright. Thank you. When you said forward five, I was thinking of the famous inspired by in a blip and then then I was like, oh, okay. Slight different. Yep. Yeah. Thank you so very much. Well, there you have it, audience.

Janice Chaka [: 00:18:51

Thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your week. This is Janice at the career introvert helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.