With nearly five years at Fusion Managed IT under his belt, Adam Copp is the perfect candidate for our very first Employee Spotlight. Adam is Fusion’s Project Manager, but his job title is only the tip of the iceberg. He’s also a dad, an ambivert, a musician and a Corn Nut enthusiast.
Hi Adam! What does your position as Project Manager entail?
It’s management of projects, surprisingly. I am doing some of the technical work as well, which is part of the reason I was interested in the position. I can delegate or not, which is nice. I make sure we’re staying on track for all projects and completing all tasks.
Having been at Fusion for nearly 5 years, I imagine that you have done a lot of different things in your time here so far. Can you tell me about your favorite project types at Fusion? What do you like working on the most?
It’s a tossup between the server stuff, and onboarding new clients, which are two very different things. The server stuff is more fun, but onboarding new clients is more rewarding and I like being the person to go out and talk to the client and help them form their opinion of Fusion. I’m an ambivert so the ability to do both is nice.
What makes Fusion a great place to work?
Fusion makes an effort to expose employees to a wide range of topics. There is more opportunity to be exposed to more things. There is more room to grow. Another big factor is the culture. We have a good time as much as we can, but we also work hard. That means a lot.
I would agree with that. It’s definitely the best company culture I’ve ever been a part of. Building off that, how would you describe the FMIT team?
Capable, proficient and personable, which I think in the IT world is tricky to have a balance of. Everyone here is solid. We have a good team.
What is one IT challenge that you often see, but very few businesses are thinking about? What’s the solution?
The biggest challenge for a lot of our clients is that they have to keep up with so many different portals. A solution to that challenge could be Microsoft 365 because then you’ve got pretty much everything right there using SSO. You’ve got email, calendars, file sharing, and Teams collaboration. Microsoft 365 combines most of the features that a business needs.
I’ve never thought about that before but now I’m sold on Microsoft 365! What advice would you provide to someone interested in getting into IT?
This isn’t really advice but more of a preliminary check: if tinkering with IT is a hobby of yours on the side and you enjoy it, that is a good sign of someone that could be successful in IT. Certifications are good to get you started, but there is no replacement for real world experience. Getting in the door is the hardest part but from there, you can figure out what you are interested in and what the employer needs then try to find a way to bring the two together.
That’s good advice, for sure. Where did your interest in computers start?
We got a computer when I was 12 and I just loved it. I thought it was cool, so I ran with it. I built a website on GeoCities that got almost 10,000 hits one time and I was like “that’s awesome!”
That is awesome! Guess what? That was the last work question, everything else is all about Adam! What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
I’ve played guitar for 30 years. I was 9 or 10 when I found an acoustic in the junk room we had at our old house, apparently it was my aunt’s. I ended up giving it back to her, so I got a new electric guitar and was like “oh… this is where it’s at.”
That’s super cool! And I can tell by the many bags of Corn Nuts on your desk that you’re a fan of those?
I’ve got a problem. I don’t know why I like them so much.
What are you obsessed with right now? Other than Corn Nuts?
A new guitar. And Plini, he’s an instrumental guitarist. He makes me say “I wanna be like you one day.”
Do you have a favorite restaurant in Greenville?
I like Home Team BBQ. But what I look forward to is a Wednesday night grill session at my house. I’m grilling, my friends are over, we’re drinking beer, listening to music, and just hanging out. So instead of going out to eat, I’d rather be at home working on my grill skills.
What’s your favorite hang-out spot in town?
Community Tap on Wade Hampton. I met my wife there!
That’s so sweet! Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?
Chasing babies is the majority of how I spend my time, playing guitar, and then the occasional grill night. And the very occasional date night whenever we can.
When asked if there was anything else he would like to add to his employee spotlight, Adam said he’d like to use this portion of his employee spotlight as Ad space so he can sell some things and buy that new guitar.