Raymond Major

Yardi

By Leah Etling on Aug 7, 2013 in People | 1 Comment

With nearly a decade of experience in information technology, Raymond Major has some very good advice for all of us.

“Rebooting your computer fixes the problem 80 percent of the time,” chuckled Major, an IT specialist for Yardi who was originally part of the Yardi CLASSIC team. It’s simple but great advice from an IT veteran. Since CLASSIC’s parent company was acquired, Major has had the opportunity to work for Yardi in a variety of roles.

“Within the company I have gone from Help Desk administration, to IT server administration, to ASP datacenter administration, and now I am now focused on Network administration,” Major said. He’s now part of the team that maintains Yardi’s Corporate and ASP networks. The effort involves roughly 100 staff members, spread across the globe at various Yardi offices, who oversee activity between 29 offices and 12 data centers.

Such work requires solid communication and teamwork, which is especially important when working in different time zones, on different projects, but all within the same network structure.

“Everyone’s actions traverse the network. Whether you’re setting up a new Voyager website, troubleshooting a database upload/download or simply performing a Windows update,” Major noted.

Amid the complexity that networking can entail, Major’s philosophy is to keep it simple.

“Technology can have complex branches to it, but it’s all still a simple machine with simple working parts. So if you can go back to the simplest form of the problem, then you’ll likely find your solution there, and a whole lot quicker,” he said.

One of his favorite parts of his job is interacting with the other members of the IT and ASP teams, no matter what their physical locations.

“You build camaraderie, as technical professionals, as you are hammering through problems. As a fellow colleague, just by interaction, we not only talk about technology. We get to know each other, likes and dislikes, favorite sports teams, all kinds of things,” he said. He also enjoys the education opportunities his position entails. “There’s always something new to learn, and I’m always receptive to new knowledge and learning new tasks and abilities,” he noted.

As a result, members of Major’s team have learned that he’s a big fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, especially Kobe Bryant. When it comes to pro football, he roots for the Carolina Panthers. Born and raised in South Carolina, he attended the University of South Carolina at Columbia and majored in Technical Support and Training Management. Major’s three children live in South Carolina, so he frequently travels home to see them.

“They are my everything,” he said of his son and two daughters. Because his children live in South Carolina, he puts in longer hours at the office, sometimes until the early A.M. He says his reason for doing so is two-fold – he wants to give back to the company that has given him so much, and he also feels like the office is one of the most productive places for him to be if he can’t be with his kids.

“I really believe in this company and our philosophy: which is take care of our customers, our employees and grow,” he said.

When he does have some time to himself, Major enjoys checking out festivals and concerts in the Atlanta area, playing basketball, long walks and drives, roller skating, playing board and video games and catching up on his favorite TV shows, which include Law & Order, Criminal Minds and Big Bang Theory. He’s also a big fan of Jeopardy. We asked if he’d ever tried out to be on the show.

“I’m nowhere near that good, but I like the challenge,” he said. And he’s true to his desire to always be learning – let’s take New Knowledge for $500, Alex.