INPERSON
MAINFRAME
MASTER
BY W.B. FRESA
P
From student to faculty
member: Phil Grabowski
returns to his alma
mater to teach the next
generation about careers
in technology.
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724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE
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hil Grabowski is the ultimate computer guy—
the one you want beside you when software
doesn’t function or hardware fails. He can
explain how computers and the Internet
work, when new hardware is needed or a
service update should be installed, and a lot more.
Now he’s taken what he knows back to his alma mater,
Pittsburgh Technical College (PTC), along with an
IBM Champion title, to teach the next generation what
they can do with a career in technology.
“I never gave a career in technology a second
thought in high school,” says Grabowski. “I knew I
needed an education and decided to study electronics.
I wasn’t sure what I’d do with my degree, but I knew I
could do something.”
His first job out of college was working for a small
“Mom and Pop” computer store.
“I troubleshot computers, replaced motherboards,
memory, power supplies, hard drives or other failed
components. I also learned DOS, the Windows
operating system, and fixed laser and dot-matrix
printers,” he recalls. “While I was there, the owners of
the store sent me to the Panasonic Factory to become a
Panasonic Service Manager. That was really my
introduction to the world of computers. And, with
each new job, I learned more and more about
computer hardware, servers, and Information
Technology. It’s given me the baseline knowledge for
what I teach today.”
After more than 20 years’ experience, it was while
Grabowski was working in the field for a large financial
institution that he earned his master’s degree in
Management with a concentration in Information
Management Security and became an adjunct
professor at PTC.
“It was a great opportunity I could not pass up,” he
says. “I had learned a lot about Information
Technology and mainframe computers throughout my
career and was eager to use it moving forward in my
profession.”