John Tomkoski, Jr.
Manager, Sales Engineering
"I’ve been building web sites since I was a kid and the internet was a baby. We’ve grown up together."
Sales Engineering Manager John Tomkoski is the guy who makes Solid Cactus products work for Solid Cactus clients. He leads a team of three. "First, we consult," says John. "We work with the client through his or her sales rep to find out what they want the programming to do, how they plan to control it and how their customers will interact with it. Then we hammer out the technical research to make sure the changes are doable and won’t crash their systems. At the same time we’re making sure our clients know what is entailed in the new processes. Sometimes the process takes minutes, other times it takes days. The key is to make our products work for our clients and our clients’ customers."
John and the internet grew up together. He got into computers in high school. "I started programming in Q Basic, C++ and PASCAL, the older languages," says John. I grew into the web from there." By his senior year John was building web sites for bands and local music venues. Then he consulted other young businesses that wanted to be on the web. "I helped people selling flowers and hand-made clothing. They wanted to advertise their businesses and didn’t know how. This is before the web really kicked off."
John was a professional before this was an established profession. So he went to work for Best Buy by day as an audio/video/computer technician. "I was pre-Geek," he says. "No shirt and tie. No marketing, either." By night John continued designing web sites as a freelancer. That lasted a couple of years and he followed with a stint working for an oil company in New Jersey. By day. By night he was still programming sites.
Finally the stars aligned. "I came back to town and a buddy told me he was working at Solid Cactus," says John. "He raved about it. I came in for an interview and they hired me the same day."
The love affair is holding. "I’m treated very well here," says John. "Every day is different. Everyone needs something slightly different. It’s fascinating. But we’re all dedicated to each other’s success and to our clients’ success. We help each other, it helps the clients."
John Tomkoski says his future has Solid Cactus written all over it. "We’re growing like crazy and I’ve seen it all," says John. "I’m not going anywhere. Solid Cactus is my baby and we just got started."
Sales Engineering Manager John Tomkoski is the guy who makes Solid Cactus products work for Solid Cactus clients. He leads a team of three. "First, we consult," says John. "We work with the client through his or her sales rep to find out what they want the programming to do, how they plan to control it and how their customers will interact with it. Then we hammer out the technical research to make sure the changes are doable and won’t crash their systems. At the same time we’re making sure our clients know what is entailed in the new processes. Sometimes the process takes minutes, other times it takes days. The key is to make our products work for our clients and our clients’ customers."
John and the internet grew up together. He got into computers in high school. "I started programming in Q Basic, C++ and PASCAL, the older languages," says John. I grew into the web from there." By his senior year John was building web sites for bands and local music venues. Then he consulted other young businesses that wanted to be on the web. "I helped people selling flowers and hand-made clothing. They wanted to advertise their businesses and didn’t know how. This is before the web really kicked off."
John was a professional before this was an established profession. So he went to work for Best Buy by day as an audio/video/computer technician. "I was pre-Geek," he says. "No shirt and tie. No marketing, either." By night John continued designing web sites as a freelancer. That lasted a couple of years and he followed with a stint working for an oil company in New Jersey. By day. By night he was still programming sites.
Finally the stars aligned. "I came back to town and a buddy told me he was working at Solid Cactus," says John. "He raved about it. I came in for an interview and they hired me the same day."
The love affair is holding. "I’m treated very well here," says John. "Every day is different. Everyone needs something slightly different. It’s fascinating. But we’re all dedicated to each other’s success and to our clients’ success. We help each other, it helps the clients."
John Tomkoski says his future has Solid Cactus written all over it. "We’re growing like crazy and I’ve seen it all," says John. "I’m not going anywhere. Solid Cactus is my baby and we just got started."
