Having a full-time job at UGA while attending classes seems like a sizeable commitment for anyone, but it doesn’t faze Michael Mixon.
Mixon, an alumnus of the university, works for the College of Education as a systems administrator in the Office of Information Technology. He’s also working toward a master’s degree in information technology in the Terry College of Business.
He graduated in 2002 from UGA with his bachelor’s degree in computer science, and by that point he had already worked in his current office for a year as a student worker.
Today, his responsibilities at work are considerably more elaborate than when he was a student worker. He manages nine labs and is the administrator of three different kinds of servers. He also is an occasional assistant to the Web development team. In addition to this, when he completes these responsibilities, “I find time to do research to come up with new technologies that make lab administration easier for me,” he said.
Though Mixon is busy with work, he said his co-workers are one of the favorite parts of his job.
“My favorite part of my job is the people and the fact that I am forced to be focused and forced to learn new technologies on my own,” he said.
As a self-proclaimed deadline-oriented person, Mixon uses pressures at work and school to manage his time. He attends Terry College’s master’s of information technology program two nights a week and thinks highly of the classes.
“I really enjoyed that program; it taught the business side of IT along with the functional side, so you can see how business IT groups function,” he said.
Mixon is set to graduate again from UGA in May, but this time, instead of looking forward to work, he’s looking forward to getting married to another UGA alumna, Tamara Jones.
“We met here my freshman year and were best friends . . .and eventually we found an interest in each other,” he said, smiling.
Outside of school and work, Mixon has many hobbies, like gaming, watching UGA football, playing golf and strumming guitar.
“I play a lot of blues and old R&B and funk,” he said.
He also works on Web development on his own time; databases and programming interest him beyond what he works with at the College of Education.
In the future, Mixon expects to stay busy, but still keep time for fun. As he puts it, his upcoming plans include, “The wedding, furthering my career and lowering my handicap in golf.”