An Interview with Alex Starchenko, System Engineer

Alex Starchenko, a system engineer in our North Carolina branch, has been working in infrastructure consulting since 2003, providing technology advice and support for a variety of small to medium size companies. He has experience working with and certifications in a wide range of Microsoft technologies, Cisco, and virtualization technologies. Alex graduated from the Institute of Modern Knowledge in Minsk, Belarus with a BS degree in Computer Science and Economics.

What do you most enjoy about your work?  

“Being able to work on a system, to apply pressure to the system to fix a problem.”, Alex told me.  “Something you can’t do with people”, he added wryly.  As the Employer Solutions ‘go-to’ guy for technical issues, nothing interests Alex more than getting ‘under the hood’ and digging down to the source of an issue or problem.  Alex told me he has always had a natural curiosity to understand how things work – beginning with taking apart his toys and watches to see how they operated.  When networks are not cooperating with our software, Alex goes in to determine where is the breakdown and design a fix.  Recently he worked on an issue of sorting of values in codes tables.  He discovered several possible reasons and solutions, but continued to research until he could come up with a solution that satisfied him.  Was it limited to one version or certain conditions? Why weren’t we seeing this across the board?  That research led him to an SQL script to correct the issue.  “I like to have things organized and in the right place – data where it should be.”, Alex told me.

What would surprise our readers about you?

As much as he is a person of the digital age, Alex enjoys film photography. “It reminds me of my childhood . . . the feel of it.” He told me,” The technical side of developing and printing the film has always interested me.”  He continued, “It forces you to treasure each shot, to be careful . . . thoughtful about the image you are creating, since you only have 36 per roll.”  Alex is also a bicyclist and is building up for a long-distance trip along the Outer Bank in October. “Once the hurricane season is past.”, he noted.

Favorite meal and with whom?

“My wife and family” was Alex’s immediate answer, “but she is not a big fan of food from Belarus”.  After some reflection, however, Alex recalled fishing trips with his family where everyone would contribute part of their catch into a single stew. “Something very simple”, he added, “but shared with family and friends that is the part I remember most.”