By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Kommunikation og Public Affairs. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

The first day of work at AAU is still a very clear memory for Lon Nguyen. Even though it is many years ago. He showed up at the Department of Computer Science and was greeted by an almost empty building.

"I found a secretary who said, 'Welcome, Lon. All your colleagues are off. It's May 1st.' Once I had coffee and breakfast rolls with the secretaries, they said that I could go home and take the rest of the day off," says Lon Nguyen with a smile.

He is one of the AAU staff members that AAU Update has spoken to in a new series of articles on the occasion of the university's 50th anniversary. What is your relationship with your workplace like – and what do you wish for the celebrant?

Fewer error 40s

If you think Lon Nguyen's name sounds familiar, it's probably because your computer has been in his hands. He works as IT support staff at IT Services (ITS) on the Aalborg East campus. For 22 years, he has solved students' and staff members' IT problems, and in general, Lon Nguyen thinks that today’s AAU staff and students are very good at IT.

"The 'error 40' is getting much less frequent where a user has overlooked a loose cable or a switched off socket, for example. But when it happens, I usually just say that it can happen to everyone when you're busy," says Lon Nguyen, who graduated as an electronics mechanic in 1996.

Busy – in a good way

Both the tasks and the workplace have changed a lot in the years that Lon Nguyen has worked at AAU. He does not as much time to service the individual user as he had before.

"In the past, I went out to the users and did all the setups for them on their machine. You could pamper them a bit more and I had time to drink a cup of coffee or tea with them. Of course, there’s still small talk, but we are much busier today," says Lon Nguyen.

"There’s a lot going on, but that's also what I love about the job," he adds.

The versatility is another aspect of the job that Lon Nguyen really appreciates. The IT industry is constantly changing, and there is always an opportunity to learn something new. About new technologies or new, smarter methods.

"You can't get stuck – I think I learn something new every day," he says.

From generalist to specialist

When Lon Nguyen joined the university, the task list was significantly broader than it is today. He started out as a generalist who took care of all conceivable IT tasks at the Department of Computer Science – from networking and cabling to setting up printers.

"You gained an enormous amount of knowledge, but at the same time it was also very 'frozen'. There was a lot of information and knowledge that you had to absorb, and it could sometimes be difficult to take it all in," Lon Nguyen explains.

Today, all the university's IT support staff are gathered in one department – ITS. The good thing about the centralized solution, according to Lon Nguyen, is that it allows IT support staff to become specialists in different niches.

"My niche is that I'm good at solving problems when they arise and thinking creatively. I often know why a problem arises. I've been here for many years, so I know many of the symptoms because I know how the equipment behaves," he says.

Personal contact is important

Lon Nguyen works primarily with hands-on support at the counter at Kroghstræde 3, over the phone or on-site with the user. And it is precisely the personal contact that he likes most about his job.

"I really like to be with other people and to help solve problems. That's why I love coming to work and, knock on wood, I've never been sick in the 22 years I've been here," says Lon Nguyen.

After work, he likes to swing by UniFitness on campus where he works out for an hour to an hour and a half. Lon Nguyen is committed to staying in shape, and he believes that's why he has avoided illness. In UniFitness, he also always meets someone he knows so there is also a social aspect to training there.

The robots are coming

Social relationships are a recurring point in Lon Nguyen's stories about his time at AAU and not least an important motivation for his job satisfaction. When asked directly where Lon Nguyen hopes AAU as a workplace will be in 50 years, his concern is the preservation of the personal contact.

"I hope the human contact and social interaction remains. We know that automation with robots is coming, but my horror scenario would be that you went to work and didn't meet other people. That would not be healthy. The personal contact means that you don't get lonely," says Lon Nguyen.