In his youth, Dustin Saunders (Dustin-Saunders) stayed busy with a great many extra-curricular activities such as debate club, AV club, and playing football in addition to his schoolwork. His life opened up and made space, though, when his dad brought home an IBM Aptiva one afternoon. A natural tinkerer, Dustin promptly began to break the machine, fix it the best he could, and experiment with technologies like Lotus Notes and Visual Basic. He added the computer club to his list of activities, and started down the path of a technologist.

After high school, Dustin entered into a Mechanical/Electrical Engineering university program but ultimately left the program in order to pursue another passion- travel. He hopped from town to town on his scooter across all 50 states, only staying long enough to make the cash necessary to travel to his next destination. His jobs and activities were eclectic and largely had nothing to do with tech, such as delivering pizza dressed as a superhero and competing in Red Bull’s Flugtag (with his Top Gun themed team).

Why Experts Exchange

His first job in IT was at BlueHost in Utah working as a help desk technician. He did well for himself, climbing the ladder and learning as he went. It was at this job that he had first heard about Experts Exchange, though his co-workers called it by a different, slightly less professional name. Dustin quickly realized, however, that help he received was solid despite the nickname. “Whose idea was that anyway?” He laughed. Dustin is now the Director of Operations at an SaaS company called Wizmo, and continues to seek help from the Experts Exchange community.

These days, however, he is also finding time to help others find critical solutions. “It’s a great opportunity to practice my skills and help others work through their problems,” he says, “More often than not, I find myself needing to solve something similar not long after helping them through it.”

Dustin feels that helping others solve their problems helps him to think more creatively, and apply solutions that he normally wouldn’t have considered in his own role. “I work on so many projects that I normally wouldn’t come across,” he says, “it’s exciting to be a part of that idea generation, the Experts Exchange motherbrain.”

Downtime

Away from the keyboard, Dustin enjoys practicing Shaolin Kung Fu, Hapkido, and other martial arts with his wife Lolly. They also play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, where Dustin currently campaigns as a swashbuckler. He is currently working on a D&D companion app, which you can view on his GitHub. Never having quite kicked the travel bug, Dustin tries to take one big trip every year. His next big trip planned is Costa Rica.

When he isn’t training or answering .NET and Powershell questions, you may find Dustin reading Marvel comic books and drinking Canadian whiskey.

Thank You

When asked if he would like to share anything with the community, he simply said, “Thank You.” He truly appreciates all of the times that Experts Exchange has helped him out of a tight spot, and the mental break that answering questions has afforded him over the years. “Don’t be afraid to dig in and answer a few questions- it’s addictive and will help you both professionally and creatively,” he says.

Dustin feels that spending a few hours a week solving other people’s problems will help you be better at your job, develop your skills, and finally complete that passion project that you’ve been working on. You can connect with Dustin on his profile. 

Know of another member who deserves to be in the spotlight? Leave their name in the comments below!