Spotlight: Mark Mills

Mark Mills is a Talented IT Engineer who works on the L2 Pharmacy Support team within Walmart.

Tell us about yourself! How long have you worked at Kitestring? -What is your position? I have been with Kitestring for over 13 months now. I work in the Pharmacy Ops area at Walmart. The job has been challenging and humbling, which compared to my previous job, is welcomed. The amount of knowledge needed to solve any issue is very vast and can be overwhelming at times. I find my work more enjoyable than a position where I do not have any questions and my work becoming stagnate. I feel I thrive in a challenging environment.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work? I have a variety of hobbies! I enjoy cooking anything from baking bread to grilling BBG. I have a car collection that includes a 78 silver Anniversary Corvette, 2008 Audi TT convertible, and a BMW Highway cruiser. I am looking into an RX7 to add to my collection. I am an avid poker player. I won a Poker Tournament several years ago at Siloam Springs and I am hoping to play in the World Series of Poker Tournament in Las Vegas for my 50th birthday!

What are some of your favorite things about living and working in NWA? The weather and the scenic views. It doesn’t take long to drive somewhere with amazing mountain views: Devil’s Den, Mountain View and Eureka Springs.

Tell us how you started down your career path. -Were you influenced by anyone? I wasn’t influenced by anyone, more something. I initially got involved with the TI99 and Commodore 64 in my teen years. I purchased a TI99 and started programing games on it. That performance was too slow so I started working with Windows 98 and 99. I eventually built a computer using Linux and tearing other computers down and rebuilding them to see what I could make them do beyond their specs.

Tell us about some of your proudest achievements while working at Kitestring. One recent achievement is that I was able to get resources reallocated for one of the main systems for the Pharmacy department to get it to handle the systems better than it used to.

What are some future goals that you have? I would like to keep expanding my knowledge in programming and languages. My team members are always on the lookout for new skills to learn. I also plan to brush up on SQL skills.

What keeps you motivated? My overall approach to everything in life: not being bored. If you’re not working and growing, if you are just doing the same thing over and over every day, this can really take a toll on you. I try to avoid this at all times. “If you feel safe in the area you are working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting” – David Bowie

If you could meet anyone (fictional, dead, or alive), who would it be? Robin Williams. He was one of my major influences growing up, especially in terms of standup comedy. His ability to come up with jokes so quickly was just incredible!