Philip Simjanovski didn’t come from a formal IT background when he joined UBX Cloud in 2024. But he loved computers and programming, and excelled at independent study.

That was a great fit for UBX Cloud, which believes smart people can always learn – but you can’t teach devotion to client service. So the company invested confidence in Phil as a systems engineer, and he hasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

“The core concept of what I do is to make sure our systems are running well, and make sure that if clients have any issues, I can figure out what’s wrong and troubleshoot or resolve those issues.”

Unsurprisingly, Phil still has the occasion to learn a lot as this field is constantly growing. And he has found that the most challenging situations often do the most to bolster his knowledge.

“We had a user who was having issues with their cloud environment, and it took a couple of hours to troubleshoot it,” Phil recalled. “Eventually we find some issues with their user profile. There are a lot of these small details that have to be combined together, and you have to keep checking.”

And every time he has to solve a mystery like that one, he advances in what he describes as his full-time job, which is learning.

Prior to joining UBX Cloud, Phil worked in a variety of jobs that were not IT-related. During those years, he was also teaching himself to program – because he had no other way to learn it.

“Programming wasn’t an option at the school I attended, so I did a lot of self-learning,” he said. “I’m a big tech guy so I’ve especially enjoyed learning how servers work – and understanding that servers are basically just big computers. So for me being so into computers, it was an easy switch to learn how those work together.”

Those play to Phil’s strong suit of being detail-oriented, and understanding the fine details that drive how systems operate.

CEO Steven Panovski applauds Phil’s learning acumen and his commitment to customer service.

“Self-learning is not for everyone, but Phil really soaks up knowledge from the experiences he has,” Steven said. “These two years he’s been with us have expanded his acumen so fully, and that’s what we saw in him when we first hired him – along with a real commitment to dive in and solve customer problems when that is necessary. He’s the kind of guy you want on the case when you need help with something, because he’s determined to find the answer, and he’s so smart that you know he will.”

When not working with computers, servers, systems and technology, Phil has also enjoyed being involved with marching drums – including the professional group Redline, which is based in the Plymouth-Canton area.

Although Phil has now aged out of being able to participate in Redline, he left open the possibility that he might get involved with teaching drums at some point.

And in many ways, why not? Phil’s story has always been about learning what’s possible, then finding a way to make it real.