David Zybert: A man on the move in high-tech management
by Zhizhong Li, Outpost staff
Dave Zybert is manager of Spider Internet Communications Photo by Zhizhong Li |
When David Zybert talks to his customers, his warm, cheerful voice makes a good impression.
As the manager of Spider Internet Communications, a branch of Great Basin Internet Services, Zybert is in charge of web design, sales, marketing and cooperation. His customer service background comes in handy in the Internet business.
"I worked mostly in sales and customer service," Zybert said. "I like working with people, you know, a desire to please people."
Zybert joined Great Basin Internet Services in Reno in September, 1997. He's originally from Los Angeles.
"Since I moved here, I had basically three jobs," Zybert said. "I worked at the National Automobile Museum, and I worked in a window company for five years. Then I came here."
Another factor that has helped Zybert become an excellent manager is his true love- the theater. He thinks acting helps him understand different types of people. That's useful at Spider.
"In my younger days, actually I was an actor, a child actor," Zybert said. "I did commercials. I am part of a theater company here in Reno called Gothic North Theater."
Acting not only lets Zybert enjoy his free time, it also helped him land his current job at Spider.
"The president of Great Basin, Bruce Robertson, has been a friend of mine, and his wife and I have been friends for many years," Zybert said. "We do theater together. So even though I was not working in the computer-related industry, I knew a lot about it. I watched this business grow from the beginning."
But Zybert thinks his friendship with Robertson isn't the only deciding factor for him to work at Spider.
"Why I chose it ultimately was because it was a big step up for me," Zybert said. "It was a desire to be in management, a promotion and better money."
Zybert admits he met challenges after he joined the company. He didn't have any computer training before he started working at Great Basin.
"Learning web design was a big challenge," Zybert said.
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At the same time, Zybert is putting all his efforts into improving his skills in the Web industry. He even learned Web design and the programming language behind it by himself.
"Currently, there is no real web design program," Zybert said. "A web designer is many things. For example, you not only have to be creative designers, but you also have to know complex computer programming, and you have to have good customer service skills, which is very hard to find sometimes in one person."
Zybert is on the Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) advisory board. The main thrust is to determine what criteria will go into being certified to be a web designer or computer technician.
"This whole technology is so new, and you have to define how to be a good web designer and how to be a good graphic designer," Zybert said. "Part of the problem of education is the technology is changing so fast. Anybody who was following a course of study that was established two years ago for web design wouldn't have current new technologies in their course study."
After working with Great Basin for two years, Zybert is proud of what he has achieved.
"Last year, Spider placed the third in the world in a web design competition called 'The Master of the Web,'" Zybert said. "The other thing I am very proud of is the column I write for the Reno Gazette-Journal every week in the technology section. Feeling confident enough to write about the subject that two years ago that I didn't know anything about is quite an achievement."
Posted: February 14, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Outpost
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