Born in London and raised in the northwest of England, Rod McGarrigle ( @rod-it ) will tell you he never thought he’d get into IT. “I really wanted to get into robotic engineering,” he says. “Unfortunately, I was the only one who wanted to do it, so the school cut the course.” The closest course Rod could find was IT, so he signed up.
A distinction held by only six other SpiceHeads — @scottalanmiller , @davison , @akp982 , @robdunn , @billkindle , and @peter — the mantle of Pure Capsaicin takes an astounding 250,000 spice points to reach. In fact, when the Pepper Level system was first introduced, Pure Capsaicin was introduced as an upper limit that no one expected anyone to ever reach.
“I remember when I first started and saw the highest level you could be,” Rod says. “It seemed impossible.” Apparently it wasn’t quite as impossible as it seemed. As of today, Rod has landed in the hallowed territory of Pure Capsaicin’s.
Because of that, we wanted to reach out to Rod and ask him what it’s to hit Pure Capsaicin, how he got into the Spiceworks Community in the first place, and who the man behind the points really is.
How did you first get into IT? Was it always an interest of yours?
No, IT was never an interest of mine. When I was leaving school, I really wanted to get into robotic engineering. Unfortunately, I was the only one who wanted to do it, so the school cut the course. I ended up falling into IT, since that was the closest thing I could find to robotic engineering. It just sort of flowed from there, I suppose.
But since I started, IT’s become a massive passion of mine. When I’m not at work, you’ll typically find me in my home lab or on Spiceworks trying to help folks out.
How did you first come across Spiceworks?
I was looking for something to monitor my home lab for disk space and things like that. When I started growing out my lab, I just had less time to dig into everything manually. I think it was version 1.6 when I started using it, I totally left off and forgot about the Community side. I don’t think I upgraded it again until version 5 came out.
I knew the Community existed, but I honestly can’t say I got involved until about two or three years ago.
What drew you in?
I think I was just looking around for an answer to a problem I was trying to sort out. I remember suddenly coming across all these other questions that I knew the answers to. It was a bit of a moment where I realized I could help a few other people out — it was satisfying to help out. You get a sense of appreciation from other IT pros who have been stuck with an issue someone else has seen and solved
*Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/pepperoni-chilli-fire-sharp-spice-1493424/ Bill Moore’s Hot & Spicy Reviews *
You’ve just hit Pure Capsaicin so clearly you’ve helped more than a few people out. What led to you get so invested in the Community?
I guess it was one of those things: Once you start earning points by getting things right, you just want more. It’s a bit of a bug really. As far as how I earned so many points, it really just came down to answering a lot of questions, helping out with the Spiceworks Support forum, and the like. I guess you could say I caught the bug, really.
I catch myself coming home after work and looking for questions I can answer in the Spiceworks Community. I’ve noticed it’s not always the question that’s difficult — it can also be the way people ask it. I’ve found that I’m a fair hand at untangling what people are asking and getting to the bottom of the problem.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m particularly skilled in any one area of IT — more of a jack-of-all trades, really. But you know, at work, we do VMware, SANs, Active Directory, and all of that.
When you’re not at work or on Spiceworks, where can we find you?
Sadly, you probably won’t find me far from something IT related. After work, I’ll usually come home to tinker in my home lab or signing into Spiceworks to see what questions I can answer. I’m a bit of a homebody in a way, I suppose.
What’s in your home lab?
I’ve got three servers that run ESX, some domain controllers, Exchange 2016, SQL, and pretty much anything we use in work that I can get a license for. I’ll typically just play around with everything I can get my hands on — break things, fix things, and tinker as much as I like.
Now that you’ve hit Pure Capsaicin, what’s next?
Pure Capsaicin 2.0? I think Scott Alan Miller is on to the third level at this point, so it’s doable. But to be fair, he’s been active in the Community at lot longer than I have. As far as what I do now, champagne might happen, but who knows. It’s something I’ve always wanted to get out of Spiceworks.
I remember when I first started and saw the highest level you could be — it seemed impossible. But as I started climbing the ladder, it kept getting easier. So it was honestly, just pushing and pushing and pushing until I got here. And now’s when the excitement kicks in, I suppose.
For more background on the Spiceworks pepper system, check out our interview with its mastermind!
