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John Oakley grew up in rural northern Ohio on land that was formerly an apple orchard. One of his favorite childhood activities was climbing the neighbor's ancient apple trees. Of course, northern Ohio was Johnny Appleseed's old stomping grounds, which led some to believe that those trees were planted by Mr. Appleseed himself.
After earning a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1990, John's first job was with Marathon Oil Company designing computer simulations of oil refineries. Although he had never taken computer classes beyond "Computers 101", he discovered he had a knack for understanding how computers worked and what to do when they didn't. Soon, the other engineers were asking him to fix their PC problems and gave him the nickname "The Bugmeister." He realized he had much more passion for computers than for chemical engineering, and transferred to the Information Technology department.
After a year of honing his PC skills, John was relocated to Marathon's Houston-based headquarters in August 1993. The very morning he began work there, the Macintosh computer expert of the Houston office turned in his resignation, effective immediately. As Zack was leaving the building, John was riding up the elevator to start his first day of work. Desperate to continue providing Macintosh support for Marathon's geophysicists, the manager asked John if he knew anything about Macintosh computers. He said that he had played "Risk" on one once. Despite John's lack of any worthwhile Macintosh experience, the manager insisted that John quickly learn learn the Mac until they could hire a full-time replacement. They never did hire that person....and John never did return to his PC roots. He discovered his true passion was for Macintosh computers because the focus wasn't on what the computer was doing wrong, but what the person was trying to accomplish. It allowed John to be a people-oriented computer specialist.
Although he loved his job taking care of all the Macs in the Marathon Office Tower, John despised living in Houston. As an avid bicyclist, he found Houston's humidity and roads-are-only-for-cars attitude stifling. So, he set his sights to head west in hopes of finding the ultimate Macintosh job, and landed in San Diego working for a promising young company called Qualcomm.
When he arrived at Qualcomm in June of 1996, he found himself in charge of supporting 1800 Macintoshes. (Awesome opportunity for a Macintosh lover!) The problem was, Apple was struggling in the mid-ninties and Qualcomm had already begun the transition from a mostly-Mac-based company to predominantly PC-based. Although there were many times when John would have told you he had the best job in the world, much of his time was spent trying to 'save the Mac' from extinction at Qualcomm. It was a tough ideological battle that eventually cost him his job in September of 2000.
With encouragement from friends and those he supported at Qualcomm, instead of taking another corporate job, he decided to take the road less traveled. He started his own Macintosh consulting company. With no knowledge of how to run a business, he started with a base of former Qualcommers who had taken jobs elsewhere and those still at Qualcomm who planned to hire him as a consultant. From there, his reputation grew by word of mouth. Currently, he has over 300 active clients and several hundred Macintoshes that he nurtures. The inspiration of Johnny Appleseed nurturing his apple seedlings continues.
After earning a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1990, John's first job was with Marathon Oil Company designing computer simulations of oil refineries. Although he had never taken computer classes beyond "Computers 101", he discovered he had a knack for understanding how computers worked and what to do when they didn't. Soon, the other engineers were asking him to fix their PC problems and gave him the nickname "The Bugmeister." He realized he had much more passion for computers than for chemical engineering, and transferred to the Information Technology department.
After a year of honing his PC skills, John was relocated to Marathon's Houston-based headquarters in August 1993. The very morning he began work there, the Macintosh computer expert of the Houston office turned in his resignation, effective immediately. As Zack was leaving the building, John was riding up the elevator to start his first day of work. Desperate to continue providing Macintosh support for Marathon's geophysicists, the manager asked John if he knew anything about Macintosh computers. He said that he had played "Risk" on one once. Despite John's lack of any worthwhile Macintosh experience, the manager insisted that John quickly learn learn the Mac until they could hire a full-time replacement. They never did hire that person....and John never did return to his PC roots. He discovered his true passion was for Macintosh computers because the focus wasn't on what the computer was doing wrong, but what the person was trying to accomplish. It allowed John to be a people-oriented computer specialist.
Although he loved his job taking care of all the Macs in the Marathon Office Tower, John despised living in Houston. As an avid bicyclist, he found Houston's humidity and roads-are-only-for-cars attitude stifling. So, he set his sights to head west in hopes of finding the ultimate Macintosh job, and landed in San Diego working for a promising young company called Qualcomm.
When he arrived at Qualcomm in June of 1996, he found himself in charge of supporting 1800 Macintoshes. (Awesome opportunity for a Macintosh lover!) The problem was, Apple was struggling in the mid-ninties and Qualcomm had already begun the transition from a mostly-Mac-based company to predominantly PC-based. Although there were many times when John would have told you he had the best job in the world, much of his time was spent trying to 'save the Mac' from extinction at Qualcomm. It was a tough ideological battle that eventually cost him his job in September of 2000.
With encouragement from friends and those he supported at Qualcomm, instead of taking another corporate job, he decided to take the road less traveled. He started his own Macintosh consulting company. With no knowledge of how to run a business, he started with a base of former Qualcommers who had taken jobs elsewhere and those still at Qualcomm who planned to hire him as a consultant. From there, his reputation grew by word of mouth. Currently, he has over 300 active clients and several hundred Macintoshes that he nurtures. The inspiration of Johnny Appleseed nurturing his apple seedlings continues.
Appleseed Consulting