It Itnerview

Section 1: Tim Holtzclaw, Pawn Manager. Arizona Pawn/Fire and Ice Trading Company. timholtzclaw58@gmail.com

Section 2: Tim has been a family for years. He is a self-employed pawnbroker. He and his father started the business in 1988 when his father passed in 2015 the business was sold to the other local pawnbroker but Tim is still employed there and still runs the business. Aside from being a pawnbroker Tim also has a side business where he programs gaming computers, does hard drive swipes, fixes computers that have been infected by virus’s malware and varies other things you don’t want on your computer. Anything you need done on your computer Tim can do and anything that is wrong or messed up Tim can fix.

Section 3: (A) Tim started out in the technology world in the early 1980’s. His father started a satellite business and Tim was the only employee. He was responsible for installing, programming, relocating, upkeep and service calls of his father’s satellite business. Tim technically has no “education” in technology he learned from hands of experience and trial and error. He designed, programmed, tested and everything else that goes with designing a new software application for the pawn system used in the store today. This took some time he said. Designing a pawn manager program isn’t a cakewalk. Where his business pawns firearms the pawn manager computer system has to be ATF (alcohol tobacco and firearms) compliant. Tim learned to do all his computer programming and maintenance firsthand by trial and error. He was fascinated by computers from their debut.

(B) Tim said there are several things he enjoys about his job. The biggest thing he said enjoys is people. Tim is a people person and has never met a stranger. He was born and raised in McDowell County and his father was a local law enforcement officer, so he knows almost everyone. Tim has always been a hands on learner. He likes to take things apart see how they work and put them back together. He said making his pawn manager program was a very fun thing to do. He could have purchased a system for around the cost of five thousand dollars but saved him and his father the majority of that money by making it himself. He also designed a electronic gun log. See the ATF has a local agent for every so many counties and when they come in they want a printout of every firearm that has been through the particular shop. The business was started before Microsoft word was a thing. Today with the program that Tim designed all he has to do is scroll over to his “GL” tab and press F5 and it prints out every firearm that has been through that shop. It includes the make, model, type, serial number, who pawned it, or who he bought it from, or the distributor it came from. It also includes the name and address of the person who purchased it. If it hasn’t been purchased the field is blank. Tim said another part of his job he likes is his side business. When a computer had a problem and is brought to him he likes to hypothetically “take it apart and put it back together again”. He said that viruses are his favorite thing to fix because he gets to “get into the heart of someone’s pc”. Again though he said the thing he enjoys the most about his job is helping someone. People come to him on sometimes the worst day of the their year and he gets to see them leave with a smile.