Employee Spotlight: Antonio Diaz

Prior to joining Bogen Communications as an Applications Engineer two and a half years ago, Antonio was working for Cisco in Denver, Colorado, commuting home to his family in Orlando on the weekends. “When I saw the opportunity to get employed here locally in Orlando I jumped at the chance,” he shares. “I interviewed with four or five [people], and I remember flying back to Denver a couple of days later, and being informed that Bogen liked me and I accepted the offer. And that’s how I landed at Bogen Communications, and I’m extremely happy that I did.”

One of the things Antonio likes best about being at Bogen is the spirit of collaboration. “We run into issues sometimes where we bounce ideas off of each other regarding projects, sometimes design, sometimes networking. The camaraderie, and being able to just get up and walk over to Don Joslyn, or talk to one of the other engineers like Ray or Ed, or go to the lab and speak to Phuoc , or speak to Uyen—it’s quite nice to have all those resources at hand,” Antonio shares. “We’re all helping each other to improve the product line. I didn’t have that previously. We mostly worked on shift, and you were basically on your own zone. Here at Bogen it’s more open and people are very willing to help you and show you, and I quite like that. And it’s very good people. Bogen has a great team here in the Orlando office.”

Reflecting on his time at Bogen, Antonio says, “It’s the difference between a career and a job. A career is something I enjoy. A job is hit or miss, you have to do it to earn a living for your family.”

Antonio attended University on the GI Bill after traveling the world during his time in the US Navy, where he was an Operations Specialist 2nd Class Petty Officer, Surface Warfare Specialist on-board the USS THORN DD-988. Today Antonio serves on the frontlines of public health as a regular blood donor at the Oviedo One Blood Center north of Orlando, where he’s been donating for several years. “They asked me to stop donating whole blood and to donate platelets or plasma. The plasma helps people who are burn victims, and the platelets helps people who are have an immune deficiency,” Antonio explains. “People who are on respirators, their immune system is very low, so platelets improve their chance to survive if they’re in a critical condition, or help them to come out of Covid 19 healthier.” Passionate about languages and music, Antonio studies Portuguese and Italian in his spare time, and recently bought a guitar to teach himself the blues.