Chris Cowgill was never your run-of-the-mill high school student. At an age when most teens prefer to spend their free time watching TV and hanging out at the mall, he was busy learning Autodesk.

That passion for learning would continue to grow over the course of his life, from those early days in the computer lab to a nearly 20-year career as a civil engineer. 

“I first started using Autodesk products when I was in high school,” Chris said. “The CAD program was introduced at our high school. It was complex and we didn’t have anybody to teach it, so I pretty much had to dig through the books and learn it on my own.” 

“As I went to each job that I’ve had since high school, I continuously learned more about Autodesk I continued reading through the books, going through the help files, trying to learn everything I could,” he said. 

Chris eventually went on to become a senior engineer at a civil engineering and architecture firm in his home state of Michigan, where he oversees Autodesk training programs for his entire company. These days, he no longer spends his free time combing through endless help manuals. Instead, he shares his practical knowledge of the platform with others as an Autodesk Expert. 

For Chris, the best thing about being a member of the Autodesk Expert program, powered by Directly’s CX automation platform, is getting the chance to save others from having to do things the hard way, like he once did. 

“If people are happy, and they’re to the point where they’re saying, ‘We got our answers right away. It was straight to the point. There was no going around in circles,’ that makes me happy.”

By empowering experts like Chris, Directly is helping companies such as Autodesk, Airbnb, and Microsoft provide a better customer service experience. Learn more about how experts play an important role in support automation here.