Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.
Got my first computer and taught myself all about it!
Worked on the insides of my PC and upgrading it. Then learned to build my own. Ran my own company.
Learned about basic networks and mostly the cabling. Worked as a cable tech for a while.
Took a job with an enterprise company, running their IT group. Learned more about networking.
Got network certifications. Worked on many networks. Saw there was so much out there to do!
Got recruited to be a trainer. Started doing that and loved the interaction it brought!
Made things up as I went along to get where I am today! Goals are sometimes fleeting. Grab on!
Keep following my journey

Career

Principal Wizard / Instructor

I do both network engineering / consulting as well as training to help others learn that!

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Technology
Engineering
Teaching / Mentoring

Day to Day

Depends on the day! My primary job is to create training videos so that others may learn how to be a network engineer. So it would be a lot of time in my basement, writing notes to scope how the training will go (everything needs a story!), testing things out on equipment to make sure the demonstrations go as planned and then actually recording and editing the video to make it perfect! My secondary job is actual consulting, & I could be anyplace around the world doing a wide variety of things!

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for high school students

Network engineering does involve a lot of math. Whether working in binary, decimal or hexadecimal numbering systems, it is important to understand and be able to convert between them. So in middle school, I would make sure to not avoid math classes! Even moving up through the advanced courses, there is a certain logic set that is taught irrespective of the exact formulas! For the consulting end, any thespian activities would be greatly beneficial for speaking and confidence!

Recommended Education

My career is not related to what I studied. I'd recommend this path instead:

certification
Associate's Degree

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Parents:

"I don't think I really received any negative noise along the way. Other than I was always taught to be a productive member of society and always have my eye on ways to improve myself! I think that was very helpful along the way. Never settle."

Challenges I Overcame

Outsider in school