Welcome

Hello and welcome. This blog is meant to chronicle my journey into and through the never-ending and invigorating rollercoaster ride that is IT and computer networking. I intend to share with you the story of how I ended up on my IT path, as well as share tips and tricks that help me with certain concepts as I learn them. My hope is that I will encourage others who are receptive to the IT/Networking path to take the plunge as I did.

To start, I want to lay some groundwork on my career bio. I went to school and earned my bachelor degree in 3D animation and visual FX. Although I learned some very neat aspects of the 3D animation pipeline, I eventually realized after graduating that this was not the field I wanted to pursue. The Hollywood Visual FX industry is very difficult to break into, to the point where entry level positions that pay next to nothing were incredibly difficult to obtain, even with a degree. Mid-level positions were also nearly impossible to land for anyone not graduating top-of-the-class. Even some of the brightest and most talented students I went to school with were passed on by large studios left and right- not because of any shortcomings on the student's part, but because of the nature of the industry and the over-saturated applicant pool for what is a fairly "niche" market. Working in VFX can also be very unstable and geographically-limiting. When a show's season wraps up, when a movie project wraps up, contracts end. Geographically, Los Angeles and New York City are the two most logical cities that one in this field would find themselves in within the US. These caveats did not sit well with me and so I decided I needed a change.

Fast-forward 3 years. My foray into technology began with a recommendation from a good friend to apply to a large Internet Service Provider as a tech support agent. This was a call center position and because of the vast amount of verbal abuse endured by these call center agents (and because most of the systems being used were proprietary),  the company was more than willing to train agents from scratch who may not have had the most pertinent backgrounds in technology/networking.

This was the perfect opportunity for me. I was soon configuring various Small Office/Home Office routers to troubleshoot somewhat-basic networking issues. The calls would normally be in regards to slow speeds, unstable/intermittent connections, or a complete lack of connection. But occasionally, the issues would get quite a bit more complex. As I continued to be exposed to more and more networking issues and master the proprietary software our ISP developed for diagnostics, I began to go down the deep, seemingly bottomless rabbit hole of IT and networking. Calls ranged from older folks who could not figure out how to connect to their wifi to unexpected conference calls between myself and high-level network admins trying to figure out why their switches or routers could not reach the web or communicate to various subnetworks within their offices. Predicaments such as the latter were far beyond the scope of what my company expected or even wanted a Tier 1 agent (or really anyone there, regardless of tier) to be concerned with, but with every call, I gathered another little piece of the puzzle. Some ISPs draw their demarcation line (troubleshooting jurisdiction) at the router they provide, meaning that if their tests show no issues so far as their equipment, then anything on the other side is not their problem. However, certain other ISPs (and especially managed service providers) go far beyond that and after almost 3 years with my company, I knew that was the direction I had to pursue.

Soon enough, I outgrew my position and the company itself. I obtained my Comptia A+ certification and used this with my few years ISP experience to launch myself into a legitimate IT support role. I finally had the opportunity to troubleshoot Windows issues in an enterprise environment, an opportunity I had not had previously. Though we live in the internet age and have nearly-limitless opportunities to learn, there are certain troubleshooting experiences you can only come to encounter when you are supporting hundreds of end users across the country.

So that leaves us off where I am now, troubleshooting Windows 10 operating system and application issues and doing basic network troubleshooting with my new company. I am now Comptia Network+ certified as well. I tend to take baby steps in my certification path. Some had suggested I go for the CCNA at the time, but I did not feel ready. Upon my successful completion of the Network+, I immediately purchased a 3-switch,3-router Cisco lab with a thick lesson plan book from https://certificationkits.com . It's now official: I am embarking on my quest for the CCNA.