How I went from cable guy to network engineer

hi this is Andy lapped ffs permit IP Andy Andy and I'd like to tell you how I went from being a cable guy to managing a global LAN for the data center of a fortune 500 company spoiler alert it was earning my CCNA a lot of hustle a lot of determination and not taking no for an answer so you know as a cable guy I was doing the job for a couple years I'd like the technical aspect but over time I started to top out at rate started to top out a responsibility there wasn't really much else I could do with the job one path was to go into management take a pay cut get rid of my overtime and you know maybe someday I'd work my way up the ladder and do better wasn't really appealing to me to be perfectly honest with you I didn't see myself in the cable field long term it always felt like more of a job something I did for money not really a career per se that I wanted to invest my life in long term so I felt like I hit a glass ceiling in pay and responsibilities and and even in the challenge of the job you know you do a job long enough and and you're kind of not surprised anymore by things you see challenges that you're handed and on top of that it's a very physically demanding job and over time as my body started to feel the rigors of carrying a hundred pound ladder all day and being in hot attics in the summertime and getting stung by bees and chased by dogs and you know all for not a ton of money working every night weekend and holiday you could just to make up for it in overtime I didn't really feel like a long-term fit for me so a buddy of mine that I worked with in cable was going to Cisco Networking Academy for his CCNA he's the second guy I work with in 6 months that mentioned the CCNA so it kind of started to pique my interest a little bit what is this acronym people are talking about what do they you know it they're telling me you know it's for networking and and you know and they kind of sold me on the fact like listen as cable guys we're adding devices to a network and there's people somewhere that are managing that network and they're called network engineers and the entry-level certification for that job you know one of them is the CCNA so um my buddy of mine who was in Cisco Networking Academy at the time invited me to come sit in on a class just to check it out see if I liked it see if it was something I'd like to pursue he asked the instructor who was a CCMP the instructor was fine with it and that's exactly what I did he sat in on the class and there was just something about the people and the instructor and the the material that they were studying you know it was intense and and it looked difficult but at the same time it was so exciting because I'm like wow this is I think I can do this I'm not sure and it looks really hard but I think I can do this and it made sense to me because I always felt like I was at the time I didn't know what the OSI model was but you know looking back I became an expert at the physical layer and I wanted to work my way up the stack and and you know get to that Network layer and and and that's what I did I shortly thereafter I enrolled in Cisco's networking Academy through the local community college it was an eight-month course I think it cost upwards of $3,000 I almost quit a couple times subnetting was very challenging for me I didn't get it it was freaking me out and I thought I can't do this I got to get out of here access lists I think the extended access to us we're also kind of whacking me out but I part of I think why I stuck it out was we started a study study group couple students in myself and you know we we met once a week and we helped each other and they helped me with subnetting and you know I hope that when things that came a little naturally you know more naturally to me maybe and and you know there was an accountability there in in the study group we were all in it together we all had a common goal and we all wanted to help each other everybody was selflessly giving of their time you know we all had full-time jobs and families and we were going to school on the weekends and we would find free time during the weeks to meet and help each other so that study group was really big I think in the accountability of okay well you know we're all gonna do this and and I'll be honest with you I was one of the last guys in the study group to pass the CCNA I failed I think three times I could make excuses on one of those failures but what's the point right I didn't get the passing score so it it wasn't an easy class it was a year or a year and a half of my life I had no prior networking experience knowledge it was everything I studied was new to me it was intimidating but I really wanted it and I saw it as a way up upward mobility so to speak and you know maybe something that could become a career for me something I could dedicate my life to and and and build something around so I finally passed and got the CCNA probably a year and a half maybe close to two years after I started my studies I was looking for job postings with CCNA and the posting and at the ISP I worked at they had a NOC position I applied and I was basically told you know they're looking for someone with way an experience so you don't fit the bill but thanks anyway and I I followed up harassed bothered that recruiter every two weeks for months because I knew where I felt that that was really where I needed to go it was the same company it was kind of a semi lateral move I just needed somebody to give me a shot you know it's always that chicken-or-egg thing like how'd he get the job of that experience had to get experience without the job I needed somebody to give me a shot and I finally got in front of the hiring manager and I didn't do all that well in the technical portion of the interview there were a lot of things technologies that they were using and working on that weren't in the CCNA blueprint at the time but they said we're gonna give you a shot you're hungry you're passionate and we're gonna give you a shot but they told me never in decades that we've been here at this NOC have we had a cable guy get a job as a network engineer here and it was kind of like a challenge it was a personal challenge I felt and that's exactly what happened I was the first cable guy to become a network engineer at the highest P at least as far as these people knew and their experience I spent two years at the NOC I worked all three shifts and I spent every minute I was there if I wasn't working a ticket or an outage or chasing down some you know impairments to proactively try to fix something I was picking the brains of my colleagues and those people around me who had more experience than I did and they freely shared what they knew and it was basically like just being paid to get an education there so you know two years into that I go on vacation and while on vacation a recruiter on LinkedIn reaches out to me says I look like a great fit for this job at this fortune 500 company they're looking for a network engineer to build networks you know to build and maintain networks and NOC I was break fix I didn't build anything I went in the interview we all got along really well I didn't feel I did good in the technical interview but they hired me I got the job that was five years ago you know a guy who could barely multiply I'm not that great at math I you know I had an engineering title I couldn't believe it and not only you know had I moved on from cable guy to break fix at the NOC but now I was working for you know this fortune 500 company servicing their clients and and building networks and ordering circuits and routers and you know you name it of adding static Nets it was so cool and then there was a reorg and my group got moved over to data center when and for the past three years I've been managing our global LAN infrastructure for this fortune 500 company and it just blows me away because you know I I was a cable guy who got a CCNA and got somebody to give me my first job at a NOC and then got somebody two years later to give me you know a job where I could build networks and and five years later I'm still doing it so that's how I became a network engineer from a cable guy if I can do it you can do it and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: permit ip andy andy

Views: 14,371

Keywords: network engineer, ccna, hustle, determination, never give up

Id: TEGmhf6B2GE

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020