Hello, World: My IT Career Thus Far

Hi, as you can probably guess by the name on the header, my name is Mark.

Like many people stumbling onto this blog, I have a huge passion for technology and IT in general.

And also like a lot of people, this was not my first career.

I originally had a very long (like, 15 years long) career in Hospitality and Management. It was my first job and because my career kept progressing, it soon became my primary focus.

I even eventually stopped going to college and just focused on work.

But as is usually the case, I eventually wanted to do something else and felt like the IT field would be a great place to transition into. The problem was that though I considered myself pretty technically literate, I didn’t have any tangible credentials.

I put out numerous applications, but never got a single callback or interview.

After researching and doing the cursory forum reading, it became quickly apparent that certification is huge in the IT field. I had always had this perception that certification was this huge hurdle that required a massive amount of experience and that the testing process was cumbersome.

Even thinking that, I decided to set out for the CompTIA A+. I would work my usual job within Theme Park Management, and then in my free time watch Mike Myers’ A+ video series on LinkedIn Learning, ensuring to take notes and review.

It wasn’t long before I felt like I was ready to book my first certification exam, a process that frankly was much easier than I thought. I took my CompTIA A+ 220-901 (the current iteration at the time) and breezed through it. I’ve never considered myself an academic or great student, but something about the content was engaging since it can directly apply to something I was actually wanting to learn.

And with that, my cert-chasing addiction started. My sights were then on the 220-902, which after another several weeks I passed to complete my A+.

Armed with my A+ and plenty of Customer Service experience, I renewed my job search.

And this time was different, I actually started receiving interviews for entry-level roles, whereas before I was hearing nothing. On my second interview, I received my first IT job offer, a Technical Support Specialist at a local school district.

Admittedly it would be a pretty large pay decrease from what I was making before. I was living alone with a mortgage and other bills, but I knew starting over in a new field would take some trade-offs.

I accepted the role with the plan to cash-out my 401K to make ends meet with the idea that I would try and speed-run the launch of my career by learning all I can, and fast.

So right away when starting, I had to choose another certification to pursue. I always thought networking was interesting, so the CCENT (which has since been deprecated) seemed like the obvious choice. And so I got a subscription to CBTNuggets, bought the OCG Certification guide, and in all my downtime, studied. If I had any downtime at work, I was reading the pdf version of the textbook, and if I had downtime at home, I was labbing and watching the video series.

And so I eventually passed the CCENT.

Then the CCNA.

Then the Sec+. Then the P+.

Then the pandemic happened. Somewhere along the way I got a second job at Walmart at the height of the pandemic, working two jobs and studying. The second job actually paid for me to finish my degree.

Then in May of 2021, I received a job offer with my current place of work at the time of writing, a FAANG company. This has offered several levels of career progression, incredible hands-on experience with all kinds of network devices, topologies, and servers, and the opportunity to integrate with numerous teams and projects.

Since then I’ve also received my AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect Associate, ITIL 4 Foundation, Cisco DevNet Associate and I passed my ENCOR which is the halfway point to my Cisco CCNP.

And that leads me to now.

I’ve realized that I have a massive passion for networking, as well as a desire to pay forward those experiences as I’ve found that many in this field have had similar paths. If something I share can help even just a few people, then it would be worth the invested time.

But also I feel like sharing has a great personal benefit as well, particularly when it comes to technical knowledge. One of the best ways to solidify your understanding of concepts is to teach them, which is what I plan to also do here. Some topics will be to review things I’ve learned and forgotten, while others will be to share about things I’m learning now, particularly in the field of automation.

So thank you for reading and joining me on this new adventure, and I’m looking forward to getting to work with other people who are passionate in this community.