Techimike – Tech Guy Mike
OK now that is out of the way, let’s move on. My name is Mike Johnson, married to my wonderful entrepreneur wife, father of two amazing and beautiful girls, and network engineer in the Raleigh NC area. I work for a large VAR working with clients mainly in North and South Carolina. I work on a multitude of projects with wireless being my preference.
Where did I start?
My journey into networking started in 2011 when I was able to acquire my first networking role as a Tier 1 TelePresence support tech at Cisco. This was made possible by passing the CCNA Route Switch the month prior. A recruiter happened upon my LinkedIn profile and the rest was history. It was in this role where I got my first taste of networking from the inside. In reality it was the environment I wanted to be in, but we weren’t doing networking really, if I am being honest. We were Tier 1, first line of defense for Tier 2. Didn’t turn it on? I’m your guy. At the time, TelePresence units had a telephone on the desk, which leads me to my favorite story. A client called in to say their TelePresence unit wasn’t working and they needed help. My first question typically was to find out what the phone was displaying, as that told me if it was registered. I was informed quickly there was no phone…..”Houston, we have a problem”. I proceeded to calmly tell them to find the phone and plug it back in. An hour later I got a call back. They found the phone in the closet and plugged it back in. I am happy to report, all was well.
A fellow tech and I had a proficiency for automating as much of our job as we could, so during our spare time between tickets, we created a list of every issue we would see and how to resolve it. Once that list was created the job became super mundane and no longer challenging. We knew almost immediately 90% of the fixes for any incoming problem. What I haven’t revealed to this point, is that to take my first job in networking, I had to take a 25% pay cut with enough money in the bank to make it 6 months. I took this risk, in the hopes that I could prove myself and move up to a better position. Five months and 20 odd days in I was able to join the Field Services Networking team as a Junior Engineer making 25% more than I was making before I came to Cisco. Surreal doesn’t begin to explain how it felt. A few weeks later it was brought to my attention, that the team had been disbanded.
My new role landed me in the real world of networking. This is where my training pays off, oh how naive . One of the first tasks to tackle, was to help a senior engineer prep some routers for an upcoming site upgrade. He instructed me to put the HWIC-2T card in slot 1. No problem, where is slot 1? It was at this point where the phrase “Fake it till you make it” had the most profound affect on my life. Never before has accomplishing a goal been so foreign. Thanks to my fellow team mate Google as well as my fellow engineers. Would I go back and study harder? Would I have waited longer? Nope, not a chance. Those situations build you up, as long as you have the drive to push through the pain. It was in this role that I was exposed to routing, switching, wireless, voice, WAAS, ACNS, among others. Our role was to travel around to Cisco Offices in North and South America upgrading configs and equipment. It was during this time that wireless really peaked my interest.
Why Wireless?
Prior to my days as a network engineer, car electronics was my thing. I spent almost 20 years in that industry and understood it at a very high level, working with high end clients building elaborate audio systems in anything from scooters to Ferrari’s. The one thing that peaked my interest most, were sound quality installations. The tuning and understanding of frequency and the balance that was required to process it in the harsh environment of a vehicle was something I excelled at. Understanding frequency, sine waves, reflections, diffraction, absorption, delay, phase……sound familiar. All of these terms came full circle when it came to wireless. Picking up a Route Switch book for the first time, I had to check to ensure I bought the English version, wireless I could make sense of.
So now what
After leaving Cisco in July of 2018 after a few years on the DC team (after the Field Services Team), I have been involved in many types of projects. I try to be involved in whatever wireless is available to continue to hone my skills. Although I have worked with wireless on many occasions, I still see myself as new to it. I have an ESCE Design certification, and have probably surveyed over half a million square feet in the short time since learning Ekahau in 2018. I have deployed thousands of access points, configured wireless controllers. Does this go deep enough? It doesn’t. I can get by…….getting by isn’t enough. I am now on the path to begin the
CWNP certification tracks, starting with CWNA. This blog will help me document that journey in hopes that it will help me solidify what I learn and help those that wish to learn along with me. It will also serve to provide WiFi industry news, review WiFi tools, point you to WiFi articles and videos of interest, as well as introduce you to industry professionals. We may veer off track now again, and that’s okay. Hope you are willing to follow along and provide your input and feedback. Click
HERE to see the first CWNA Chapter review. The journey to learn wireless is going to be great!
P.S. I like memes
