From Fireman to Network Administrator

Speaker 1: 0:00

But I want to say around 2014,. At this time I was in Rustin going to Louisiana Tech, and I was a convenience major, wasn't focused, I wasn't passionate about it. When I was spinning my wheels, rent was. Rent is real cheap in Rustin, so you don't have to make a lot of money to live in Rustin. And so I'm a fireman, I'm doing my thing, and one day I just you know what? I need a fresh start. I'm out here going to school, maybe this quarter, maybe that quarter, hanging out doing this and that, and I tell people the club lights came on for me so I left. It's then. That's when I got to best buy. Best buy gave me an opportunity to move to Dallas. I was making a little to no money. I was selling home theater, tv speakers, you name it, but I became a home theater expert.

Speaker 2: 0:45

And crazy.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Even with so, when I left T-Mobile I was making $11 an hour to take 60 calls a day. So I went from 22,000 to 50,000. And from procedural to where I am now at ADT. Now I'm making 80. I also saw you talking about job hopping. I think I've been with ADT almost a year now. I've gained enough knowledge to, for sure, gain, get a job somewhere else making six figures. But the way they're investing in me right now and everything that I'm learning like I'm locked in and I want to stay here. And once my knowledge hits the cap, then I make a decision.

Speaker 2: 1:22

This video is being sponsored by level up and tech. Are you interested in starting a career in cloud computing? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that between 2021 and 2031, cloud computing jobs will increase by 15%. Linkedin is also showing 170 K plus roles related to the cloud that are currently open now. Also, the average cloud engineer salary is 132,000. Now you may be sitting there asking yourself hmm, I want to make $132,000. How do I get into the cloud? Well, level up and tech has got you covered. Level up and tech is a 24 week comprehensive program dedicated to helping you land a cloud role. It will show you everything you need to know related to the cloud. They also have coaches that can guide you and ways on how to help you interview better. Level up and tech has helped many people start their cloud career and they have so many testimonials on their website. Right now, level up and tech has a triple guarantee in place by the end of November, so you don't want to miss out. So if you're interested in starting your cloud career, use my link. That'll be in the description.

Speaker 3: 2:26

It's so hard for me to sit back here, oh yeah, and this studio boy looking at a guy out here holler in my name when last year I spent more money on spilt liquor in bars from one side of this world to the other than you made. You're talking to the Rolex, nature, the Rolex nature, but we're going to see a diamond ring wearing kids, stealing, wheeling, dealing, living Jack flying selling the gun. And I've got a hard time holding these alligator stock.

Speaker 2: 3:04

I just thought about what I want to start out with. What's up? You remember back in the day at a department she stayed in that tech university crossing who.

Speaker 1: 3:12

if you went way back with that one, it's probably not even named that anymore.

Speaker 2: 3:16

You remember your signature mix at the time because everybody you was stunned back then, but you weren't stunned. You already know we was on the Hawaiian punch and talk about yeah, yeah, that's a throwback there, man.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Never again, never again.

Speaker 2: 3:30

He was calling the goon juice. Yeah, that's what we called it, my cousin. I'm called a hunch punch.

Speaker 1: 3:37

And see my cousin Pierre, he taught me a trick back then. We used to get a Seraq body. We would buy the Seraq, obviously drink it, but then after that, for the kickbacks, we would put the taco of our tenant half water, half taco. Nobody ever knew the difference.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Hey, speaking of, do you remember? It was everybody first year at Graham and Tech. Right B was hanging with Nisha and all them, courtney, bruce, and there was a great hour, his grand homecoming. Remember Evan was down there and he was like man, I got that Seraq. Man, ok, wait till I get back to the crib drink the Seraq. And he went in the freezer. The Seraq was frozen because he didn't realize that I think Bruce actually junking and filled it back up with some water. Man.

Speaker 1: 4:27

I'll never forget that, I'll never forget that.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Oh yeah, when y'all was online.

Speaker 1: 4:32

What about it? Because it's a million stories with it.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Just the fact that I'll be trying to sleep and I hear y'all down the hall in Mitchell. What's they doing down there, chan? And that's a funny thing, like when your school not that it's big enough, but they ain't that big. Who online?

Speaker 1: 4:48

Yeah, man, that Greek experience was something else. But one thing I will say about Alpha is it taught me that you got a lot of diverse brothers out there and there were some people that I pledged with that I probably never would even spoken to if we didn't pledge together, and it just really opened my eyes up about who you can fellowship with, what you can network with and build with and things like that. So that was a really cool time, a lot of funny times and great memories with that man.

Speaker 2: 5:10

So definitely meant it. And speaking of that, hey, y'all listen, the people that's listening to the audio version of this, the song that Jerry came out to, yeah, Go, you gonna make me hear in a minute. See the thing is over there, so I do not I'm not able to, freaking do my gunshots.

Speaker 3: 5:34

I would definitely hit the gunshots right now.

Speaker 2: 5:38

I got to ask them how many shots he had that night before he came out.

Speaker 1: 5:42

That was a long. We didn't go to sleep that night. I bet y'all did, we didn't we? I wait till you cut the music off, man. That brings back memories. For sure that was 2011.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Yes 2011.

Speaker 1: 6:01

Yeah, wow, wow, bro. So yeah, we had our probate that night. We stayed up all night and we drove to Houston because our regional convention was the next day, so nobody went to sleep. I was late. I bet y'all crashed. Oh yeah, I ain't going to talk. We ain't going to talk about what happened to Joey, but I'll tell you that off camera.

Speaker 3: 6:17

I probably can guess.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Let's just say Joey was spent. We going to say that. But yeah, we had a good time in Houston, man, we had a real good time. That was a good first weekend being an Alpha, definitely so that's what I said.

Speaker 2: 6:29

You know what, now that I think about it, josh, had you be.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Yeah, he had me be, I don't know. I don't know, I can't really remember specifically, but I give it to him.

Speaker 2: 6:39

I think he had you be, because I know for a fact Josh was towed up.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Oh, you're saying like on the turn up level.

Speaker 2: 6:45

Yeah, yeah, he definitely. You can tell when he was stepping, you can tell he was feeling it.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Yeah, yeah, okay, I can definitely get with that, because we both are too. I would say I don't want to say introverted, because you was down there with me. I definitely wasn't introverted, but not like somebody that's like to.

Speaker 2: 7:00

I think everybody's introverted, but I think in their own way they know when they want to go talk and when they don't. Right Right, the difference between you and Josh is actually a quiet person in general because we in here used to work with Miss Kelly of the College of Engineering. Got you Me him and Andrea Got you. Yes, okay, the work over there for her. Okay, let me see what episode of this would be. Okay, it's one 10. Let me intro real quick, but welcome back to the textual talk podcast, the number one tech and career podcast on YouTube. I'm your host, hd, and we have a special guest today. He's been on the pod before, but he's come back again. We had the same last name with the same high school, the same college, and I want to bring back my guy, jerry Davis. People on the Patreon, I actually tell you what his nickname is. Once you scot to the Patreon, you forgot what his nickname is but I want to welcome into the studio man. We pardon the day, as y'all heard. We bring it back some memories and we're going to have a fun. We're going to talk about life, careers, business, everything. You know how we do. So if you're watching right now on YouTube, hit the thumbs up button, the scrub button, hit the bell icon so you can be notified when I'm dropping stuff. And if you listen to Apple podcast or Spotify, please go ahead and follow us. Leave us a review. It's going to help us have them downloads in the algorithm. I was talking and I thought about some other stuff that we didn't cover. Okay, recently he shot out the hundreds and they did good. This year they lost in the first round. I think they at least they did better than y'all did against Hunsville. I'm going to say us, but I think we just was happy to be there.

Speaker 1: 8:29

That was a weird year because we had the teammates, the rest of the team, the rest of the team. We had that pass and years prior to Huntington's football program was just a mess. It just seemed after that death. The team really just came together and put forth the best effort. Because everybody knows, going back and looking at those teams, even the bad years, huntington has some of the best athletes in the city and it's like it's always been coaching. I wouldn't even blame it on. I guess the root of it you could say is coaching. But when we got it together it was hard to beat, hard to beat us, and that's why we used to have to go to Marshall to play a non-district game, because the Benton Green Oaks Bolsheviks, if they didn't have to play us, they didn't want to play us because they knew we had talent. Shout out, huntington. I would love to see y'all go to state one day and win it, but you came up short.

Speaker 2: 9:13

But I've been waiting for a team to do better than my year, my senior year, and what's that thing like? 03 with Jason.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Fawcett, yeah, the quarterfinals.

Speaker 2: 9:23

Both our teams with the quarterfinals. I've been waiting for a team to get to the semis.

Speaker 1: 9:27

And well, huntington is still I think they're, I think they're first graduating class was what in like 74. You talking about a school that's not even 50 years old, yet they'll get there. And then you look at North Louisiana football. It's so many 5A and 4A programs. The talent is so spread out across the city. It's not like West Monroe where everybody goes to one school. That's something you got to consider too. So when that does happen it's going to be a big deal, definitely Because our school like to show off a homecoming, which I'm going next year.

Speaker 2: 9:56

Shout out this year. Yeah, see, I always got messed up with COVID, like my tenure got messed up with COVID Like it was trash. Yeah, that's right, but shout out to us, could we have the best homecoming? That what I seen from Facebook. Like you felt like somebody. They went to college, what they was doing homecoming Right, hella Parade and everything. So shout out to them.

Speaker 1: 10:13

They tailgated this year. I don't know if they did that last year, but they tailgated everything. It was awesome and I really wanted to go this year, but I got stuck in traffic by the time I got to Shreveport because it was my dad's birthday weekend. So by the time I got to Shreveport it was dead. So it was like nine o'clock already and I was like all right, I'm old time to go home.

Speaker 2: 10:31

But, anyway, especially me and G. Smooth occasion with Texas. Each other we like took a shirt and kid rock. But before I get off the football subject, I want to laugh at some funny stuff. The reason why I said coaching and ain't the fact that the coaches weren't good is we never had any consistency. Because, like my, I think y'all might have had Coach Green maybe for two years being the head coach. Yeah, every year I was there we had a different head coach, six to seven coaches.

Speaker 1: 10:57

That can be tough too, man, and especially you got kids from different parts of the city, and that's where I think I say his name. But that's where I think Coach Bird went wrong, Because I do believe Coach Bird was a good coach. I just think he was so out of touch. He did not know how to reach any of the kids and he lost them immediately and that was his downfall.

Speaker 2: 11:16

So I wanted to bring it up, bro. Hey, I was going to put on the thing I was like I was going to ask. First I was going to ask about that. Could you talk about the situation, about the like? What made y'all want to throw the eggs?

Speaker 1: 11:30

Oh, the egg throwing. So that was going into my senior year. We so we were practicing for seven on. Seven is high every day. Gas was crazy. That's the first time we've ever seen gas hit three dollars. Of course, when we start to become adults, right, everything start getting more expensive. And we were just bored after practice one day, man and Courtney was I ain't going to blame it on Courtney, but it was Courtney Kenny, big white Ness, CJ right, I want to say CJ was there and we had done it before. So this, we just happened to get caught this time. But anyway, we was just after practice one day. We were all just hanging out and we just like I won't go throw some eggs, yeah, we pulled up to Walmart on the Pond's Row, got him and then, long story short, we got caught. Kids at home don't throw eggs.

Speaker 2: 12:25

We ain't gonna go through the intricacies of how y'all got caught. That whole story is actually pretty funny. We ain't seen a lot of funny stuff. Shout out to all the coaches. Shout out to Coach Bird. I used to laugh all the time.

Speaker 3: 12:35

He'd be like he's in the one and he's in the five and all that yelling and stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:41

What is he do? I think I asked Joey, but I think he's back to writing now, like for the paper. I don't think he's coaching.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I know he was at Loyola for a while he was at Loyola and Bird right.

Speaker 1: 12:51

Yeah, I think he went back to because his dad was a big sports writer for Shrewport Times and Jerry Bird Sr or whatever. So that's how everybody knew him and I ain't gonna say that's how you climb the ranks, but he had a connection already into sports in that area.

Speaker 2: 13:07

But I'd say, like I said, we didn't mean to turn this into a sports pond, but ironically though, it's like after y'all left, things actually did get better, for he got into that fight.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Man, he's not a bad coach.

Speaker 2: 13:21

Like you said, he was out of touch Because it's a situation where he had less time to coach prom. See what's going on. You still got to get your people in there to change the culture, because, hey, but that Olin garbage, I probably wouldn't even let him. Let's you do a play for the rest of the season. That's how trash them boys is.

Speaker 1: 13:36

Yeah, man, that's something. I really was rooting for them and, along with a lot of people, I didn't want them to leave Jackson State. To be honest, talking to some friends and stuff, that it may sense because it's hard to get top recruits to have options to go to these laid universities, nice dorms, nice everything programs, if they interested in getting the education, and it's like Jackson State just wasn't offering it. And hopefully they will one day shout out to HPCUs even though I never attended one, but shout out to them more empowerment to y'all. But that's ultimately why a lot of people justify him leaving. But I would have loved to see him stay there and be to Alabama or USC.

Speaker 2: 14:13

I think it could have happened if they were to do it right by the money. That's stuff out. People's always just focusing on oh prom, he left, he left, he left. No, they was not doing right with the money. Yeah, that's the biggest they attendance ever been once he came down there. I agree. I agree.

Speaker 1: 14:26

Yeah, when you got somebody like that and it's tech in the same boat. They didn't want to pay Sunday Dyches. They didn't want to pay. What was his name? Derrick?

Speaker 2: 14:33

Dooley.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Yeah, they didn't want to pay him and both of those guys went to Power Five schools. They didn't do great, but Dyches went to TCU and made a natural championship. He lost real bad but he made it. But you talking about Think about what Sunday Dyches did with us though there was the number two office in the country behind Oregon, and that's crazy to say how many people got drafted that year.

Speaker 2: 14:52

Three or four?

Speaker 1: 14:53

I want to say Queen Miles, I can't think of anybody else, but those were the two main two. Those guys I think they had some defensive.

Speaker 2: 14:59

I think they had defensive player there, yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Shout out to the Ligerious Need on the sheet and see from tech.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Hey, listen, hey y'all, we finna start the pie. I promise he ain't texting me about football in a while, and he know why.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Oh, because the Broncos beat the cheese. The real reason why I haven't been texting anybody about football lately is because the Chiefs have been really dominant over the years and I don't want to be that person. Every time the Chiefs win. You just know that text coming and I'm about to be annoying Now. When the Chiefs was bad and they were win, I would be texting everybody because it didn't happen as much. But now I'm used to it. I try to be a good sport, but you know.

Speaker 2: 15:36

I didn't text you either, because I'm one of the few people that's a realistic fan. Yeah, and as I always, if you've seen this, even last year when they was bad, broncos always play good against the Chiefs.

Speaker 1: 15:46

They do. They do because the Chiefs got a target on their back, that's, if any bad team is going to play good, that's the one time they want to do it.

Speaker 2: 15:53

One thing is a division game, but two. I just think they both understand each other so much. I just think it's like when Payton used to go against the Ravens and Erie just knew how to play against Payton, justin Simmons knows how to play against Pat, and then Pat Sartin you know what he got to do, and it don't help that you ain't got no legit number one, no more.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Right, right, and I mean same thing with you. Know, Payton, when he was in India against Tyler in the Patriots, you know that was just always a dogfight. You think it's going to be a high scoring game every time. I think some of those games would be like 14 or 17 or something like that, and I'm just paraphrasing. But yeah, but that's cool.

Speaker 2: 16:27

All right, guys, we've been a really intro to Pah. Though, jerry, can you tell the people a little bit about you and your background and it will kind of get into your spiel of like how you made your way out to Dallas and what made you want to get into networking.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Yeah, ok, of course. I'm from Shreveport, louisiana, went to Hunnies in high school. I joined the Air Force straight out of high school. I was a fireman for the Air Force. I really love that career. It's just at a certain point you get to see. You get to see how things work and how promotions work. And I don't know if people out there are familiar with civil service, but a civil service is something where when you're hired, that's it Like you, that's how you get promoted. If somebody got hired a day after you, you are ahead of them for life. So that's not something I really care for, but I really did enjoy being a fireman more in the military versus on the civilian side. And I want to say around, and I'm running over here- to the next question, but I want to say around 2014. At this time, I was in Rustin going to Louisiana Tech and I was a Kines major. I wasn't focused, I wasn't passionate about it and I was spinning my wheels. Rent was. Rent is real cheap in Rustin, so you don't have to make a lot of money to live in Rustin. And so I'm a fireman, I'm doing my thing, and one day I just was. You know what? I need a fresh start. I'm out here going to school, maybe this quarter, maybe that quarter, hanging out doing this and that, and I tell people the club lights came on for me. But, right at the end of the night the club lights come on and you just like, dang, like funds over and you just disperse. And so that's what my transition to Dallas really was like. I just needed a fresh start. And one day I you probably noticed. But one day you look up and resting, it's like Jerry's gone. I was always around hanging out doing this fun guy, but it was just time for me to get focused. And even at that time it was time for me to get focused. But I didn't know what the focus was. But I just knew it was time for something to change. So I left. And then that's when I got to Best Buy. Best Buy gave me an opportunity to move to Dallas. I was making a little to no money. I was selling home theater, tv speakers, you name it, but I became a home theater expert.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Really was born from insecure.

Speaker 1: 18:29

I tell people that all the time I can relate to his story. So much shout out Lawrence from insecure, I think everybody can.

Speaker 2: 18:35

It's probably like a solid stand up, smart man. I probably can relate to Lawrence.

Speaker 1: 18:40

Yeah, man, because he, he, if you've seen insecure like this. That's literally what I went through. And as they tell people you want to do this and that, and it sounds crazy until it happens right, and so anyways, after years I want to sell us with Best Buy for what five years? And then I decided I've always been like I remember on one of your podcasts you were talking about how you were techie and you like phones and you thought that maybe you would go in the podcast and about phones and things like that. I've always been like a techie person, but I never saw myself working in IT. And so one day I just was like you know what I'm really in the tech? I got to have the latest phone, I got to have the latest whatever you know. And I was like why don't I go to school for this? And I still didn't know what I wanted to major. I picked programming and I had to take a network plus class at the school, at a shout out to NCTC and current. That's where I got my associates and computer network technology. But going there, my first class, ironically, was network plus and a guy named Mr Lyons. He came up to me after class and, for whatever reason, he pulled me to the side and he was like I see the potential in you and he was like you're doing well in class, but he's going to tell you something. He was like programmers make good money or they get, or they secure jobs at Google and things like that. That's where the good money is in programming. And maybe he was pigeonholing. But at the same time he explained to me that networking everybody needs a network administrator, everybody needs a network engineer, not everybody needs a programmer. What's a example? I don't know. Brookshires, like Brookshires, has an IT department that has network administrators, network engineers, not so much a programmer, because they may not have use for that. Maybe somewhere higher up in the hierarchy they do, but it's not always a need for that at every company. And so he was just trying to, because he was somebody that was a veteran, that also went through things that I went through spun his, was spinning his wheels, went to college, got out of college and he found his way to networking and found some success. So I think that's why he ultimately pulled me to the side and got me to networking. And then I went to go get my CCNA. And here I am today. Man. Here I am and I had a few speed bumps in between there, but I'm sure I'm taking over your interview. I'll let you ask you questions.

Speaker 2: 20:49

When y'all come and talk, it makes it easier on me. Ironically, before we start the pile, we were talking about lack of exposure to IT, network and security. You name it and Shreveport and I did a article about that before and I was talking about that's one of the main reasons why diversity is low in IT. If you go back to Shreveport, the only type of IT jobs we saw might have been teleperformance or at the time it was US support and maybe some other type of cost-earning things. Every couple of years I go on my Facebook and I reshared this post about if you try to work in the US support like highlight me so I can help you out For real, because all those people have built on some skills that can make more money and they get underpaid, but they think they get paid a lot because it's Shreveport. Even they didn't really even pitch like they had. Now they actually, I found out but they did have people like at the career center. They was like some people can get some networking, certifications, stuff like that. However, they didn't really market it right to us. I think by the time I found out about that stuff, it was like it's about time to be done with school. My electors was Woodshop Weldon I think those were my two electors and Waitlith, and, of course, once you start playing football, they get you in that six-time. But that's cool. I want to go back to when we did this, our episode, years ago. At that time, I believe you were working in the knock for T-Mobile. I always tell people about not one of those speed bumps. Right. I always tell people about the knock life and I say it's one of the lower barrier to entry roles. Depending on where you go, you'll either be learning some stuff or you'll just be there. But at least you can say you worked in the knock Right. How was your experience working in the knock?

Speaker 1: 22:45

Man in a T-Mobile knock. I took 60 calls a day. I was constantly answering the phone and the primary role of that position in the knock was you weren't customer facing or anything like that, but the techs in the field. They would be working on the cell towers 5G, lt or whatever and they would be doing maintenance and it would bring down the connection so they will call you back after the maintenance was done. You would have to pull up the specific tower, make sure everything's good to go. If it's good, cool calls over. If not, you got to stay on the phone to tech, go through some troubleshooting steps till you get the tower back up or escalated to the radio access team. It was a pretty thankless, uneventful job, man. But, like you said, sometimes you have to take that first step to say you had that experience, because in a lot of your podcasts you talk about resume writing and some people look for they may be looking for hiring a network administrator, but they want somebody with knock experience. They don't care what you did at the knock, they just want to know that you've been in that environment and sometimes you do what you got to do to get your foot in the door. But not a fun job. I didn't learn a lot. I remember you. I watch your podcast all the time. So sorry I keep referencing them, but I'm a fan man and I'm proud of you honestly. Somebody, like I said, we went to high school together and, looking back on it, I didn't see you or me doing anything like this. Maybe I didn't, that doesn't mean we. I wasn't saying we wouldn't be successful. I just didn't see us doing something in IT, just an afterthought, but anyway, yeah. So anyway, get your foot in the door, do what you got to do and go from there.

Speaker 2: 24:16

Yeah, yeah, I think I want to touch on what you said. Seeing like you or I doing what we're doing now, flip the switch on. For me is when I switched my major from architecture to CAC.

Speaker 1: 24:26

I remember that now.

Speaker 2: 24:28

I remember it. But what really did? It was and I'm either going to go to Rustin and do that episode or have him come out here or something. But, Mr Eddie, big guy that works at the Cosworth Business, black man, designed like the whole building, with the smart stuff for the professors, the networking audit, you know how to do all that stuff. That's when I say oh okay, you can do this, I can do this, and that's the kind of just went from there Right, earning whatever I can learn and going from there and think about it. Our school so much of an engineering school when it came to. Sometimes it really wasn't a reason to even go to the job, fair, to be honest, because the jobs I was possibly interviewing for were not tech related. The one time I had a chance at an internship, I lost out to Kim about like a little bit Really.

Speaker 1: 25:13

Yeah, Is Kim in tech? I didn't know she was. I didn't know that.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Kim actually does. And, kim, you better watch this episode, because I'm going to tell you come on Kim specifically. She's in healthcare. She does security with the system Epic.

Speaker 1: 25:25

I did not know Kim was in IT.

Speaker 2: 25:27

You're with the same major. I did not know that Same major and then she stayed a year after and did that a master's in information assurance.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Shout out to.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Kim, I did not know you were in IT, yeah. So yeah, definitely, come on, come on. I've been telling her, I'm telling her come on.

Speaker 2: 25:43

Say her boo might be watching. I've been telling her come on and show them Tell me but that's really how I did it. I think it was the thing like when you said about maybe like playing around in school and stuff. It's like one of the things. I got two younger brothers in school and working and stuff now and I try to stress to them like mean different people, your network, the circle, people you meet. You never know where they work or who their parents know, because I think that's a big one, like everybody, if you, I think I did good to move in. I moved like off campus, my last quarter, cooktown Road, shout out to. I was living with Mason and Marquis D Marquis and I think like I forgot the other dude name, but I probably wouldn't have made it staying there like three or four years because it was jumping. The first night I moved there, we playing drinking games, and I had an eight o'clock the next day.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Yeah, I never lived on campus and that might have been a mistake, but I never lived on campus my whole time in wrestling.

Speaker 2: 26:33

So no, on campus apartments. That was cool, you can walk right to Lamb Brighton.

Speaker 1: 26:37

Right and Harold to tell you today. Me and Harold, of course, are best friends, but he'll tell you today that he never wanted to ruin me because he said he would never be focused. And I mean, it's some truth to it. Like I said, man, I did waste some time in wrestling but ultimately everything worked out, so I wouldn't go back and change the thing.

Speaker 2: 26:53

That's why I say to people saying what you I was like I don't know, because that's how I got to where I am now. Everything I experienced Messing up on classes or failing or having the opportunity to probably get like A pluses and cheat, like having. I've never told that story on the pod, but if you know the right people in school you can get them tested. That's why I tell people graced on me much, yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:14

Yeah, I specifically remember tests getting passed around all the time and a lot of people don't know is that like a lot of fraternities, not the divine nine, but a lot of fraternities that have been there for years and years they have vaults with?

Speaker 2: 27:26

them, yeah Football players. Yeah, they have vaults, oh yeah, yeah, the coaches keep stuff for these guys and yeah, so, like you're right, grays do not mean a lot when I tell you so the hardest class we took at Tech, and Judy Kim whoever else that we are a major with, they can attest to this. Quantitative analysis, aka statistics. Super hard, but everybody had to test.

Speaker 1: 27:50

Yeah, but it's like your intro to networking rate to find those tests, but ironically I actually wanted to learn how to do this stuff.

Speaker 2: 28:00

So I actually it was a I hate to generalize, but this is African dude, I forgot what his name was Super smart, he knew how to do this stuff. He taught me I one test. I took off the stuff I learned from him and I got everything right but wrong. What I mean is I was like writing the wrong sign or something on there, so that's how I made my answer wrong. But I knew how to do it Right Because I wanted to learn that. I was like it wasn't a benefit of me, like just doing that Cause I was like I might need X bar one day, even though we got Excel and Power BI and Tableau. But that's just a segue that we were just talking about school and like doing all these other things Right. But I want to get into Like normally, when you work at a knock, like I said, we don't do much. How hard was it for you to interview and land something else? Knowing that maybe you didn't know some of the things that were on job descriptions or that they actually interviews Okay, knowing that you didn't know some of the things that may be asking you on job interviews? I recently just had a thread that I put up about people segueing from support and how it's hard for them to get into cyber because they answer from a support type of thinking. How are you able to translate that from coming from typically just answering calls from the texts and not reading off what we got to do to, okay, tell me about this, or LAN or VLAN, or how would you network segmentation? How was you able to do that?

Speaker 1: 29:33

Kind of just a trial and error man, because you go to that first interview and then they may ask you something about, like you said, tell me about. You would think that they would just ask you what's the definition of a VLAN. But they want to know more than that. They want to know what happens when you connect a computer to a switch. Vague question. And I won't say that's a vague question, that's a pretty basic one.

Speaker 2: 29:52

It is a vague question because it's like how, what you mean? It's specifically what you want to know.

Speaker 1: 30:00

But they go beyond your basic what's the word, how can I phrase this? Like your basic, just network knowledge and terminology. And I think that's a learning curve that a lot of people have to get past and you really have to deep dive because it is even though they're looking for that knock experience. Again, going back to my first point, they don't care what you did and they're not. They want to know that you're prepared to take that next step. How have you been improving yourself, how have you been gaining knowledge around the world of networking to take that next spot, to be a network administrator? How can I, am I going to be able to trust you to go into an IDF and make configurations on this switch and not take down the whole building? So that type of thing is a big part of that transition and it can be a lot at first. But to those out there that are watching this, like when you go into those interviews and you fail, don't feel bad and I say that lightly because you're going to feel bad. But what I'm saying is recollect yourself, pick up the pieces and continue to build upon what you know and continue to learn and go from there, and then you'll come back and you'll kill it, and it's always going to work out. If you're dedicated to something, if you're passionate about something and you put the time in, it's always going to work out for you. The job I hold currently. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. I'm in a perfect position. I interviewed and reached out about jobs and ultimately, I'm right where I need to be. I'm learning, I'm like a sponge right now, and so I couldn't be happier. So don't take failure as what is defined as. Take it as a learning experience and grow from it.

Speaker 2: 31:29

Yeah, that's what I'll tell a lot of them. I say, just make sure. One of the good things is I have them record the interviews now, so now I'm able to listen to everything they say. And I was like I ain't like that, I don't like that. You didn't answer this because they asked you this and you start talking about something else, slow down. I also tell them hey, it's a thing, and I did a little business interview here because I was talking fast, but typically, if you notice, I'm pausing before I talk, so I limit the way. I say, like some people do this. My client the other day if you'll watch this he'll be like yeah, I was doing that. But he kept on saying you know how this is right? He was saying right after everything. And when somebody says they're trying to convince you of thinking like they're right, I was like stop saying that, like pause. That validation I was like pause and just say all your sentences out, without if you don't know what you're going to say. Just pause a little bit, it's okay, they'll understand. Everybody getting nervous in interviews. I get nervous doing interviews. It's cool, it's perfectly. No, if you ain't nervous, you ain't trying to do good.

Speaker 1: 32:31

I hate panel interviews and I know that's like a big thing in it and just no getting around it, but I hate them. I hate them. Luckily in my last job we didn't have our director. Our director was supposed to be in the interview but he wasn't. So I'm glad he wasn't. But I just hate panel interviews. I really like wonder ones because I feel like in panel interviews you get a question right and then I feel like somebody else is listening to you answer and then they try to snowball the question into something more difficult for you versus that person just going on to what they were going to ask next. So anyway, like I said, it's part of it. You got to be prepared for it, but I prefer wonder ones.

Speaker 2: 33:07

Yeah, I'm indifferent on panels. It depends. Sometimes you got to work the wrong, that works. So also, for example, most of the places, instead of doing the panels, they'll say, okay, you need to set aside four hours of your day and you'll do your different interviews throughout the day. So that's how Gomes X was. Gomes X was like I just knocked out, like I'm gonna interviews that day. And then Microsoft was two interviews a day Once I got to the loop.

Speaker 1: 33:36

I was just about to ask you and I hate to like switch it up on your podcast but, what's the most strenuous like interview process you've been through.

Speaker 2: 33:44

Genuine, I would say. In recent memory I probably would say it would have to be. I'll pass it out to be Microsoft and I don't think it was like string was. I think it was just more so. Me trying to prepare for it at that time, trying to prepare for a technical role when I was working in non technical role, it was hard because I had went from a year of doing stuff I knew how to do to doing different things, and that's what kind of made that hard. But after I got situated I did. I did decent enough. I knew I didn't do the best I could, but I got like validation how many interviews did you have to do? I did. So that loop is for, and then before that I also had the interview with, I think, the manager, so you can count like maybe five in total.

Speaker 1: 34:35

Wow, but beyond two or three, man, and I know these big companies, they put you through the loop, but I just think two after two or three, that's excessive.

Speaker 2: 34:45

Technically it's like in rounds, so Taylor's only three rounds, so it's not too bad. It's typical, typical. You have phone screening.

Speaker 3: 34:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:50

You have, you talk to the Ironman or somebody. Then you have like your technical interview.

Speaker 3: 34:54

Right.

Speaker 2: 34:55

So the loop counts is like that third round, okay, technical. Like the first interview of the loop was technical, then the second, the second interview was more so on the principles of the company, and then the third one was I forgot what that was like. And then the fourth one wasn't really technical, just me talking to the director who had already previously connected with on LinkedIn, and then like, for example, I probably say that my Microsoft one was probably harder than Amazon. Hmm, I've interviewed, like Amazon, like twice, okay, and it went hard, I just messed up. If you watch and if you ever have an interview coming up with Amazon, pay attention to their learning principles and make sure you have your star stories down for a lot of different scenarios. That's about the only way you're going to do good in that. If you don't, they can see that. They can see that, even if they say sorry, we moving on. I'm just sorry.

Speaker 1: 35:49

That's not like big on personal development and things like that versus like your technical knowledge or both, but more so.

Speaker 2: 35:56

You definitely got to knock those learning principles out the park, because that's what they care about. Those a lot Got you. You can sometimes hit those on the head and not be the best in that role, but still probably landed just because they're going to train you anyway. Sometimes I've been telling people I hadn't really got no etiquette training in years. They expect you to hit the ground running.

Speaker 1: 36:17

Yeah, depending on what role you're going to. If you're going to senior roles, sometimes they're hiring you because they're having trouble with something and they're looking for that senior person to do this, and again, that's why I'm in a perfect spot, because my next step could be a role like that, but I know I'm gaining knowledge from so many different directions.

Speaker 2: 36:34

I already know what your next step will be. I sent you on the job description.

Speaker 1: 36:38

You did. That was like a week or so ago.

Speaker 2: 36:39

Right and at free games. Even though you feel like you're in a perfect spot now, never stop interviewing.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:45

You never know and I'll tell you off camera why. But so now you're a network administrator, and for the people that's listening or watching, what exactly is a network administrator in your own words?

Speaker 1: 36:57

In my own words, a network administrator. Let's break it down into tiers so you have your tier one people that any time there's any small issue with the network they're taking that call hey, unplug this, plug it back in, Try this, try that your network administrators are your people that actually control the day to day operations of the network. There's any configurations that need to be done. If there's any outages, any serious outages beyond that's not dealing with the ISP because again, you're tier one people. If there is an issue with the ISP, they're the ones that are going to back out and get that ticket open with them before they even talk to us. So that's, in a nutshell, just a short summary of it. But basically overseeing the network, maintaining the network and keeping everything going. We basically paved the highway to all these different branches of applications and things that people have going on at their jobs to keep the whole network connected, Got it.

Speaker 2: 37:51

What was your salary? Jump life from going from a knock to a network. Admin.

Speaker 1: 37:55

Man crazy Even with so, when I left T-Mobile I was making $11 an hour to take 60 calls a day. I went to another company named Presidio and that was also a similar knock type. It was like a mesh between knock and network administration. That was the first time I was actually logging into Cisco devices on the job remotely and looking at configuration, not so much changing anything, but seeing if different routing protocols were up or down, seeing things like this. That was my first time doing that. So I went from making $11 an hour roughly $22,000 a year. So I went from $22,000 to $50,000. And from Presidio to where I am now at ADT. Now I'm making $80,000. And that's not the big $160,000 a year job. A lot of people. I see you going back and forth with people on socials all the time oh, make $200,000 tomorrow type thing. And I also saw you on and again bringing up your previous podcast again. I also saw you talking about job hopping. I think I've been with ADT almost a year now. I've gained enough knowledge to for sure get a job somewhere else making six figures. But the way they're investing in me right now and everything that I'm learning, I'm locked in. I want to stay here and once my knowledge hits the cap, then I'll make a decision if they want to promote me or whatever. And I really do love ADT and I do think I have a good future there. But again, I'm just a sponge. Right now I'm not even thinking about that, because the way they're investing in my knowledge and the equipment I'm getting to configure and get my hands on it's amazing, it's mind blowing.

Speaker 2: 39:31

Yeah, those skills actually will take you far. So I feel like ADT is like your octave and I'll say that what you did is something that everybody not willing to do, everybody not willing to take the amount of money you took in the beginning just to get your foot into it. Right, because everybody is more concerned with being perceived a certain way versus actually just learning something.

Speaker 1: 39:53

Yeah, and that's one of the things, man, you really I say the club like coming on phase, right, but you, after the club has come on, you got to go into your duck off phase and focus on you and really start to work on something. Once you realize what that is, you can't worry about how people perceive you, like my dad would say, keeping up with the Joneses. I know a lot of black kids have been told that. But once you lock in and focus and really find your niche, then everything's going to work itself out. But you definitely got to humble yourself and take that step back and pick up your breadcrumbs, man, and do what you got to do to get to that next spot, because it's coming, as long as you dedicate yourself. You know that from experience. This video will be sponsored by.

Speaker 2: 40:33

Level Careers. It has a 14 day money bag guarantee. It's a we self-paced course for your reimbursement and counts for a continuing education. Here are some of the reasons why you could choose top security high demand, job security, competitive salary, work variety and fulfilling work. The national average salary of information security analysis of 113,000. You're a instructor at Josh Medical and here is the brief overview of the course theory introduction, security refresher, security frameworks, security regulations and standards, security operations, signals. Then you have these great labs where Azure Logging and Monitoring, microsoft Signals, secure Cloud configuration and they help you with job plan and job hard execution. Use my code to try out a level career. You get 10% off by using my code and you'll be taking the next step in propelling your career to new height. Now back to our schedule program. So did you have your CCNA after? Did you get it like at the job in between, where you're at now, or did you get it at T-Mobile?

Speaker 1: 41:36

I actually got it at T-Mobile and it's funny because T-Mobile they had a network administrator position that was paying $16 an hour and it required a CCNA and they didn't want to hire me. And so I was like, and that was a blessing in disguise, and I was looking for any pay bump possible, right, because it's like mid pandemic, so I'm looking for anything. So I was. I would have gladly taken that, but they didn't want to hire me, so that ended up working out to my benefit before, I think. A month before I graduated with my associates, I got an offer from Presidio and they took me on and, man, that was just. That was a huge relief to get that job, man, because I always knew like my next bigger and again, $50,000 is good money, but compared to 11, that's a big jump and I can finally breathe again. And I finally and I touched on it a little earlier in the podcast just being somebody where my dad for 90% of my life was in administration, in the school systems, everybody that had known me, I'm Jerry Davis I was very much expected of me In my early mid twenties. I was falling short of those expectations. So for me to finally start coming together, man, that was huge for me. And then just to even looking back on that, I've grown so much since then and then my outlook on the future is amazing. So I'm excited for what the future holds, man, and I couldn't love my career field anymore. I guess that love grows every day. But just trying to paint a picture of it Like I'm in love with my career man.

Speaker 2: 43:04

Yeah, and then you said that because I was driving along the way here and I thought about something and I was saying I believe young people, especially in tech, I think the earlier they can get higher salaries the better, because that will help you throughout your career of not being underpaid, right, the episode that's dropping on Monday with me and Shanae we're talking about I already dropped pretty much like the intro of, and how she said had one of the most interesting talks she had with a candidate was they said hey, look, I want nothing less than 725 KG in total comp. And she was like what am I doing wrong? That I ain't had to become like that. But it's just one of things you never when, when you start meeting different people and these different companies and there is a strategy behind actually landing high paying roles outside of paying attention to just what have the title is, there's a strategy behind that. But, jermaine, say you should start getting uncomfortable with the salary that you were requesting when they trying to talk to you. Right, you should start getting uncomfortable about it. Some people are nervous and they are undercut. They sell because they don't want somebody to say no, go in the mirror and say this is what I want Everybody remember, like you remember, when you step to your fiance.

Speaker 1: 44:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:22

Exactly, you probably was nervous man. Shit, I'm going ahead and I'm going to get it.

Speaker 1: 44:26

Yeah, man, and that's one thing I'm glad you encourage people to negotiate. My dad actually disagree with me negotiating and that just goes to show you somebody that's old school working in the school system type thing. And he just he was like man, that's salary they offer you. That's not bad money and you get more responsibility and blah, blah, blah. He was just so against it. And my dad, my dad, he's a very smart dude and it's just, but he's not right all the time. And ultimately he was proud of me and proud of just to see another decision that I made on my own workout. Yeah, and I definitely negotiate that salary. You can't be scared of that.

Speaker 2: 44:58

So now one of the questions I have for you is you said something else earlier that I don't even know what the acronym stands for. You said IDF, but what are some skills that you needed to hone in on for you in order to be successful at this?

Speaker 1: 45:14

I would say number one patience, because I think going to that role is almost and I was talking to Harold about it in networking, especially if your environment is critical, right, Because at ADT that's basically controlling people's ability to monitor alarms, house fires, houses being broken into a number of things. So you bring down a network like that, trying to work too fast, you could make a really big problem. So patience number one. Number two consistency. I think you should get into the mode of and notice I haven't said anything really technical here, but you should get into the mode of doing the same thing the same way. I read a quote the other day that said the way you do something today is the way you're always going to do it, and I think that's something I really took the heart going into work every day. But getting on the more technical side of it learning your environment, learning your network topology, learning your subnets when you get in there, enterprise networking is so much more different than the labs you used to sitting up and so learning that is just going to blow your mind anyway. Seeing like a slash 20 subnet, when seeing different network addresses, you like how is this talking when this network, this third octet isn't the same as this one, Because you're so used to doing your basic lab stuff and you may know how to subnet but you haven't seen it at in work and in an enterprise environment. So things like that, man, Take it one step at a time, and what Mr Lines used to say in our networking classes is the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So you learn as you go and and really your seniors are a big part of that, because you can get to a job and sometimes people be snobs and they don't. They expect you to know everything. But that's another reason why I love ADT, because I have people that 17, 20 years in the game that are just willing to answer what would be viewed by most as a silly question, and that's really valuable as well. So just soaking it all in and, man, I'm loving it.

Speaker 2: 47:16

So I only think, only consider some a silly question. I really don't consider anything a silly question. It would only be if you didn't check the documentation. Then that's when I say, okay, you could have looked that up, because it's right here, just put it in Confluence, if you know, if you don't see it and I'll help you and find it in Google, and that's another thing I put in the thread yesterday. I was, like you, trying to be as the interviewer. Just say, I'm not familiar with that, I don't know, but if you gave me a chance to, I know I could find the info. But just tell them Right, I'll let us use Google at work anyway.

Speaker 1: 47:45

Exactly. Yeah, one of my, one of my seniors is he hammers on me all the time because I like to memorize stuff and he's that's great. And he's like I don't really care about you memorizing stuff, I care about you knowing where to look when you don't know. That's what's really important. That's a good point you brought up. So everybody uses Google at work. Google is definitely your friends.

Speaker 2: 48:04

And speaking of what you're talking about, you pretty much your, I would say, home security. That's an industry that you're in. You actually now can niche it to home security, right. Yeah, like specifically with networking. But you touched on something that I touched on in my video this week. You understand the whole part of your job, of what it affects Parents or family at home, kids or in a room network goes down. Now they don't know a Berglis and how some might be having to the kids. So all these types of things can happen if everybody's not doing their job. And I want to say that because I take it back on reason why T-Mobile stay getting breached and stuff because they cheat.

Speaker 3: 48:44

Yeah, that's why people don't care about their job.

Speaker 2: 48:48

What networking person going to care about that job? They're getting paid 16 hour when we know for a fact the people elsewhere again really paid from T-Mobile because they took over sprint. Yeah, they stopped playing with me paying me.

Speaker 1: 49:00

Yeah, Even when I was there I was a contract worker. Half their knock is contracted out, so I can believe it that they may be cheap. Not to talk bad about them Again, they gave me my first opportunity in things like that.

Speaker 2: 49:10

He not going to talk about you. I'm going to talk about you because most companies who got their stuff contracted out. That's not a good sign. If you don't have any consistency there, that means it's a lot of turnover and when you see that, you'll typically know that's why certain things happen. Because Toyota over there and Plano they got a really nice campus over there. It's right down the street from JP Morgan's.

Speaker 1: 49:31

You did an interview with a guy that worked there that didn't you write a program or something and got like a lot of Did them or GM.

Speaker 2: 49:38

You talking about speaking to a shout out to my guy Xavier. He will actually be back on the pod December. Okay, he from Detroit. He probably going to have his buffs on in the interview too.

Speaker 1: 49:47

Yeah, I know man. Yeah, you told me he wrote something for them and they broke it off really well, so shout out to him, man. When was the last time you spoke with Joey?

Speaker 2: 49:57

Sometimes, well, he's on Twitter, sometimes I see him on Facebook. Sometimes, outside of that, I hadn't talked to him in a while. I run into him sometimes if I'm in a street park.

Speaker 1: 50:06

Did you know that? He's always in education right in Shreveport but he's also pushing real big. Going back to our exposure thing, he's also pushing for kids to get into IT and he actually just recently got two kids a cybersecurity scholarship for right. So, yeah, shout out to him. I just wanted to say that on the podcast, because Joey is really doing some great things and he's at Woodline High School right now in Shreveport. So next time you talk to him, bring that up and he'll tell you all about, because he's really passionate about helping out.

Speaker 2: 50:32

He's talking to me about it. I think he probably just got busy and got some, because him and I was arguing about that at your house and I'm like, bro, how are you going to tell me?

Speaker 1: 50:43

I get what you say and I was like he can get a little bullheaded sometimes.

Speaker 2: 50:47

That's always him.

Speaker 1: 50:48

But his heart is good.

Speaker 2: 50:49

Shout out to Joe. Listen how I got to school and back in my groceries. I'm the type of person If you was rocking with me when I was walking around campus or something, you took me home, you took me to the store. As long as you ain't crossed me, you good with me forever. You need something. Just get at me. That's how I operate, like everybody from back then. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:06

It's a good mindset to have.

Speaker 2: 51:08

If you do something low down to me, then it's a wrap Play with yourself, because not having me in your network, they ain't going to work out that good for you. True turds man. Hey, how would your dad describe what you do for work?

Speaker 1: 51:20

How would my dad describe what I do for work? My dad is a country dude, so let me see how you put this in words. He probably would just tell people I work on computers honestly, and my mom so. She works at the Shreveport Tourist Bureau downtown. You know the place. That's about a festival applause with the big mural on the side of the Mardi Gras paint. She works there, so they actually have an IT guy, so she has a better understanding of what I do. But my dad would just tell you, oh, he works for computers or something like that, working the air condition. That's what he was saying.

Speaker 2: 51:54

Well, what do I feel as I say what you do?

Speaker 1: 51:57

I think she would describe it pretty well because actually I texted her not too long ago and I was like I was being short because I was like, hey, I'm doing some work in the DC, I'm going to call you back. And she was like, all right. And then so when we got on the phone later, I was like, did you know what I was talking about when I said DC? She was like I know it's a data center. And I was like, yeah, okay, cool, cool. So she has a good grip on what I do. So she would describe it to the team.

Speaker 2: 52:18

And that's the even more new skill set working in the data center. Oh yeah, man.

Speaker 1: 52:22

Like I said, the exposure I'm getting right now is crazy, like I.

Speaker 2: 52:27

Is that data center out here?

Speaker 1: 52:28

Yes, in Irving. So, that's one of the main reasons they wanted to bring me on is because the team is getting older and they want to bring somebody in young that they can train and learn the environment and eventually it worked the whole thing. If everything works out right in there, Laura say the same. I would love to stay with ADT and make a career there, but yeah, the exposure and the equipment I get to work on and configure man, it's pretty wild. So shout out to ADT.

Speaker 2: 52:55

So what were some challenges that you dealt with, coming from a knock background into being a network admin?

Speaker 1: 53:05

Again, just understanding enterprise networks, understanding you know what a switch is or the router is, but they have management switches, they have switches that you just plug devices into so you can reach them, so you can configure them from the house or whatever. Learning about firewalls I've never dealt with firewalls in my life. I've always been a route switch guy. So now I'm working with Palo Alto firewall. So just transitioning from the knock and just doing that layer one troubleshooting going to actually configuring the stuff. It can be overwhelming, but you just continue to have that confidence about yourself and confidence enough where you can ask questions and not feel dumb. Right, and, like I said, that also goes back to again. Your team has to encourage that for you to thrive, because a lot of teams can be condescending when you come to them with questions. It's unfortunate but it happens. But I'm fortunate enough to have a good team around me to help me in that.

Speaker 2: 53:57

So at a high level, could you talk about any type of projects or anything that you've gotten a chance to work on being like a network admin now?

Speaker 1: 54:06

Yeah, weekly. We're just about configuring, because ADT right, they have their residential offices all throughout the country. I won't say weekly, I would say at least once a month. We're standing up a network for a site that's moving or whatever that may be selling ADT services, but we're standing up those networks to send out. So that's basically the project. My career is the project. I really enjoy it, man, and that's what we do on a day to day. Now, on the data center side, those setting up their redundancy between all of those devices, core routers, core switches, back to the internet provider, the ISPs that's another big project we work on, or continue to. I won't say work on, but continue to maintain and upgrade and things like that as time goes on.

Speaker 2: 54:48

So Okay, so now here's like some fun questions. If somebody wants to be a network admin and they don't have no experience like, what would you recommend them to do?

Speaker 1: 55:03

I would recommend them to. Honestly, just I guess from my experience I would recommend them try to find some type of at least associate's program that has a true path of network, because, like NCTC, just their program is great. We talk about school a lot and we say, oh, I learned, I didn't learn anything that helped me with my job. It's like the complete opposite with me at NCTC. They literally took me in, they had a network plus course, they had a CCNA course, so they literally were big on hammering these skills that you would need to learn to get into networking. Now, if you want to pay for a network plus boot camp or whatever, that's cool too, or just pick up a network plus book and see what you can pick up on yourself. But for me I needed someone to teach it to me when I went to NCTC. It was just like a springboard from my knowledge from there. So that's what I would recommend.

Speaker 2: 56:03

Yeah, I think a lot of people and this also wasn't advertised to us as well in school Community college is actually where it's at. If you want to get maybe in the tech or something Because they have, like, even BipC has stuff to wear, it's strictly. You want to get in security, they got these classes for security networking. Bipc also has this agreement with GDIT right there next door to where they're helping people get internships and working.

Speaker 1: 56:28

Yeah, most definitely, man. A lot of people. I was 29 when I started at NCTC and a lot of people were in their early 30s or late 20s starting there and just trying to pivot in the IT and a lot of us have gone on to have successful careers from that. So, yeah, don't shade on the associates, man, because I guarantee you I learned a lot more than some people did getting a four year IT degree at a four year university.

Speaker 2: 56:53

Yeah, and especially as a more affordable way of education. Sometimes you might have to pay nothing, maybe a pale grants to where you're not coming out of pocket at all. So it's really a win is a win. That's a scenario. It may be like a little shorter or a longer duration of you to get to where you want to be, but hey, that's what you got to. That's what it comes down to when I have concentration now, like how fast you trying to move, you trying to go at your own pace or you trying to get here quick. If you want to get here quick, try this program out. If not, do the tortoise way. Can you go slower and go at your own pace?

Speaker 1: 57:24

So it's like to each his own Right, Most definitely in speaking of grants. Like 90% of my tuition and books was covered by our program. There's no longer there, unfortunately, but I had to pay for my last semester because the grant ended but it was called tech hire. But it was just an amazing opportunity. It's really just a blessing, honestly, like everything lined up because Mr Lines also told me about that as well but I barely had to pay for anything while I was there and they paid for me to take my CCNA sec plus, so it was great. So NCTC was really into getting us out there into the workforce and make sure we had those basic skills.

Speaker 2: 58:00

So that's good. I don't even know if tech has changed this thing. I know three years ago, three or two years ago, I mentioned Dr Atlas about hey, I see the curriculum look about the same as it was when I was there Like, are they getting any certification with these courses? It was like no, I was just like why not? If I'm doing this course, I should. I did a networking course in my CS major and it was pretty cool. We had to design specifically. We actually designed a network to be on a three story building similar to the New College of Business. I didn't know that's what we was doing at the time, but it was a cool project. Now, me and the owner of few remember Bernie. Yeah, I remember Me and Bernie. It was in a group with these. Do you remember Charles and Jack? I don't, they were.

Speaker 3: 58:42

One was from Cameroon and I forgot the other one, but there was Africans.

Speaker 2: 58:46

Right. They decided to bulk out the whole project. So when Bernie and I didn't get a chance to talk during the project, they were just talking the whole time. We ended up getting a C because they were all that. Their issue was. They felt like they were so smart. So there's always arguing with the professor. He was getting his doctorate at the time.

Speaker 1: 59:02

I was like I don't know everything, just because, yeah, I can't stand those type of students. Man, I can't stand those type of students. But anyway, I didn't mean it.

Speaker 2: 59:08

No, you good, you good. I just like it was funny to me. That's why I was like bro me and Bernie was so hot, like a lot of that stuff happened. You had that. Or we had situations where who was I in a group to where somebody really didn't do no work? It was like you know how they always talk about some when you come to the group project you didn't do none, but you get a anyway. Right and a lot of those situations going on too, I don't know. All in all, I tell people, if you're going to a four year, then most of the time you need to be networking, getting internships and check the curriculum out. Go somewhere with a little bit of prestige, because that's really what you're going there for. You go on to the Harvard, stanford, yale, princeton that's why you're going there. You're not really. Of course, you're getting education in my team. But MIT somebody see MIT on your resume. They calling you back, right, right, that's what that's for Now. If you're not going to do that and you want to pay that money, do it the smarter, more efficient way, most definitely so. Are you hybrid? You work from home or what?

Speaker 1: 59:59

Yeah, I'm hybrid now and I've actually I've there wanting me to work from home a little more now, but we just we moved buildings and so with that comes a lot of pain, growing pains within the network and I've already been transitioning to the guy being on campus all the time and everybody else on my team works from home. So I enjoy that responsibility. It looks good on me and I continue to try to do a good job every day. But starting at the beginning of the year I probably only be coming in two to three days a week. But we just got a lot of moving parts right now and I'm just waiting till it settles down to fully take advantage of that hybrid opportunity.

Speaker 2: 1:00:38

It's probably because it's probably real quiet in there when you do it by yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:00:42

Yeah, and I tell Kisha and I tell Harold, when I talk to him it's like working from home but home away from home type thing, because it's really it's not really anybody nearby. I'm normally off by myself, I have pretty big cube space, pretty comfortable, and again, I like to pace a lot. So I'm glad nobody's there because they think I'm crazy. But so when I'm working on stuff I may work on something for half an hour or so, then get up and pace for 10 minutes just to clear my mind and come back and refocus.

Speaker 2: 1:01:08

So where's your campus located in Irving oh okay, yep, that's where the data center is Cleanest.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

This is like right next to the airport. So is that considered Los Calinos? I? Think that's like actually Irving. Yeah, yeah, cause Los Calinos. I feel like it's a little closer to where.

Speaker 2: 1:01:25

I live Kinda. Yeah, I used to go to back way to Los Calinos because I went to the University of Dallas.

Speaker 1: 1:01:29

Got you, got you. Yeah, I don't know if you're familiar with Flexential, but we have some environments over or an environment over there and they're rented data center space, but our main stuff is in Irving.

Speaker 2: 1:01:42

Yeah, before I left income I used to work, so income my business was on Beltline and Coyt Mm-hmm. Right before I left there I had just got my badge to start going to the data center in case we had to do something there. But I had put in my two weeks in because I got the job on it. But yeah, our data center was downtown, oh okay. It's a. I forgot where it was, but you could literally take Coyt almost all the way downtown and get to that data center.

Speaker 1: 1:02:05

Okay. Did you ever have to do any work in there, or?

Speaker 2: 1:02:11

Jesse did. Jesse was the one he was like the supervisor. Jesse was like there, everything at the time. I just was there. Got you I think that was gonna probably, if I stayed there long enough, give me more of the responsibility he had, but I knew that's not what I wanted to do. Got you Like it was working on weekends. So it'd be like a weekend like this. Imagine our knock probably was a little bit bigger than his room but it was all glass and just being in there watching the anime, doing pushups, going to the Galleria that's what I was doing a lot of Good old Galleria, inviting guests For real. I was like I hope nobody like catch me up here. But I was like I'm bored out of my mind when nobody there, when nobody in the whole building on the weekend, so waking up early just to wake up on the weekend, working seven to seven, seven to more than seven nights, days. I would try to do some on a Friday night when I got off I was like I'm just gonna have me a little some clothes in the back in just case phone, go home and whatever. It's been times where I didn't have to get up early and go to Target and get some clothes and go in to work.

Speaker 1: 1:03:11

Right, I hear that Long nights.

Speaker 2: 1:03:17

Let's see, because actually we answered some of these already. That's why I know you felt like it was like a lot of questions, but they really was like questions within questions.

Speaker 1: 1:03:25

Yeah, I went through them and, like I said, I didn't mean to lump them all together, but it just worked like this.

Speaker 2: 1:03:29

I'll ask you, so far as your trajectory and your career, what's next? What type of skills are you working on? What type of certifications are you working on?

Speaker 1: 1:03:37

So of course I brought up my CCNA earlier. I want to get my CCMP, which is the next step up, but I wanted to be. They have something called the CCMP DC Core and that's focused on data center networking. So obviously that's my home you could do. I think they have CCNA security, ccna wireless, but data center that's my baby right now. So I feel like if I secure that, then my trajectory is great, and they're in ADT is encouraging me to do that. I'm also looking to take the Palo Alto track with their exams. I'm working on they. Actually, I just took a training and they gave me a voucher for the PCNSA. I believe Lease made videos about this. We may have a PCNSE by now, but which is a Palo Alto certified network security engineer. I'm working towards that as well. But Cisco is my baby man. I'm always going to be a route switch guy, but firewalls are a part of our environment. It's something I got to learn. I've learned a lot with them and I think I'll be ready to test for that probably before the year is out. So I keep you updated on it.

Speaker 2: 1:04:35

I actually was going to ask you about that because on the live stream the other day Lease gave and I were on and we were talking about Cisco versus Palo and I was saying Palo is what Cisco think they are Right, what they used to be.

Speaker 1: 1:04:49

So Cisco? Because they just didn't, they just buy Splunk, or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:54

I think it's there has to get approved, but I think it's going to happen because Splunk did some of their layoffs so they got to cut some money up, and so it can make sense Right.

Speaker 1: 1:05:00

Cisco has always been like at its core route switch right. And this is me talking to senior engineers that have been around a long time. They think that Cisco is terrible in the firewall space and so that's why we have PAs in our environment. So when you're comparing Cisco to Palo and you're talking firewall, yeah, it's not comparable.

Speaker 2: 1:05:21

And they use GN Firewall. That's what y'all got too. You said what Palo got the next GN Firewall.

Speaker 1: 1:05:25

Oh yeah, and what's the? What's the Cisco firewalls called? Marriaki no that's you talking about Maraki?

Speaker 2: 1:05:32

I said Marriaki.

Speaker 1: 1:05:33

What is it ASA?

Speaker 3: 1:05:35

That's what their.

Speaker 1: 1:05:35

Cisco has ASAs and people don't love them. They're too comparable to a router versus they're like if I want to, if I want to firewall and do carry out firewall capabilities, I'm always going to PAs and I'm biased because that's what I'm working with right now. And we do have a few ASAs in our environment and I like and we I do some work on them. But everybody loves that Palo Alto GUI and it's very it's very what's the word I can very user friendly. So I like them. I see at least like some too, so I'm not alone in it.

Speaker 2: 1:06:04

Yeah, yeah, the lady engineer. So I've been to ask you earlier about tools or applications that you're using now. So you've already mentioned Palo Alto, cisco. Is there anything else like networking tool wise that you have access to now that you didn't in the past?

Speaker 1: 1:06:20

I do a lot of DNS configurations. They just they gave that to the network team at ADT or Wildbacks. That's I guess like just a. It's not so. It is network, but I guess like it's more of a. Normally that's more like just a basic admin job. But I love doing DNS, adding records, working with active directories, a lot of things we do in that space. But that's I guess a non niche like network admin slash engineering thing that we own now. So do they have you?

Speaker 2: 1:06:51

working on anything network for us, like cloud.

Speaker 1: 1:06:54

No, currently, as of now which is probably going to change but that's two separate teams and so they're actually in the works emerging that together. So AWS is about to become my second baby, I assume in the near future.

Speaker 2: 1:07:07

You can have some fun with that. Yeah, because at the center is all the same thing, it's just different. Do you use any like WAFs or anything right now?

Speaker 1: 1:07:15

No, not currently. Like I said, I'm just route switch and keeping it basic with that right now, doing configurations on site and things like that. I don't work with WAF or anything like that. We do have load balancers in our environment. I don't know if you know about F5s Okay, yeah, but again, that's something I haven't ventured towards yet. The SME on that he's waiting to get me under his wing. He's super excited about it, but yeah, I haven't got around to it yet.

Speaker 2: 1:07:37

So that's the good part. If you're a person that's come in with new engine and killing it, everybody like. I'm trying to work with him. Yeah, that's how it was at Goldman Sachs. It just was what just was. Killing me, bro was like just driving down here every day from Aubrey. It's like once I moved outside, I just I can't do it. Let me come in two times or once a week.

Speaker 1: 1:07:54

I remember you saying that that's why I love living in Dallas. Like I can't, like I know, like cost of living is a factor, but if I can figure it out like I'm gonna stay in the Dallas, yeah, if it wasn't a factor, of course I would probably be a what if?

Speaker 2: 1:08:06

well, it ain't about it being a factor. But I'm also not going to let a place I want to stay get over on me. If I know I can find a better deal elsewhere, I will Right. That's one of the things I'm on to is, I've been out here too long for y'all to fudest me. I know what they used to charge over there.

Speaker 3: 1:08:20

So you know I'm going to play with it.

Speaker 1: 1:08:21

I'll do something else. I was messing with Keisha. Not long ago. I saw a meme that said I paid $120,000 to get this Masters, but you're trying to offer me 50K for a salary. And they really do try to get over on you like this sometimes.

Speaker 2: 1:08:35

What's something that you wish? I asked you that.

Speaker 1: 1:08:37

I didn't ask you I honestly think I think you hit everything. If I had to really think about something, I really can't think of anything. You asked me what I aspire to do, what's my trajectory. You asked me what was. Some challenges gave good background, so I think you hit all the notches on it, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:08:59

That's another question that went on there. But you ever tell Keisha about Coach Farpay.

Speaker 1: 1:09:04

No, I never gave her any Coach Farpay stories. Coach Farpay is a fool. I know you want this chicken. I'll be sure to share something. She's over here in the background listening now, but I'll be sure to show you some stories about Coach Farpay baby.

Speaker 2: 1:09:18

Man was feeding us cookies before games.

Speaker 1: 1:09:20

Yeah, he wouldn't. So you know how, when, before a football game, you get your pregame meal that's what I'm talking about right now he would give us cookies. I think we would get like two to four cookies a piece.

Speaker 2: 1:09:31

I got these cookies. I know y'all want them.

Speaker 1: 1:09:33

But it was a hit. This was his reason behind and in granted, we talked about Huntington's program earlier now. We weren't winning before them, so what he was doing was technically working, but he would tell us the reason why. He would only feed us cookies before the game. He said I want you to be a little hungry when y'all go out there. Just a little home, yeah, but he had his way. He fed us KFC after every game. I don't know who was hooking them up with the KFC, I thought the booster club was paying for that. Man, coach Foppa. He was flirting with somebody up there or something. He probably had the hook, because my dad I don't even think he had the key, he's the principal. I don't think he had a clearance of where the chicken was coming from.

Speaker 2: 1:10:09

We had Keynes one time before a game.

Speaker 1: 1:10:11

Because who's in our booster club, right? I think it's better now.

Speaker 2: 1:10:15

They trying to get a little tunnel and stuff to run out of.

Speaker 1: 1:10:17

Yeah, I know the fives are like a big boosters of Huntington now, but and they're still none of their kids are even there anymore. And they still support Huntington, which is great, but I don't think Huntington ever just had a.

Speaker 2: 1:10:27

We never had what Shreve and Berga but we should think it's getting like that now as we get older and make more money.

Speaker 1: 1:10:34

I'm sure I get back to Huntington when they herald I already wants to do some stuff you, so I do too.

Speaker 2: 1:10:38

Know what I've been thinking about. Low key is like doing this at Huntington, like whether it's an auditorium or whatever we do. I've been thinking about that. Yeah, that would be cool man.

Speaker 1: 1:10:47

I think they will really appreciate seeing us come back, because I don't think that's something I haven't seen anybody do it. Go back and just share some of their success stories and let them know, hey, we were here, right where y'all are at.

Speaker 3: 1:10:57

So yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be cool.

Speaker 1: 1:10:59

But let me know, keep me in the loop on it, and I'm sure Joe is super interested in that as well.

Speaker 2: 1:11:03

I ain't talking to them, boys at Woodland, I'm saying that no, but I'm saying I actually went mine doing the if I had to do on the cattle tour, because my boy Marquis you ain't met him yet, he was on the pod. He graduated from Woodland, so if I had to do the Woodland tour, I was like, bet, okay, he can do with, learn me. There's other people that's that I've connected with, that's from the city that's reached out to me that they went to different schools so I could finesse and have somebody from almost every school and do it like that, so I probably can do that.

Speaker 1: 1:11:29

Yeah, man, shreveport needs that because it's just not when we know how Louisiana is in general, not just Shreveport, it's the opportunities aren't really there. So they we need to extend that lifeline to those kids back there and let them know, hey, it is a career out here for you when we can be some good resources to get you started and you can get to the money without getting to the money.

Speaker 2: 1:11:48

Most people know this means they follow me on Facebook. The last question is what you're cooking next week.

Speaker 1: 1:11:53

What are we cooking next week? Actually, we hadn't thought too much about. Oh, it's about Thanksgiving. That's what my mom asked. I'm smoking a turkey. We're going to also make some dirty rice, right, Just tell my mom what's some dirty rice? because they're coming out here We'll make some dirty rice and then I actually shoot you to menu, but it's a long. We actually have enough friends given. So I'm not going home to my family for Thanksgiving this year, but they got all kinds of stuff Like almost too much. I had to tell her cousin to take lamb chops so I'm like why are we having lamb chops at Thanksgiving? That's too much.

Speaker 2: 1:12:22

I wouldn't be mad at it.

Speaker 1: 1:12:24

I was definitely going to eat it, but what did she say she was doing? Now? Chicken wings. I like chicken wings. We had that last Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2: 1:12:32

We don't like to have the Thanksgiving food outside, like maybe a turkey.

Speaker 1: 1:12:35

I almost wanted to let her do turkey wings.

Speaker 2: 1:12:37

I want to do double turkey, so man, when I was at last, the last time I stayed in the street on the hat Thanksgiving in 2020, I got a big baby. The fried turkey thing was fire.

Speaker 1: 1:12:48

We have tried so many times that we just have not been able to line it up.

Speaker 2: 1:12:51

I have not been able to go to his smokehouse food truck, but it looks so good, every time I want to get some of that fish, though that fish be looking so good, I already know.

Speaker 1: 1:12:59

Shout out to big baby. Man used to sell a fried chicken in the morning at school.

Speaker 2: 1:13:03

Hey, he had the fried chicken and. Tessie had the sandwiches.

Speaker 1: 1:13:06

Yeah, yeah, man. Time for a hustler. Exactly man, Exactly Good times.

Speaker 2: 1:13:12

But how can the people follow you on social media?

Speaker 1: 1:13:15

You can follow me on Twitter at a switch or what is it? Route switch stack. I think you caught me off guard there.

Speaker 3: 1:13:22

I haven't given up on socials in a long time.

Speaker 1: 1:13:24

Yeah, thank you, but it's something along the lines of that. I hadn't had to say my socials on a podcast in a long time. But yeah, look in the description. I really had that link to you.

Speaker 2: 1:13:32

What about if they want to find you on LinkedIn?

Speaker 1: 1:13:34

LinkedIn Jerry Davis Jr. Everybody knows the baby boy so I'm not hard to find on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 1:13:40

And y'all already know how to find me. Textual talk, textual chatter I'm Ray Davis on LinkedIn. Yeah, but I appreciate y'all for tuning in. I got some more stuff on the works. It's getting a little hot.

Speaker 3: 1:13:52

That's why we're getting ready to get a thing.

Speaker 2: 1:13:53

That's the window beaming on us by. I appreciate y'all for tuning in. Until next time, let's stay textual.