As someone who is under 35, this comment strikes a chord with me. I
started
self-studying networking when I was 15ish, yet I had to wait until I
was 26
before I could get a full time job in the industry. I even had to move
out
of my home country. Getting a solid start in the industry was
exceptionally
hard, and I see no difference now.
What I found is that back in early-mid 00's, the industry was a black
box.
Unless you knew someone inside of the industry, it was quite impossible
to
get clear career advice on how to a) get an entry level (support) job
and
b) how to move out of the entry level into an engineering position. We
still suffer this lack of clarity, and it's *hurting* us. We should ask
ourselves when is the last time we provided career advice to someone
who
was under 20, and strive to help more teenagers onto the networking
path.
Someone once suggested that we go back to our high schools and talk to
the
kids about a career in IT to help give them insight into what we do,
and
hopefully win over more mind share.
Yes. This. Absolutely. I roped my wifes 9 year old nephew off his iPAD
last night and had him help me cable up my home lab (which is currently
at 3 racks, started at as an 1841/2924 in 2008.) He loved it. I was able
to teach him all about layer 1. That's how I started (at the bottom as a
gopher, pulling cables, racking gear and very hands on building out
systems and networks). It helps to have passion/great attitude. That's
key. I've been in the industry 15 years and am still bright eyed/bushy
tailed every day (sure we all have bad days). So much to learn, to
experience, to play with, to say "hey, what's this do?". The
fundamentals haven't really changed, it's important to keep that in
mind.
To quote the magic school bus "make mistakes, get messy". (and
occasionally, I knew I should of stayed home today, when the pager goes
off. )
I've worked for Fox,Disney,IAC , consulted for various defense
contractors, mom/pop shops. Every day at those jobs, it could span from
helping a "newb" with something basic, to scaling up some of the worlds
most recognized brands or defending (or crafting) highly advanced
attacks. It's been fun.
Now days, I do.... security. Lots and lots of security.
/me goes back to being a hip youngster
On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Matthew Petach
<mpet...@netflight.com>
wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 7:57 PM, Jay Ashworth <j...@baylink.com> wrote:
> [...]
> >
> > And this... is NANOG!
>
> Needs more ellipses and capitalization...more like
>
>
> This...IS...NANOG!!!
>
> building up to a nice crescendo roar as you kick the
> hapless interviewee backwards down the deep, dark well
>
>
> On a slightly different note, however--while it's good to
> have an appreciation of the past and how we got here,
> I think it's wise to also recognize we as an industry
> have some challenges bringing new blood in--and
> treating it too much like a sacred priesthood with
> cabalistic knowledge and initiation rites isn't going
> to help us bring new engineers into the field to
> take over for us crusty old farts when our eyes
> give out and we can't type into our 9600 baud
> serial consoles anymore.
>
> Matt
> CCOF #1999322002 [0]
>
>
>
>
> [0] Certified Crufty Old Fart
>
!DSPAM:55797f9d282985036917588!
