Becoming A Network Engineer: Your Ultimate Roadmap with NetworkWali

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Having someone there just to mentor you is so invaluable. Maybe during the time,

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_00]: you don't really see the value in it, but it's immensely valuable because you can...

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Those questions, a lot of people have doubt, right? Whenever they're getting started with

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: something new, they just feel like, it's not meant for me. I don't know if I can do it. But

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: when you have someone who you can physically see, talk to, maybe even a family member that

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: you can say, okay, if he can do it, I can do it too. But the big one, I would say the big

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: thing is, if you want to become a network engineer, you're 100% sure you want to become one,

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: get a CCNA. Don't waste your time with any other certification. That is the gold standard

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_02]: certification right now, I would say. I've been involved in some sort of networking projects or

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_02]: things that I've worked on in the various fields that I've worked on in the tech industry.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_02]: One of the things that come across and understood is that there's a physical aspect

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: to networking, you know? And I'm glad you brought that up because networking, like I said,

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: it's a very unique industry in tech because, and I like to call it the blue collar of tech,

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: because we're literally the physical workers there. Like we can actually go into a physical

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: data center where there's tons of routers, tons of switches, tons of optical gear, expensive

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: equipment, lots of fans. And you walk in there, you know, you have your laptop, you know,

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: you're connected onto it, you're configuring it. So there's a lot of moving parts,

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: you can play around with stuff. So it's like, you guys, you know, you want to get

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: to tech, but you also want that physical side of it. Definitely look into networking,

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: because networking offers you that. And one of the cool things about networking is like,

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: you can get into cybersecurity, you can get into cloud, you can get into like automation.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: There's like, just because you're in networking doesn't mean you can get stuck there. Like

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: there's so many sub niches that value the skill of networking.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome to the Tech Certified podcast. I'm your host, Caleb Only Certified.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_02]: And once again, this is the podcast where we interview tech creators and tech professionals

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_02]: who inspire us on our journeys in the tech industry. Today, we're finally getting to discuss

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_02]: a little bit on the side of the role of networking and the role of a network engineer.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Today we have a network engineer and content creator, Wally, joining us

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_02]: on this episode of the podcast. Wally, how are you doing, man?

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Good, Caleb, I'm doing well, man. We're so excited to be on this podcast.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Definitely, I've done some podcasts before, but definitely haven't done one in a while. So

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_02]: excited. Amazing, amazing. This is going to be fun. And we'll start off as we always do by just

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_02]: asking you who is Wally and yeah, tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so my name is Wally, as Caleb said, you know, I'm based here in the United States,

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: specifically Denver, Colorado. I'm into so many things like every day, I feel like I get a

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: new hobby. So like right now I'm like into tennis and that's like my new grind right now.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But as for like what I do on a day to day basis, I'm a network engineer that I've been for about

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: two almost three years now. So I've been doing that. But I went to school, got a degree in

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: computer information systems. And as of now just been working. I just started a YouTube channel

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: pretty recently and that has been pretty fun, pretty exciting. We'll get to talk about

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that pretty soon. But yeah, that's been super fun. But that's basically me in a nutshell.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm into tech. I'm into sports. I'm into gaming. I'm pretty much into anything.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I got a whole range of hobbies, but yeah, that's a little bit about me.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing. So cool. So cool. And like, I've been following you just recently

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_02]: as you've been doing your content creation and yeah, I realized like

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_02]: seeing your LinkedIn and everything like we've had probably similar lengths of career. And

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_02]: so whatever a lot happens in your career and you learn a lot and you do a lot. Three years is

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_02]: actually such a long time when you look at it as it is. So I just wanted you to briefly walk

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_02]: us through your journey of how you got into tech and also just how you got to where you are.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So just give us a brief walkthrough. Most definitely. So yeah, first of all,

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I started off, I've always been in tech. Like I've always had a fond interest, you know,

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: messing around with computers, messing around like trying to fix up routers, fixing up,

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: do a little bit of programming, a little bit of programming, gaming, all that kind of stuff.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I've always had a mystique and an interest in technology no matter what I've been into.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: That's always, I've always came back to that, right? But I've always,

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I never knew where I wanted to start. You know, I've looked at networking.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I've looked at cloud. I've looked at software. I've looked at many other

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: fields in technology and I've always felt lost, you know, when I first got started.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't know where to go. There's so many of the, as you know, there's a lot,

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: there's data analytics, there's software, there's so much going on, right? And I was like,

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: bro, I don't know where to go. I just genuinely didn't know where to go.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So when I went to university, I did a program in computer information systems, right?

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And as you know, it's so broad. They teach you pretty much every,

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: it almost made me even more confused because it's like they teach you so many,

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: so many different niches in technology. And I was like, bro, I don't know where to go.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So I've been doing, you know, looking into different niches and everything. But

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: one of the big things is I had an uncle and that uncle was also a network engineer.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So that kind of piqued my interest. I was like, okay, what do you do in day-to-day

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: basis? He's like, yeah, I just like mess around with routers, switches. What's a router?

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: What's a switch? So he would just explain that to me, what he does on a day-to-day

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: basis. And that kind of brought my interest. So I was like, okay,

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I know someone who's in the industry. Okay. So at least I have, you know,

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I can go to for advice. And guess what? That's what I've been doing ever since. And

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I've kind of stuck to that niche for quite a while. And I've looked into many other niches.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I've looked into software and everything, but I've always stuck to networking. And

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: what I've done is I've, while I was in school, I was like, okay, after like year two or three,

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: because I was originally supposed to be a civil engineer, which I was doing like my first

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: semester in college. Because I was like, maybe I shouldn't do tech in the beginning.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I kind of just switched over to eventually doing tech. As soon as I realized,

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: yo, civil engineering ain't for me. It was just too boring, you know? So I was like,

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah, I'm gonna jump into tech. So after like second semester, I was like, yo, I'm doing tech.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So I did tech for like ever since. And I graduated with a CIS degree. And during that

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: time, I also ended up getting my CCNA, which was a, if you guys don't know, it's a

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: networking certification. That's pretty much a standard certification that a lot of people

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: end up getting. So that's one of the main certifications that I got during that time.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But also, the thing I wanted, I really wanted to focus on was actually getting experience

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: during that time. So I was like hanging out with my uncle all the time. He would

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: give me all the inside scoops, all the little tips, all little hacks. And I use

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: all that time to gain as much experience as possibly can. And during that time,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: while in university and getting my CCNA, right after I graduated, I was able to line

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: up and get a job. And I was able to get a job in the same company that I'm currently in right now.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And in that company, I've learned a ton man, so much information. Because obviously, as you know,

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: when you first get started in any career, the school and actual the actual job is completely

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: different, 100% different, because you'll notice that too, like a lot of people say, oh,

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm learning this, I'm learning that. But then once they get to the position, maybe they'll

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_00]: learn a different code base or they're learning, or you're not even doing technology,

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: people will get surprised how different it is in the real world versus in university.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: So that was the first couple, I would say months when I first got started was intense.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Everything was new to me, having to reply to emails, having to learn new things on the fly.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And also like I'm in operations. So like, you know, we work in operations is,

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, if you make an outage or mistake that that's going to cost the company,

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, money. So it's you don't, there's a lot of risk involved as well. So I was like,

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: okay, I don't want to mess up anything. So you're always very cautious. But I've grown

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: within this position. I've met one of the main things I did was always ask questions,

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, don't be afraid to be dumb. Don't try to be alone. Don't try to,

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, try to figure it on your own waste time because at the end of the day,

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, there's people there, ask for help as much as you possibly can. And I use that

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: throughout my entire career. And as of now, like I'm pretty comfortable with my position now,

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I've learned quite a bit. And now I'm just trying to, you know, help other people out who

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: were just getting started. Because a lot of people like as you know, networking is an

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: industry that's not that talked about. From what I've seen, it's a very low key industry.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And it makes sense because like networking is so not really complex, but it's more like

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: behind the scenes, right? You don't really see you're using very specialized, expensive

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: equipment that's like over hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars,

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: or even billions some spots. So it's like, it's crazy how expensive the equipment is.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So you don't really get to see it behind the scenes, but it's definitely a lot.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I've learned a lot during this position. So that's basically where I'm at

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: right now. So I'm almost getting through three years. It's crazy. So yeah, sick,

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_02]: sick. And, and there's a couple of things that stood out from just your brief walkthrough.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And the first thing that kind of stood out is, you know, you talking about that period in

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: anyone who was aspiring to get into the tech fields. Point there's always a point that you

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_02]: start to think, what do I go into? I want to get into tech. What do I do? There's so much

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_02]: that you can go into, you know, this cloud is networking, there's software, there's

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_02]: data, there's cybersecurity, there's so much more. And within those, there is so much deeper

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_02]: that you can go. And there is always a point in every, most people's journey that they get to

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_02]: this point. And what was great to hear about your journey is that you had someone who mentored you

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_02]: and showed you a taste of one of these areas. And, and one of the things that the reason

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_02]: that stands out for me is that I kind of had such a similar journey where I didn't know where

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I was going with things. And luckily, I knew someone who worked in cloud and was a lead cloud

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_02]: engineer. I've mentioned it so many times on this channel. And that was a point of,

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: let me look into cloud. I could see this guy's doing it. And he's at a senior level. Let me

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_02]: ask him these questions. And you even spoke about, you know, asking questions, not being

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_02]: afraid to do that. So those are some great points on your journey and how you got to where

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_02]: you are. It's really great to hear. Yeah, most definitely. And I was also gonna add to

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_00]: like, having someone there just to mentor you is so invaluable. Like, maybe during the time,

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: you don't really see the value in it. But it's immensely valuable because you can, like those

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: questions, like a lot of people have doubt, right? Whenever they get started something new,

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: they just feel like it's not meant for me. I don't know if I can do it. But when

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: you have someone who's you can physically see, talk to maybe even a family member that you

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: can like say, Okay, he if he can do it, I can do it too. You know, and like, you're not

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: afraid to talk to him like you can or talk to her, like you can always ask those kind of questions.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's always like, you know, always be able to clear your doubts, you know,

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_00]: and always give you like the real talk. And it's like having someone there, it's just

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_00]: so important. Because if you don't, it's like, you know, where do I go? And you just end up

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: in that in that bad position, to be honest, and a lot of people are mainly in that position

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: that I've talked to is like, they just the end, they don't have someone they can,

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_00]: that can guide them or someone that they can, you know, they can help them while they're

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_02]: starting. Exactly, exactly. And another thing I wanted to touch on was just how you spoke about

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_02]: how, you know, networking can be one of those areas that people don't talk about as much,

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02]: which is really interesting, and which is great that that you're, you know, creating

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_02]: content on this this area that you work in, because it is, it is a niche area. But the

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_02]: fact of the matter is, it's involved in all of our jobs, you know, big parts of networking

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: cyber security big, lots of networking going on in cloud. And so as an engineer in general,

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_02]: there's an understanding of networking that goes into most of our roles. But one thing I wanted

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_02]: to ask you is just to give sort of a brief explanation for those who want to understand

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_02]: more from you. What is networking? And what exactly does a network engineer do?

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so just to keep it as simple as I possibly can, because there's a lot that

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_00]: involved. Basically, the way I like to describe it is what you guys see in the real world. So

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: right now we're communicating, we're having a podcast, we're having a chat, you're in London,

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in America, how's this possible? Right? What's going on? So behind the scenes essentially is,

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: as simple as this as I can make it is there's literally just lines. That's all it is a bunch

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: of cables, a bunch of wires that's literally connecting you and me. But they're moving in

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: extremely fast, like extremely fast. And there's lots of what they call packets and data

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: moving throughout what they call a network. So essentially is there's data being transferred

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: between me and you in real time using probably UDP traffic from my networking bros that's being

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: sent out. And really what's happening is there's billions upon billions, I think there's over

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_00]: 400, I looked it up, there's over 400 million terabytes of data being transferred to date

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: throughout the internet or phone calls. So basically what networking is, is we're making

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: sure we're people are able to communicate, we're making sure we're able to have a chat,

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: we're making sure people are able to make phone calls, connect to the internet, go on YouTube,

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: watch TikToks. Basically any sort of like communication, like telecommunication is involved

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_00]: in networking. And basically what we're doing is we're making sure traffic is being filled

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_00]: properly, making sure the traffic is designed properly. That's the most efficient way because

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: it can get expensive because sometimes these wires are going underground, like they're called

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_00]: fiber optical lines that are being sent underground. And these are actual lasers, right? And it can

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: get very expensive like for the equipment. And especially when you're digging out in city

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: centers and stuff like that. And also like, you know, you're across the ocean right now. So

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00]: there's traffic being sent underwater in the underwater sea channel, which is just

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: mind blowing. Like it's almost magical how much is involved in networking. And basically

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: what we're doing is we're making sure the traffic is routed properly. So making sure

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: traffic is going the right way, the most efficient path, the quickest path with the cheapest cost.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00]: We're also making sure traffic is aggregated and making sure that it's not all being sent to

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: one way. And if it's like, because you know, it's all thinking about like a super highway,

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: right? It's all connected in a sense. And we're making sure all the traffic is being

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_00]: sent in the right direction. And also we're also making sure that the traffic is not corrupted.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It's being sent on time and things like that. So obviously there's more to that. And what we do as

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: a network engineer is, you know, we troubleshoot that traffic because obviously things happen

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: within the network quite often almost every day, whether it's a fiber cut, which is like a

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_00]: basically literally just the fiber gets cut somewhere. And then like the traffic just stops

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: because as soon as the wire gets cut, you know, there's no data. Like if you cut the

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_00]: cord, it's not going to work right? So traffic has to be rerouted, which usually is

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: there's obviously different protocols that are involved in networking, different routing

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: protocols like OSPF, ISIS, EIGRIP. But that's like way too advanced. But what I would say is

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_00]: in the general sense, we're making sure traffic is routed or making sure traffic

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_00]: is troubleshooted. We're making sure we're designing traffic. We're also implementing

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_00]: new designs onto the network or new devices because obviously there's new neighborhoods that

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: are being installed all over the US. So whenever there's a new neighborhood, they need

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: new devices so they can connect to the internet obviously. So that's basically what we do in a

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: nutshell. It's lots of command line interface, as you guys know, which is basically, you know,

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll log into a Cisco switch, Cisco router, a Juniper device, you can log in,

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: do all your configurations on there. And basically that's what we've been doing,

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: what I've been doing for so far. Obviously, there's different roles within networking.

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: There's like, you know, maybe you can be more troubleshooting focused where you do a lot of

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: mixing, or you can do a lot of implementation where you're more of adding to network, more designing.

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So it really just depends on which field or where you get started. But most of the time,

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that's pretty much what networking is in a nutshell.

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a really good explanation for those who wanted a deeper explanation into what

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_02]: networking is and what network engineers do. Another thing I wanted to touch on just from

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_02]: your answer, I wanted to understand a little bit more about how much of, you know, whatever

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_02]: command line you're using, do you really have to know in the role that you're working as a

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_02]: network engineer? Because, of course, with networking is a lot of using commands,

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_02]: you know, yeah, whatever scripting language or command line you're working with.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to understand how much do you really have to know to be able to work in this area?

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I think people have a fear of programming, coding and commands and all this stuff a lot

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_02]: of the time. And sometimes they want to know, do I have to know this off head?

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Or do I have to know the main commands? Or can I Google this every time I want to do this?

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And this sort of thing. So I wanted to understand from your perspective,

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_02]: how much command line or any sorts of codes or commands you need to know in your role.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. And before we even get to command line, I would say you have to have a fundamental

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_00]: understanding of what networking is. You have to know what IP addresses are. You have to know

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: some of the protocols because you can't really run a command if you don't know what you're

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: running. Right? So if you do like a show ARP command, and you have no idea what ARP even

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: is, running the command wouldn't make sense to run that command if you didn't know what it means.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So I would say the command part is actually the easy part because you can get commands anywhere.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It's even easier than programming because all you're really doing is Cisco has a set of

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: commands. Juniper has a set of commands. Alcatel, these are all just different vendors.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And most of these vendors are almost very similar in their commands. Some of the commands

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: are actually word for word. But like I said, the command part is almost the easy part

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_00]: because you can get those commands, those configurations anywhere. Right? There's

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: multiple forms whenever you can find information. So back to your question is how much do you really

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: need to know? I would say you would have to know more about networking and just like the

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: basics of networking before you can really start understanding the command line because

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_00]: the command line really is show this, show that, configure this, configure that. So it

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_00]: really isn't as complex. But there is a bit of a learning curve. Like the syntax may be

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_00]: a little bit confusing because it seems kind of weird. But I enjoy it. Like I use it all the time.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Cisco has a really good command line as well as Juniper. And it's not that difficult, guys.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: If you guys want to learn it, I would say just open up Packet Tracer, which is a free software

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_00]: made by Cisco where you can literally log into a switch and actually configure things.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you guys, you know, you can follow tutorial on YouTube and just play around.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I would say like one of the cool things about the command line is you can do like

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_00]: show. If you guys don't know what show is, show is basically just a verification command.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: So you can do show and then do question mark. And it'll literally give you a list of all the

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: commands. After that, you can see, okay, show ARP, show BGP, show DHCP. And it'll just show

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_00]: you all these sort of protocols. And another thing I wanted to say is like there's a ton,

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_00]: there's tons of protocols in networking that use a bunch of acronyms like ARP, DHCP,

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00]: ISIS. That's another thing you got to understand is like these abbreviations

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_00]: for a lot of different protocols, which you guys got to get used to. But the command line,

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_00]: not that difficult. It's just a little bit of a, you know, even when I first got started,

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_00]: when I first looked at it, I was like, what is this? But, you know, I watched the video

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_00]: tutorial. I watched some videos, asked my uncle. He showed me him like physically

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_00]: configuring things. So if you just see it, the more often you see things, the easier usually

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_00]: it gets from what I've noticed. Like if you see things on a day-to-day basis,

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_00]: you just got to get used to it. It's all repetition. And the more you look at it,

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the easier it'll get. And then you would just be constantly getting better at it. And then you'd

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: be running faster. You'll be running shortcuts eventually. So just give it time. And the more

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_02]: you see it, the better you'll get. That makes a lot of sense. We've just launched

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[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_02]: to becoming a cloud professional. Now, when you take this assessment, it provides some

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_02]: incredible recommendations for your path. And remember, this is completely free. It costs

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_02]: you nothing. It only helps you on your journey. So if this interests you and you are an aspiring

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_02]: cloud professional, definitely take this assessment. I'm going to leave a link to it. Here's an

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_02]: example of me taking it myself and getting some pretty good recommendations from my own

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_02]: assessment. So guys check this out. And I hope this is really helpful. Thank you guys for

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_00]: get started. When I first got my, you know, got into this career path and also like,

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I went ahead and got certifications as another thing to sort of increase my knowledge base.

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure we'll get into that later. But I would say, you know, get the knowledge first

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and get the sort of pick one vendor. And I would say pick Cisco if you are,

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: if you're stuck between vendors, just pick Cisco because pretty much all companies

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_00]: at least have Cisco equipment and, you know, play around Cisco devices,

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_00]: configure stuff, break stuff, troubleshoot stuff, have fun and use that time to learn.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Amzing. And you mentioned certifications and you mentioned the CCNA earlier,

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_02]: but what certifications have you done? And talk to me about how those certifications have

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_02]: helped you in your career so far. Yeah. So when it comes to certifications,

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of people, you know, they see tons of certifications. They're like, whoa,

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: like what certification should I get? It was that's like the main question I sort of get

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_00]: is like, what certification should I get? But in my case, I've gotten so far about three

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: certifications and I'm not really big on certifications. I'm more of like,

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, get experience guys, like get as much experience as you can.

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But obviously there is a time and ease for certifications, especially if you're not going

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the degree route. But the big one, I would say the big dog certification that if you want

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_00]: to become a network engineer, you don't, you're 100% sure you want to become one.

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Get a CCNA. Don't waste your time with any other certification that is the gold standard

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_00]: certification right now, I would say. And it's been a while, it's been existing for a while.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And really what it is, it's a Cisco certification, which is basically,

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to lie, it's a little bit of a difficult certification, especially for new

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_00]: to the industry. And that's why a lot of people kind of shy away from it because they

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_00]: think it's, oh, it's too hard, it's too difficult. I don't know if I should do that.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Because like I said, that's just, you know, it's a mental thing, right? Because anything

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_00]: with a long period of time and studying past, right? You just have to put in the work.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_00]: But when it comes to the CCNA, it covers a ton of stuff. It covers routing, switching.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It basically covers like how to configure stuff. It covers a tons of layer one

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_00]: configurations, things like that. So there's a lot that goes into the CCNA.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And I would say that's the main certification to get. Another certification would be the GNCI.

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That's another one that's really, really good. Because there's another vendor that's Juniper.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's basically like the CCNA level of Juniper. But it's like I said,

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that was also vendor specific. So the main issue with that is like all with the two

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_00]: certification I brought up with Cisco and Juniper, they're only going to teach you their

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_00]: sort of tech stack, their configuration. So you're only going to be familiar with their

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_00]: configurations, which that's one big issue I'd say is that you'll be only you'll understand how

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_00]: they run their commands. But like I said, once you know networking, it doesn't really matter

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_00]: which way you go. Because you can still like the CLI, yes, it's different. But you can

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: still learn the CLI with some time because most of the commands are pretty much similar.

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Right? Like I said, so you wouldn't have to really worry about that. But I would say

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: go for the CCNA. It's the best certification right now to become a network engineer.

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Most of my coworkers all have it pretty much every network engineer that I know pretty much

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_00]: has CCNA. And obviously, like if you guys do have the CCNA, that should be more than enough

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_00]: to sort of get your foot wet and kind of get started. But obviously, there's all those

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_00]: other certifications like the CCNP, which is like the next level certification that I'm

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_00]: working towards. That's much, much more difficult than CCNA. Then I wouldn't recommend anyone

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: get the CCNP until they've had CCNA with experience because it's just it's going to be

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_00]: overkill and too much information without that much experience is not a good idea, in my opinion.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing. No, that makes sense. Getting the associate or CCNA, the associate level one

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_02]: with some experience before going for the professional one. And like I can relate with

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_02]: even cloud certifications. There's definitely a level where it would be pretty difficult to do

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_02]: this without actually having experienced it and worked on it. Like, OK, obviously the fundamentals

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_02]: is for everyone. And even associates, you might be able to wing it without experience.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You could get that. When you go further than that to expert level, I mean, I haven't done

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_02]: expert level myself, but I understand that that's kind of a different level where

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_02]: actually require a lot more understanding of things. So I could see the synergy with

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_02]: the networking certification as well in the CCNA and CCNP.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_02]: And another thing I wanted to ask you about is just, I mean, when I speak about networking

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_02]: or, you know, I've been involved in some sort of networking projects or things that I've

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_02]: worked on in the tech industry. One of the things that I've come across and understood is

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_02]: that there's a physical aspect to networking, you know. There's hardware involved and it's not

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_02]: like cloud or software development where all you do is type and click. There is a lot more

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_02]: moving things around or racks or carrying servers and routers and this sort of thing.

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_02]: And I was lucky enough to be able to experience a couple of projects where I was going and

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_02]: doing the physical side, which I quite enjoyed, which is kind of unique to certain areas of tech.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_02]: So what's your view on that physical side of working? Is that like a real thing with every

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_00]: role or is it just, you know? Yeah. And I'm glad you brought that up because

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_00]: networking, like I said, it's a very unique industry in tech because, and I like to call it

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: the blue collar of tech because we're literally the physical workers there. We can actually go

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_00]: into a physical data center where there's tons of routers, tons of switches, tons of optical gear,

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_00]: expensive equipment, lots of fans, and you walk in there, you know, you have your laptop,

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, you're connected onto it, you're configuring it. So there's a lot of moving

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_00]: parts. You can play around with stuff. So it's like, if you guys are like, you know,

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_00]: into tech, but you also want that physical side of it. Definitely look into networking

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_00]: because networking offers you that. And I know like, you know, working behind a computer all day,

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_00]: working with code, it can be kind of a bit much and like having the ability to just like,

[00:31:16] [SPEAKER_00]: hey, just walk around, walk around the data center. You know, it's always exciting. Every

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_00]: time I get to go to the data center, I'm so excited because just seeing the equipment,

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_00]: it's just, it's amazing. And like, it's the best honestly. So, but if you ever want

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_00]: to get into networking, there's definitely that involved. So that's something that you

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_00]: probably would have to get used to is like seeing the physical equipment. But in my case,

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really get to do that because my company is a bit of a bigger company.

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So we have people there on site. So whenever we need them to fix stuff, plug in a port,

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_00]: plug in a device, remove a device, add a new device, they'll be like our eyes and ears there.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And then we'll be basically we'll just like communicate with them either on a bridge or

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_00]: a phone call. And during that phone call, like, Hey, did you connect it? And then we'll go into

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_00]: our device or we'll go into the CLI and see if they configured it. And then we'll go like,

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_00]: we'll see if it's like connected or not. So we can actually, you know, they'll basically

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_00]: be there for us. But there are times where we end up going to the data center.

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Because we basically what we do is, you know, I'm more of the implementation side.

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And we're implementing all over the US. So there's data centers all over the US. And

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_00]: people that work specifically at that data center. So whenever we have a question or is

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_00]: a device plugged in, or is this device installed, we can just like set a quick message,

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_00]: have them check that device. And then is it is it installed? Or is the is the SFP installed?

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_00]: There is a port is a port missing. And a lot of that is really what they call like

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_00]: layer one activities, which is like I said, is a physical layer. And all the time is like

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_00]: you're connecting things. And if you guys see in a data center, there's tons of tons of

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_00]: cables. And it looks like you know, there's cables like crisscross applesauce, like it's crazy

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_00]: how much is is out there. And it can seem a bit daunting when you first look at it. But

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_00]: like I said, the more you see things that the easier it gets. And that physical side really

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_00]: brings excitement for me because you can physically you're able to physically see

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_00]: what you're doing. You can physically remove a port, you can physically see that on your

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_00]: on your data analytics part that we have, like we have a tracking system where we can

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, port goes down, like some more of a GUI that we use. Or we can actually see

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_00]: it on the command line interface, we can say oh ports down, we can see the light levels,

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_00]: the power levels that's installed on the on the cable or on the laser. So we can see okay,

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_00]: there's, there's no the so one of the main troubleshooting things that we do is,

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_00]: most of the time the power levels are really bad. Right? So then we'll have with

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_00]: the people at the at the site, like, hey, can you check the power levels? What they'll do is

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe they'll clean the cable, right? So they'll put some sort of like device inside the port

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_00]: just to clean up the dust because even a little bit of dust can make it dirty and make it like

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_00]: traffic flow bad. So like everything has to be as sterilized as you possibly can. So that's

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_00]: like one of the cool things that we're able to do and work with. And it definitely brings

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_00]: excitement. So if you guys ever liked that idea of being able to physically work with

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_00]: equipment, but you don't want to, you know, you don't want to code all day, then this is

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_00]: an industry that would definitely be exciting for you. Great, great. I'm glad we touched on

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_02]: that as well because yeah, it is a unique factor when I think about it. And, you know, networking

[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_02]: is one area that's so different to a lot of the other areas in the area that I work in,

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_02]: you know, it's fully cloud, you sit at home, you know, you type you, you click. And

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_02]: for those who actually think about tech this way, just know that there are certainly areas

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_02]: to this day that are, you know, a lot more physical and there's a lot more, you know,

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to say labor, but like labor going into what you're doing, which some people

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_02]: would prefer like so much more to be in the person that sits and clicks. So I'm really glad

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_02]: we touched on that. And moving on, I wanted to get into this question about your advice

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_02]: on getting into the industry, on getting into networking or tech in general. But for those

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_02]: aspiring people who are trying to get into this area and get their first roles in this area,

[00:35:33] [SPEAKER_02]: what would you say is your best advice to those people? What were their steps to getting

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_02]: in B or generally what is your best advice for them? Yeah, yeah. So whenever you want to

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_00]: get into networking, I would say the main thing you need is experience. And then people are going

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_00]: to say, how do I get experience? Because most jobs want experience, right? So what I would say

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_00]: is, first of all, get the knowledge. You're going to need the knowledge either way, because

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_00]: nowadays companies like they don't want to take the time to train you some companies. So

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_00]: what you want to do is you want to get the knowledge and there's tons of knowledge

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_00]: in the internet. Like you can get it for free from YouTube. You can get a paid course

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_00]: for dirt cheap on Udemy for like 10, 15 bucks, which is what I did. Whenever it got

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_00]: started, I took Udemy course for $15 by Neil Anderson. Fantastic course, like a 40 hour course.

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And I went through that thing like five times, literally five times, because when I first got

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_00]: started networking, I was like, you know, everything was like new to me. So I didn't know

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_00]: how to like study how to get started. So I went to that course so many times I will like

[00:36:33] [SPEAKER_00]: watch it like, as I'm working out as I'm going to the gym just to what I like to do

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_00]: is I want to like brainwash brainwash myself into understanding networking technology, right?

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I heard someone say like, if you if you hang around, hang around with networking

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_00]: engineers, or hang around with people that are in a particular industry for a while,

[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_00]: you're end up gonna know things like without even like you'll be unintentionally learning.

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So I wanted to get to the period of unintentionally learning networking.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's either hanging out with my uncle, or like watching videos or just like, you know,

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_00]: just like do it as entertainment time, right? Like try to like listen to a podcast,

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_00]: or anything like that. Like that's I try to get to that like mojo of like,

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_00]: then just learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. So I spent quite a bit of time learning.

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, to get started, I would say get the knowledge. That's the first

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_00]: possible thing. The first thing you need to do is get the knowledge because without

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_00]: the knowledge, it's going to be hard. And even when you get started, it's going to

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_00]: be even harder to so you might as well learn now, just to understand just the basics first.

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So once you've learned the knowledge, I would say, get a certification.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And to get a certification, I would say go for the CCNA. And like I said, certifications are

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_00]: good. But the issue with certifications is that they're the way the way they work is

[00:37:46] [SPEAKER_00]: there's just multiple choice questions, right? And with these multiple choice questions,

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_00]: like you know, you can you can know the knowledge, but still do bad on the exam,

[00:37:54] [SPEAKER_00]: right? Because it's a you got to be good at test taking. So you also want to learn

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_00]: this the skill of test taking as well because that's just the nature of certifications and how

[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_00]: they test you. But I would say get better at test taking, but at the same time,

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_00]: get the real world world experience. So if you possibly can try to get any job in tech

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_00]: anywhere, whether it's help desk, whether it's a knock role, it really depends on your

[00:38:18] [SPEAKER_00]: experience level. But try to get any sort of experience that you possibly can doesn't matter

[00:38:23] [SPEAKER_00]: where because people say, Where do I go? Anywhere. Having even a little bit of like

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_00]: unrelated experience in tech is going to help you no matter what, right? And who knows,

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe there's network engineers at that company that you can network network with, right? So

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_00]: there's a lots of potential as soon as you get your first level experience, right? So I would

[00:38:42] [SPEAKER_00]: say get the experience, learn the knowledge and get the and get his and get a certification

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_00]: like a CCNA. But but like I said, I would say start off to if you want to the big thing

[00:38:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I want you guys to know is take one field, right? Like if you want to networking, stick

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_00]: to that as long as you possibly can. Right? Because that way, your knowledge networking is

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_00]: going to go up up up up up right? That way you can your knowledge basically increase.

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_00]: But if you go into networking and go to cybersecurity and go into cloud all within a

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_00]: year, you're gonna have like a base level of knowledge of all of them. And then,

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, that's not going to really help you in your career. So I would say,

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_00]: just pick one thing tunnel vision. If you're arguing networking, the roadmap that I would

[00:39:27] [SPEAKER_00]: say is learn the knowledge first from like a video course. And then with that video course,

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_00]: get a certification during that time, try to land a role as a basic level, you know,

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_00]: it job tech job doesn't really matter. Sometimes you can get lucky and get a position

[00:39:43] [SPEAKER_00]: that's like closer to networking. But if not, you know, it's okay. We'll work within

[00:39:48] [SPEAKER_00]: that position, try to network with people who are in networking roles, whether it's people

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_00]: that work at knock people who work in troubleshooting. Also, like going to

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_00]: LinkedIn and network with people, try to find someone like in your town in your city who is

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_00]: a networking engineer who you can literally talk to, we can ask advice from because having that

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER_00]: person is going to be very important because they're going to give you like the the real

[00:40:12] [SPEAKER_00]: time advice because obviously things change, right? The industry changes quick. So you want

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_00]: to have someone who can give you that real time advice because if you're watching a video

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_00]: from YouTube from like five years ago telling you advice, it may not be relevant now.

[00:40:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It may not be relevant. Tech is always changing. Tech moves fast. Like there's AI now, like you

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_00]: want the real time advice and you want the real advice, you know, like find someone who's going

[00:40:31] [SPEAKER_00]: to be like brutally honest and real with you and tell you like where to go because most people

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_00]: will just tell you get this get that but everyone's different. You know, where your

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_00]: starting point is different for everybody. So having someone who can literally sort of be a

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_00]: mentor, it's going to be very important to try to find that person, particularly like a

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_00]: in real time. So like someone like in real life that you can meet and talk to

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and then like ask questions, like help on a call whenever. So find that little person

[00:40:57] [SPEAKER_00]: that can help you. So now you have your, you know, your certification, you have your experience,

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you have someone who's mentoring you, you have a little bit of experience, like you should

[00:41:07] [SPEAKER_00]: have enough knowledge to get started in this career. But in my case, obviously I went to

[00:41:12] [SPEAKER_00]: degree route. You can also if you do have a degree, you can leverage that as well.

[00:41:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But I've seen people without degrees with this or with just basic level associates degrees that

[00:41:19] [SPEAKER_00]: are able to land jobs and networking because like I said, if you have the knowledge,

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER_00]: they'll hire you like you don't need a degree. A lot of people say you need a degree.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe 2030 years ago. Nowadays, it's different, I would say, like if you have the knowledge,

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_00]: you have the skills, and you can interview well, like in you're gonna be fine,

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_00]: you're gonna be fine. And you just got to find that company that's willing to take a

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_00]: on you see that you're willing to learn. And it's just it's going to be a grind,

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_00]: it's literally going to be a grind, no matter where you start. Whenever you're new to things,

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_00]: it's going to be harder. When I first got started, it was a bit difficult because like,

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_00]: like I said, it I like, I, when I first got started, I was new to it, you're going to go

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_00]: through periods of pain of struggle, you're gonna feel like is this even worth it? Should

[00:42:05] [SPEAKER_00]: it even like, is this path even worth it for me? But you those are moments and times

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_00]: where you have to stick to it. You have to stick to it, you have to take your time and effort.

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And just know that with time and effort, and goodwill, eventually you'll, you'll,

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll land that role. So like I said, it's getting knowledge, getting the experience,

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_00]: getting certifications and finding a mentor, those are the main four, I would say if you

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_00]: can get that main locked in and sticking to that one path, you're golden. Amazing. That's

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_02]: that's some great advice. And I like the structure of it. You know, those are the four

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_02]: steps guys, if you're going on this path, Wale has given you some some great steps to follow

[00:42:41] [SPEAKER_02]: as a roadmap to getting into this field. And if you follow that, your chances will be way higher.

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_02]: No way. There is just no way. Some of you guys have been watching this far and have not

[00:42:54] [SPEAKER_02]: subscribed to the channel. Others have yet to even like the video. And for the people

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_02]: watching on Spotify and Apple podcasts, some of you have not even rated the podcast.

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much for watching guys. If you got any value, like, subscribe and rate the podcast

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_02]: on whatever streaming platform. All right, let's get right back to the video.

[00:43:13] [SPEAKER_02]: One thing I wanted to ask you just based on your advice is where do you see yourself

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_02]: in the next few years? Is this networking area somewhere that you see yourself working

[00:43:26] [SPEAKER_02]: in over a long period of time? As you said, like, if you stay in an area and build up your

[00:43:31] [SPEAKER_02]: skills in that one area, you just keep going up and up and up. But but but also I know

[00:43:36] [SPEAKER_02]: for a lot of people moving around as well is something they say, you know, yeah, you can

[00:43:42] [SPEAKER_02]: learn a bit of this, learn a bit of this, and then you'll be more well rounded or things

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_02]: like that. So what's your thoughts on that? And for you, where do you see yourself?

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Do you see yourself in this networking industry long term? Or do you see yourself moving into

[00:43:57] [SPEAKER_02]: other areas of tech that are related as well? What's your thoughts on that?

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. So obviously with tech, it's very exciting. There's so many different

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_00]: issues you can get into. And there's like two schools of thoughts, right? You can either,

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, learn one skill master that skill, get better and better and better become more

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_00]: marketable because you're the best in the world at skill. Or you could be the person that

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_00]: learns a skill and sees, okay, I can use my networking to get the cloud and then gets

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_00]: into cloud because like, obviously, like maybe you can get bored after a certain period of

[00:44:28] [SPEAKER_00]: time. I know people who know they get into networking after like maybe four or five years

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_00]: are like, Okay, I want to jump into something new. Like I've been doing this for a while.

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to something fresh. So they'll get into cloud. They'll get into like network

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_00]: automation. And one of the cool things about networking is like you can get into cyber

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_00]: security. You can get into cloud. You can get into like automation. There's the like,

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_00]: just because you're a network and doesn't mean you can get you can get stuck there.

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Like there's so many sub niches that value the skill of networking. So it's gonna it's

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_00]: gonna literally help you like crazy. So I would say, like, even in my case, I'm,

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I've like at the point where like, should I should I like master networking, keep,

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_00]: keep going, keep grinding? Or should I kind of jump around? So I'm, I'm in that phase

[00:45:09] [SPEAKER_00]: where I'm like, even I'm a little bit confused, because it's like, it's a difficult

[00:45:12] [SPEAKER_00]: path. Like, I'm not 100% sure. But one of the fields that really have been exciting me

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_00]: security, and particularly like network security, because obviously, we're not

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_00]: working this, you know, there's a subset of networking that's network security.

[00:45:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And that niche is like very interesting, in my opinion, because I like the idea of

[00:45:28] [SPEAKER_00]: like, stopping stopping bad actors and like trying to protect the network from

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_00]: like, because obviously, like, you want to keep things secure. So there's a

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_00]: different sub niches within tech. And like I said, in my case, I, I really

[00:45:42] [SPEAKER_00]: can't answer that question, because I honestly don't know where I'll go.

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like in the next four years. But if I do, if I did have an idea, I

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_00]: definitely want to beat security, probably network security. And like I said,

[00:45:53] [SPEAKER_00]: like having that networking knowledge is going to help. So even if you get into

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_00]: networking, you end up like, hey, I don't really like this, like, it doesn't

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_00]: really matter because you can still go into another niche within tech. Because

[00:46:04] [SPEAKER_00]: most companies that I've seen the all value networking, because most people

[00:46:08] [SPEAKER_00]: that are not in networking end up not even learning it, because they're

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_00]: always, you know, why do I need to learn this? Right. Because it's like,

[00:46:15] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, sometimes like, I'm like, in your case, do you really learn

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_00]: networking as a cloud engineer?

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you do. You have to understand it to a certain level, depending on

[00:46:25] [SPEAKER_02]: which area you're learning. And for me, working in cloud

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_02]: infrastructure, you need to have a good foundational understanding of

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_02]: networking within the cloud within configuring is you're using IP

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_02]: addresses, you're working with subnets, you're configuring virtual networks.

[00:46:42] [SPEAKER_02]: You do have to have an understanding of networking. It might be more

[00:46:46] [SPEAKER_02]: specific to Microsoft and networking within the cloud. But yeah,

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_02]: you need a good understanding of networking. And I feel like most

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_02]: roles, as you said, cyber security, very much so cloud very much so.

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, most areas you will have need to have an understanding. And it's

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER_02]: funny, because as you're explaining, I was just thinking of, you know,

[00:47:13] [SPEAKER_02]: how you spoke about wanting to move into cyber and if you did,

[00:47:18] [SPEAKER_02]: it would be network security. And similarly with me, you know,

[00:47:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I started in a cloud infrastructure role as a cloud administrator,

[00:47:27] [SPEAKER_02]: as your administrator, and I moved into cloud security. So it's like,

[00:47:32] [SPEAKER_02]: security is so interesting because everything has to be secured.

[00:47:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Each area has to be looked after. And so there's network security,

[00:47:41] [SPEAKER_02]: it is cloud security, it is different parts of security.

[00:47:45] [SPEAKER_02]: And whichever area you start with, you're able to leverage those

[00:47:49] [SPEAKER_02]: skills to move into the next area. And I also had a friend who

[00:47:53] [SPEAKER_02]: was working in desktop support, like he was a desktop engineer.

[00:47:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And he was asking me like, you know, I want to move into cyber security,

[00:48:02] [SPEAKER_02]: but and I've been working in this as a desktop engineer for like,

[00:48:06] [SPEAKER_02]: like over a year. But like, how do I get experience in cyber security?

[00:48:11] [SPEAKER_02]: But I was like, bro, you're working as a desktop engineer,

[00:48:14] [SPEAKER_02]: you work with firewalls, you work with IPs, you work with all this stuff.

[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_02]: You already have experience in cyber security. You just need to leverage

[00:48:23] [SPEAKER_02]: that and communicate that to where you want to go next, that yeah,

[00:48:27] [SPEAKER_02]: you've been working somewhat in cyber security. So it's really interesting

[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_02]: you say that. And yeah, of course, in cloud, especially in my part of cloud

[00:48:36] [SPEAKER_02]: and cloud security, an understanding of networking is almost is required.

[00:48:42] [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, super interesting.

[00:48:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's crazy because like, most people don't even understand

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_00]: like the skills are learning. Like if you have like, like I brought up

[00:48:49] [SPEAKER_00]: with the experience thing, like your friend, like people don't understand

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_00]: the experience you're getting, you can leverage it. Like you don't like,

[00:48:56] [SPEAKER_00]: most people don't understand that. But like what you do on a day to day basis,

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_00]: even if it's like very minute or very little, the fact that you're able

[00:49:03] [SPEAKER_00]: to work with equipment, you're getting experience no matter what.

[00:49:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Right? Like I said, sometimes you'll be working with a firewall,

[00:49:08] [SPEAKER_00]: be like, bro, like just like your friend, like that's an easy way in

[00:49:12] [SPEAKER_00]: because you can always talk about what you do on a day to day basis.

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously, like if you want, you can, you know, you're working

[00:49:17] [SPEAKER_00]: with that equipment, you can ask your manager, you can ask your,

[00:49:21] [SPEAKER_00]: there's other coworkers who can literally just like, you know,

[00:49:23] [SPEAKER_00]: you can just like peer mentor and like watch what they do

[00:49:25] [SPEAKER_00]: on a day to day basis. And that's literally getting experience.

[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_00]: You can ask questions right then and there. So it's crazy,

[00:49:31] [SPEAKER_00]: the career track you can get into once you have experience.

[00:49:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, it's, you know, once you're networking or once

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_00]: you're in a certain field, you can, it's going to open more doors for you.

[00:49:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And there is one thing that you guys got to kind of be wary of

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_00]: is something called shiny object syndrome because you can be in a position where,

[00:49:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, you, you know, you want to pick a field or your,

[00:49:53] [SPEAKER_00]: your dead set on a field and you see another person in this field,

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_00]: you're like, oh, should I jump into that? And you see another person

[00:49:59] [SPEAKER_00]: in this field in cloud. Oh, should I get into that?

[00:50:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you see another person do automation. You see another person,

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_00]: my bad. You see another person do like a bunch of different like things.

[00:50:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, bro, where do I go? You know, and you end up in this

[00:50:11] [SPEAKER_00]: position where you, you think every other, every other field in tech

[00:50:14] [SPEAKER_00]: is better than your field or the field that you're getting into.

[00:50:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And you're in this kind of weird position where you end up stuck between all these

[00:50:24] [SPEAKER_00]: fields and you don't know where to go. So that's like another thing that you

[00:50:26] [SPEAKER_00]: got to be wary of is just because you see, you know, someone doing security,

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_00]: someone doing data analytics, don't jump off your way, stick to what you've been doing

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and try to stick it out for, I would say two to three years minimum,

[00:50:40] [SPEAKER_00]: just to get that base level experience. Because as soon as you start jumping around,

[00:50:44] [SPEAKER_00]: you're going to be wasting time. You're not really going to be in that level of,

[00:50:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I would say mid tier without that level of experience.

[00:50:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Because if you're just jumping, jumping, jumping, it's not a good idea.

[00:50:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Try to stick to a certain path for a decent amount of time.

[00:50:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you've kind of mastered that path and you felt like you've learned a lot,

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you gained a tons of experience, then it's the time to transition, right?

[00:51:06] [SPEAKER_00]: You can get into either security or cloud. So that's what I would say.

[00:51:10] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a really good point. Like the grass is greener on the other side.

[00:51:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, wait, cloud, they make more money or man, their stuff looks pretty cool.

[00:51:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Or they get to work remotely. I want to do that.

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you end up like switching. And then when you're in cloud,

[00:51:34] [SPEAKER_02]: you start to look, oh, cyber security. Oh, and then you're like, oh, software.

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_02]: But no, that's such a great point on really focusing on one area

[00:51:45] [SPEAKER_02]: and building up the skills before doing the jumping.

[00:51:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Because loads of people are jumping for a salary hike.

[00:51:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And on a recent podcast, someone spoke to me as well about this.

[00:51:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And he was like, yeah, you can only job hop to a certain point

[00:51:59] [SPEAKER_02]: where you're going to stay mid level or you're not going to be,

[00:52:04] [SPEAKER_02]: you're not going to be able to job hop much further.

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And you're not going to be able to get those salary rises if you are,

[00:52:12] [SPEAKER_02]: you haven't stayed in one place and picked up the learnings and

[00:52:17] [SPEAKER_02]: gain the experience to a level that another place would see that,

[00:52:22] [SPEAKER_02]: okay, yeah, this person is at this level and we want to bring them in at this amount.

[00:52:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Right? So it's a really good point that you make on there with that one.

[00:52:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. And what analogy I like to say is like,

[00:52:33] [SPEAKER_00]: think of it like sports. Imagine if you just picked one sport

[00:52:36] [SPEAKER_00]: or you played seven sports, right?

[00:52:40] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to make it to the NBA, you're playing seven sports,

[00:52:43] [SPEAKER_00]: you're probably not going to make it to the NBA, right?

[00:52:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But if you stick with basketball and only play basketball, right?

[00:52:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you're going to be what they call it,

[00:52:51] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll be an expert in that field of hooping, right?

[00:52:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you can actually demand a higher salary

[00:52:58] [SPEAKER_00]: because you're one of the best in the world, right?

[00:53:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to get to that position of expertise,

[00:53:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you guys are jumping for, if you guys are going for salary,

[00:53:06] [SPEAKER_00]: you're almost better off sticking to one field and being the best

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_00]: as you possibly can in that field. That's honestly the best way.

[00:53:12] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're going for salary, you may take,

[00:53:14] [SPEAKER_00]: you may not have those big salary cases in the beginning,

[00:53:17] [SPEAKER_00]: but over a long period of time, like maybe 10 years,

[00:53:21] [SPEAKER_00]: like in 10 years, you're probably going to be making more because

[00:53:24] [SPEAKER_00]: you'll be able to demand a higher salary because your knowledge level,

[00:53:28] [SPEAKER_00]: your experience level in that one particular field is so high

[00:53:31] [SPEAKER_00]: that they'll be like, yeah, we have to, you know,

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_00]: you can demand a higher salary versus jumping around

[00:53:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and getting these little boosts, but you're never actually getting that.

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You're like I said, that mid tier level of experience,

[00:53:42] [SPEAKER_00]: but never getting to that expert level where you get like the crazy money, you know?

[00:53:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing, amazing. No, those are some great points.

[00:53:49] [SPEAKER_02]: And now let's move on to my favorite part of the podcast,

[00:53:54] [SPEAKER_02]: which I asked everyone this one question.

[00:53:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And that question is to just tell us one interesting career story.

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And I always say this can be a really good story

[00:54:06] [SPEAKER_02]: where something amazing happened or you did really well in something and yeah, yay.

[00:54:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Or it could be something that is terrible, something really bad happened.

[00:54:15] [SPEAKER_02]: You made a mistake, whatever the case may be.

[00:54:18] [SPEAKER_02]: So what is one interesting career story that you want to share with us, Wale?

[00:54:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. So this is crazy because if you guys don't know,

[00:54:27] [SPEAKER_00]: you know when you work in networking, you're in operations, right?

[00:54:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you cause an outage, we're mainly like we work with customers,

[00:54:34] [SPEAKER_00]: so like home internet customers, right?

[00:54:35] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you cause an outage, if your internet goes out, hey, you know, it could be me.

[00:54:42] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's crazy.

[00:54:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So one of the crazy stories that I had is, you know,

[00:54:46] [SPEAKER_00]: the way we work is we write what they call methods of procedures,

[00:54:50] [SPEAKER_00]: which is basically like a step-by-step guide of how to configure something.

[00:54:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And when you configure it, mainly they do the configurations at night, right?

[00:54:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And the reason we do them at night is because there's less traffic that time.

[00:55:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And if there's an outage, hopefully not, there's less people online at that time, right?

[00:55:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, what I did was when I wrote out this method of procedure,

[00:55:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I had one small mistake, a very, very small mistake.

[00:55:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And like it's almost hard to catch.

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And what that mistake was is if you guys know with IPv6 addresses,

[00:55:23] [SPEAKER_00]: there's 128 subnets that you can have on that, right?

[00:55:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And the smaller the subnet, the bigger the range of subnets within that.

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So the big mistake that I made was, you know, if you want to do a point-to-point

[00:55:36] [SPEAKER_00]: link on an IPv6 address, and you only want two IPs max on the two host IPs in one subnet,

[00:55:44] [SPEAKER_00]: you would use a slash 127 address, right?

[00:55:49] [SPEAKER_00]: But I made it, when I wrote the method of procedure,

[00:55:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I dropped the seven.

[00:55:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So it would become a slash 12 on an IPv6 address.

[00:56:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And now, so you go from two hosts to basically two million hosts.

[00:56:07] [SPEAKER_00]: So now any IP within that range gets, you know, it becomes a duplicate IP.

[00:56:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever there's a duplicate IP on the network, especially with public IPs,

[00:56:17] [SPEAKER_00]: it's just not going to work.

[00:56:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So there's a duplicate IP on that network.

[00:56:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And luckily for me, there's only two IPs using that range of hosts,

[00:56:27] [SPEAKER_00]: which I was so thankful for that.

[00:56:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It would have been a disaster if there was, you know,

[00:56:31] [SPEAKER_00]: there could have been millions of customers on there.

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And what happened was that ended up getting configured.

[00:56:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And in the morning, you know, I get a text say, or like a,

[00:56:42] [SPEAKER_00]: what they call like a, like a, you get pinged basically whenever there's like an outage.

[00:56:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And it says, oh, there's an outage in this region.

[00:56:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, hmm, I worked on that.

[00:56:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me check it out.

[00:56:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And then like, oh, we thought that same device

[00:56:52] [SPEAKER_00]: that I wrote the method of procedure.

[00:56:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, man, what did I do?

[00:56:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, because you always have that innate fear,

[00:56:57] [SPEAKER_00]: like maybe I did something wrong.

[00:56:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it ended up causing an outage from a small mistake,

[00:57:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, and this is these methods of procedures can be long.

[00:57:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It can be like a five, six page document of a step by step guide.

[00:57:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, on the configuration section,

[00:57:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I just, it was a set of a slash 127, it was a slash 12.

[00:57:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And that caused a decent outage.

[00:57:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously that's the learning lesson, right?

[00:57:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And during that time, obviously, you know,

[00:57:22] [SPEAKER_00]: you go through like a root cause analysis,

[00:57:23] [SPEAKER_00]: you explain how this happened, what could, you know,

[00:57:25] [SPEAKER_00]: how could this been prevented?

[00:57:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a learning lesson.

[00:57:28] [SPEAKER_00]: This was like when I was kind of new to the industry.

[00:57:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, my eyes were as like, you know,

[00:57:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I would say strong enough or I didn't have Hawkeyes at that time.

[00:57:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Because obviously with the more, the more you like look at configurations,

[00:57:39] [SPEAKER_00]: the easier it is to notice things that are incorrect.

[00:57:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:57:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Although I should have noticed that.

[00:57:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I'm surprised I still didn't get that.

[00:57:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But it still went through like the cracks and it ended up getting configured.

[00:57:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was a major learning lesson like that.

[00:57:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever the outage happened, like I was kind of scared.

[00:57:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I was like, man, did I mess up?

[00:57:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Am I done?

[00:57:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, like you always have that fear.

[00:58:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But obviously this company is, you know, they told me like,

[00:58:03] [SPEAKER_00]: don't worry about it.

[00:58:03] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's your first one.

[00:58:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone has like their own outage story.

[00:58:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, it's a learning lesson, right?

[00:58:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Like you want to take that time to learn like, okay, cool.

[00:58:13] [SPEAKER_00]: What was a mistake that happened?

[00:58:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously it was not having a good attention to detail, right?

[00:58:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And missing that, that, you know, that small little thing.

[00:58:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Because like I said, one small little thing can cause a huge problem.

[00:58:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like what happened with CrowdTrack.

[00:58:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.

[00:58:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Like a small thing can break.

[00:58:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's crazy what happens in tech.

[00:58:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So that was like one of the, one of the,

[00:58:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I would say like a bad story, but also a good story because I learned a lot.

[00:58:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And now ever since then, I every time I could figure something,

[00:58:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I look at that V6 address or also like I also look at the V4 subnet.

[00:58:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And I always make sure is it the right subnet?

[00:58:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Because that subnet math matters more than the IP guys.

[00:58:52] [SPEAKER_00]: When you guys ever get into networking,

[00:58:53] [SPEAKER_00]: like look at the subnet math because that can change a lot.

[00:58:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, that's a great story.

[00:59:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing that.

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, yeah, like you said, everyone's probably going to have a similar story

[00:59:07] [SPEAKER_02]: to that because nobody is perfect and mistakes happen.

[00:59:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. So thanks so much for sharing.

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_02]: I know like some of these bad stories.

[00:59:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. At the time, panicking.

[00:59:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Like I have so many of these stories where at the time I'm panicking.

[00:59:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm about to lose my job.

[00:59:28] [SPEAKER_02]: The whole world is like, I want the world to swallow me.

[00:59:32] [SPEAKER_02]: But like your managers like, okay, I know this happened.

[00:59:35] [SPEAKER_02]: You're new to this and it's a learning thing at the end of the day.

[00:59:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. So, so.

[00:59:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly. Exactly.

[00:59:44] [SPEAKER_02]: That was God's.

[00:59:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I'll test it.

[00:59:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly. So let's move into just speaking a little bit about content creation.

[00:59:53] [SPEAKER_02]: And I find it amazing because Wally, for those who don't know,

[00:59:57] [SPEAKER_02]: has just like started four months ago.

[01:00:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Around four months.

[01:00:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Around four months.

[01:00:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's gone really well in four months because, yeah, I mean, we'll talk about it.

[01:00:11] [SPEAKER_02]: But I want to ask you, when did you start and what made you start creating?

[01:00:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. So when I first got started, I had a strong difficulty of finding networking

[01:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: information when it comes to network engineering.

[01:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, there's a sea of software engineering.

[01:00:29] [SPEAKER_00]: There's just, if you want to learn software engineering, there's so many YouTubers.

[01:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So many people explaining it.

[01:00:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, where are the network guys?

[01:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't find anyone.

[01:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So like, bro, and I'm working in the industry already.

[01:00:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So let me just start a channel.

[01:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I created one video.

[01:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I just created like a guide of how to become a network engineer.

[01:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I created like a couple more videos.

[01:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And then obviously I wasn't getting any views.

[01:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I just posted it because a lot of people were asking questions.

[01:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, let me just create a video.

[01:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe other people had questions about it.

[01:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I can just send them my video whenever they have a question.

[01:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And then out of nowhere, like my channel started getting crazy amount of views.

[01:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Those first three videos, like, whoa, people kept commenting,

[01:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: this is an amazing video.

[01:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, wow, this was kind of shocking.

[01:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Especially when you create content, people you've never met are just saying,

[01:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: thank you so much.

[01:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You helped me immensely.

[01:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I was almost in awe of the gratitude that people had.

[01:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, this is something that people like.

[01:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So let me just start creating more content.

[01:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: My content is very simple.

[01:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I just put on my camera, I sit behind my desk or front of my desk,

[01:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and I just talk about my experience.

[01:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not that difficult to create.

[01:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And I've been having a good time talking about it because it's,

[01:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I've learned a lot.

[01:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I've helped a lot of people.

[01:01:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Anytime someone has any questions, I'm able to just answer that question.

[01:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Like a lot of people have been able to connect with me.

[01:01:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's something that I just started and I've been enjoying it.

[01:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I've been on, you know, I've used YouTube my entire life, right?

[01:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And now being on the other side of content creation is just,

[01:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: it's crazy to be on the side and it still feels kind of surreal

[01:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: because you know, it just feels, it feels different, right?

[01:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a different experience from consuming to actually be the one

[01:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: to actually producing the content.

[01:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's definitely interesting and I've enjoyed it.

[01:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been going on for four months now and you know,

[01:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I've just been posting videos on YouTube mainly.

[01:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: That's like my main area.

[01:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Although I definitely want to jump into other areas.

[01:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I got to ease to like posting content

[01:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really like a social media person.

[01:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's all kind of like, I didn't really like appear

[01:02:30] [SPEAKER_00]: in like three years or just like no social media, no IG,

[01:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: no like Twitter, no Facebook because I'm mainly like type person.

[01:02:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I like to have real in-person communication with people.

[01:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But now I realize like, you know, we're in a world where

[01:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: like the internet is everywhere, like there's social media everywhere.

[01:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's, I realized there's a lot of opportunities

[01:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: that can come from content creation.

[01:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, because you're connecting with people.

[01:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Even though you might not know them, they know you more than like,

[01:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: it's kind of a weird kind of dynamic because like,

[01:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: even because I have calls with people sometimes

[01:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: like whenever they have questions,

[01:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: like we just hop on a call and like, bro,

[01:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I watch this video about this and this and this.

[01:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, it's crazy how much they know me,

[01:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: but I know nothing about them.

[01:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of an interesting dynamic.

[01:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So I've really enjoyed content creation.

[01:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been able to help I think a lot of people so far.

[01:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: People have been saying thank you so much.

[01:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to continue this because it seems

[01:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: like a lot of people do enjoy the content.

[01:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it's definitely been fun.

[01:03:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing, bro.

[01:03:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And I've just like, yeah, I mean,

[01:03:31] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, when you reached out to me about coming up

[01:03:34] [SPEAKER_02]: for the podcast, I already knew who you were.

[01:03:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I'd already seen your video.

[01:03:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I've watched a couple of them.

[01:03:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, oh, this is good stuff.

[01:03:43] [SPEAKER_02]: This guy knows what he's talking about.

[01:03:45] [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, like you say, I mean,

[01:03:48] [SPEAKER_02]: it's putting stuff out there and people find this stuff really valuable.

[01:03:53] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's real life stuff.

[01:03:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's a real experience of working in the industry

[01:03:59] [SPEAKER_02]: that you're sharing to people.

[01:04:01] [SPEAKER_02]: And that is super valuable for people trying to get into that space.

[01:04:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And for the fact that networking especially,

[01:04:09] [SPEAKER_02]: there aren't many people who are focusing on that area.

[01:04:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's amazing that you've come in

[01:04:17] [SPEAKER_02]: and put out some great content straight away on that area.

[01:04:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And of course, that's going to resonate with a lot of people

[01:04:25] [SPEAKER_02]: who have been flooded with software engineered day in the life.

[01:04:31] [SPEAKER_02]: So like just more other content that doesn't relate to their field

[01:04:35] [SPEAKER_02]: and having like an area that they really resonate with that is niche.

[01:04:40] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the thing about things being niche

[01:04:42] [SPEAKER_02]: is that when it's niche, it's directed at a certain person

[01:04:45] [SPEAKER_02]: where that person's like, oh my gosh, this guy is talking to me.

[01:04:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And that really resonates.

[01:04:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And so, no, it's great what you've been doing.

[01:04:54] [SPEAKER_02]: And just like your personality and your sort of directness

[01:05:00] [SPEAKER_02]: and the truth that you speak on your videos

[01:05:06] [SPEAKER_02]: is really good and really helpful.

[01:05:08] [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, how have you found it in general creating content?

[01:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

[01:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning, it's kind of difficult.

[01:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot that goes involved.

[01:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought maybe you just put up the camera,

[01:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: but you got to set up the lighting,

[01:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: you got to set up the mic.

[01:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to make sure the camera's recording

[01:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: because I've had periods where I have recorded a 10, 15 minute video.

[01:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like this is a banger.

[01:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I go to the camera, I'm like, bro, it didn't even...

[01:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the worst things I hate about iPhone is like

[01:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: as soon as you hit record, like it'll record

[01:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and then like you'll get that notification

[01:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: because your battery drains quickly.

[01:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So be like, oh, 20%.

[01:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll just stop the video.

[01:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'd be like, bro, or like I'll get a phone call

[01:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and then the video will stop.

[01:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, damn.

[01:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I like to do unscripted videos.

[01:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a script at all.

[01:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So I just turn up the camera and just talk

[01:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: because I'm not the type of person that likes to go off the script

[01:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: or read off a teleprompter because it just...

[01:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not my type.

[01:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Even when I give presentations,

[01:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I just have a list of things I want to talk about,

[01:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: like a hit list and that's pretty much it.

[01:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's no physical script.

[01:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I'll just kind of like waffle on whatever I see.

[01:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's basically how I create content.

[01:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, the directness I like

[01:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: because I want to just keep it real.

[01:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I want no fluff, just shooting on exactly what you need

[01:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: because I know the internet is full of fluff, full of nonsense

[01:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and people are just spewing just BS, I would say.

[01:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm the type person like, bro, this is all you need.

[01:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm talking...

[01:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, I want to make a video where I'm talking to myself.

[01:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: If I get like from five years ago, watch a content creator,

[01:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I want it to be exactly how I'm talking

[01:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: just so as direct, as honest as possible

[01:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: because most people are just...

[01:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: They're just talking and talking and talking

[01:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and then they never get to the point.

[01:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like, just give me the truth

[01:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: in exactly what I need to sort of break into tech or whatever.

[01:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: But creating the content definitely takes time

[01:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm definitely new to it.

[01:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So I got to get better at lighting, at mics.

[01:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I want to jump into short form content as well.

[01:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So I got to learn that aspect of it.

[01:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's been fun.

[01:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: You learn a lot.

[01:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Like the beginning, I didn't know how to edit videos

[01:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: but my videos don't really require much editing

[01:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: but now in the beginning it took me a while to edit.

[01:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's like, well, I can edit very quickly.

[01:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's all a learning curve but it's been fun.

[01:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I really enjoyed it.

[01:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And I never thought I'd be a content creator

[01:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: but I guess I am one now.

[01:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, maybe not but it's been fun.

[01:07:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing, amazing.

[01:07:44] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's funny how you say you used your iPhone

[01:07:46] [SPEAKER_02]: and you're still using your iPhone for all your videos, right?

[01:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm the type of person like,

[01:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: why do I need a camera?

[01:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Like the iPhone, I can put on 4K cinematic mode.

[01:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The lighting, all I know is like the lighting matters more.

[01:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: That's all that matters.

[01:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: The lighting and actually the mic.

[01:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you have a good mic and good audio

[01:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: you don't really need the best of the best camera

[01:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: because I'm not doing any B-roll, any like crazy

[01:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: like cinematics and maybe I'll get into that.

[01:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But as of now, like if you want to get started

[01:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: just get a camera, get a good light

[01:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: get a microphone and just talk, right?

[01:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And then if your videos suck, don't even post them.

[01:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Just keep practicing because it's like,

[01:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: that's the honest truth.

[01:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Like if your videos aren't good, just repost.

[01:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Like don't even post it, right?

[01:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's only for you're only you're gonna see it.

[01:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And then after a period of time you get better at talking.

[01:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you won't stutter as much

[01:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and it'll just get better.

[01:08:37] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what I've noticed.

[01:08:39] [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I would say start off with simple content.

[01:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't try to, you know, create the perfect video.

[01:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You never know like I thought my videos were bad.

[01:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Apparently people like them.

[01:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, okay, I'll just keep creating.

[01:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a, you know, and stay consistent as well.

[01:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I have heard them doing this

[01:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: because you know, you're trying to manage your job

[01:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, social life and also consecration

[01:08:58] [SPEAKER_00]: because this consecration takes a lot of time.

[01:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It really does.

[01:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's something that, you know

[01:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I got to get used to get more efficient at it.

[01:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, so tell me about yours though.

[01:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm really curious about how you, you know

[01:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: got started and how it's going for you so far.

[01:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah man.

[01:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's so, it's similar to you, man.

[01:09:15] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's funny how I was just gonna say like

[01:09:19] [SPEAKER_02]: people are like, how do I start?

[01:09:20] [SPEAKER_02]: How do I start on the camera?

[01:09:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't have the light.

[01:09:22] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't have the da da da da da.

[01:09:23] [SPEAKER_02]: Bro, I had an iPhone.

[01:09:26] [SPEAKER_02]: My first video was on an iPhone 6.

[01:09:30] [SPEAKER_02]: I got it on an iPhone 6 not even 8 bro, 6.

[01:09:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And that video is not on the channel anymore by the way.

[01:09:37] [SPEAKER_02]: But I, you just have to start really

[01:09:41] [SPEAKER_02]: and iPhones are really good these days

[01:09:43] [SPEAKER_02]: and it's really easy to put on an iPhone.

[01:09:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Even like the main things you need

[01:09:48] [SPEAKER_02]: is an iPhone and a tripod to start.

[01:09:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And after that, you know

[01:09:52] [SPEAKER_02]: if you can have a good mic, great.

[01:09:54] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you're thinking about lighting

[01:09:56] [SPEAKER_02]: just do it in front of your window.

[01:09:58] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's not that deep, you know

[01:10:01] [SPEAKER_02]: and you'll find out that people actually

[01:10:04] [SPEAKER_02]: care about what you're saying.

[01:10:05] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the first few videos I made

[01:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: obviously I wasn't, they weren't

[01:10:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't feel like they were great either.

[01:10:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I was just like, you know

[01:10:14] [SPEAKER_02]: let me just do this.

[01:10:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Let me just talk.

[01:10:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And people just, yeah

[01:10:19] [SPEAKER_02]: like just like you started commenting saying

[01:10:21] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah, no, this is great.

[01:10:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Really appreciate this.

[01:10:24] [SPEAKER_02]: This is so helpful.

[01:10:27] [SPEAKER_02]: All this kind of stuff.

[01:10:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you sort of realize like, okay

[01:10:30] [SPEAKER_02]: there's so much more that I can speak about.

[01:10:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And if that's helpful

[01:10:34] [SPEAKER_02]: then there's so much more

[01:10:35] [SPEAKER_02]: that will be helpful to certain people.

[01:10:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And you don't realize that

[01:10:42] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah, like everyone has a voice

[01:10:44] [SPEAKER_02]: and everyone has things that they can share

[01:10:47] [SPEAKER_02]: that will help others.

[01:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you're watching this

[01:10:49] [SPEAKER_02]: you have things that you can share

[01:10:50] [SPEAKER_02]: that would help others.

[01:10:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And so that's just what it is

[01:10:53] [SPEAKER_02]: with content creation.

[01:10:54] [SPEAKER_02]: It's unique to the person speaking.

[01:10:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And for me, the stuff

[01:10:59] [SPEAKER_02]: that I came with at the beginning

[01:11:00] [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't think it was, you know, great

[01:11:02] [SPEAKER_02]: but people really liked it.

[01:11:04] [SPEAKER_02]: And as I went, you know

[01:11:06] [SPEAKER_02]: just trying to improve

[01:11:08] [SPEAKER_02]: and do more and put out more

[01:11:11] [SPEAKER_02]: and obviously stay consistent.

[01:11:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I've been relatively consistent

[01:11:15] [SPEAKER_02]: for the past couple of years

[01:11:16] [SPEAKER_02]: or almost two years.

[01:11:17] [SPEAKER_02]: And I just got to keep that going.

[01:11:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And now with the podcast

[01:11:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I've mentioned this in a few episodes

[01:11:25] [SPEAKER_02]: but this podcast is all about

[01:11:27] [SPEAKER_02]: bringing the knowledge of people like you, Wally

[01:11:30] [SPEAKER_02]: to my audience

[01:11:32] [SPEAKER_02]: because I don't know everything.

[01:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, I know very little.

[01:11:36] [SPEAKER_02]: I know about what I've learned

[01:11:38] [SPEAKER_02]: in my three years of working in tech

[01:11:40] [SPEAKER_02]: in my specific areas that I've worked

[01:11:44] [SPEAKER_02]: and this whole Tech Settled podcast

[01:11:47] [SPEAKER_02]: is about bringing the knowledge

[01:11:50] [SPEAKER_02]: of people like you

[01:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: people like other people

[01:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: who have been on the podcast

[01:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: like Cyber Queen or Simon

[01:12:01] [SPEAKER_02]: or Viola

[01:12:02] [SPEAKER_02]: like there's so many people

[01:12:04] [SPEAKER_02]: they that I want them to share their knowledge

[01:12:09] [SPEAKER_02]: and expose the audience

[01:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: to another side of working in this industry

[01:12:13] [SPEAKER_02]: and all this kind of stuff.

[01:12:15] [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, in a nutshell

[01:12:16] [SPEAKER_02]: that's my kind of view on content creation

[01:12:20] [SPEAKER_02]: and what's been going on so far.

[01:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, most definitely.

[01:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You'd be surprised how much your content

[01:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: can affect people's lives

[01:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and how much you can help people

[01:12:28] [SPEAKER_00]: because sometimes you feel like

[01:12:29] [SPEAKER_00]: you might not know anything

[01:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: or like your voice doesn't really matter

[01:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: but just you'd be surprised

[01:12:35] [SPEAKER_00]: of how much people would be thankful

[01:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: for the content you make.

[01:12:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you have any knowledge

[01:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: feel free to create content, spread it out

[01:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: people are definitely going to enjoy it.

[01:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Like if you're afraid to start

[01:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: being afraid on camera

[01:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: like I said just post, create the content

[01:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: but don't post it, right?

[01:12:52] [SPEAKER_00]: That's like one tip I have for you guys.

[01:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So at least you're getting experience

[01:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: creating the content,

[01:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: setting up the camera

[01:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: setting up the lighting, talking on camera

[01:12:59] [SPEAKER_00]: because it's a kind of a

[01:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: it's interesting talking on camera

[01:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: feels kind of weird

[01:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: because you're talking

[01:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: but no one's there.

[01:13:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's kind of a strange thing

[01:13:07] [SPEAKER_00]: but you get used to it over time.

[01:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's definitely fun

[01:13:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and I definitely do

[01:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: like doing your podcast

[01:13:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and what you've been doing

[01:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and I think you're doing an excellent job

[01:13:17] [SPEAKER_00]: like keep it up

[01:13:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and you're definitely going to

[01:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: you're going to grow

[01:13:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm happy for you

[01:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and everything that you've done

[01:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and just keep it up.

[01:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Of course, will not stop

[01:13:26] [SPEAKER_02]: consistency is key

[01:13:28] [SPEAKER_02]: but thanks so much Wally

[01:13:30] [SPEAKER_02]: this has been a really good episode

[01:13:33] [SPEAKER_02]: I really mean that

[01:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: really, really good episode

[01:13:35] [SPEAKER_02]: and I'm sure like those watching

[01:13:37] [SPEAKER_02]: will really value

[01:13:39] [SPEAKER_02]: all of the things that you shared today

[01:13:41] [SPEAKER_02]: and before we end off

[01:13:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I just wanted to ask you

[01:13:45] [SPEAKER_02]: if there's anything you wanted to shout out

[01:13:47] [SPEAKER_02]: or share or plug to the audience.

[01:13:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so if you guys ever want to find me

[01:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: have any questions

[01:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: my channel name is Network Wally

[01:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: at Network Wally on YouTube

[01:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: or you just type in Wally Network Engineering

[01:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: you can find me there

[01:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: if you guys want to like DM me

[01:14:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I have any questions

[01:14:04] [SPEAKER_00]: you can find me on Instagram

[01:14:05] [SPEAKER_00]: it's IT at IT with Wally

[01:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: so you can just message me there

[01:14:09] [SPEAKER_00]: if you guys have any questions

[01:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: on networking

[01:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm able to help

[01:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: just let me know

[01:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: feel free to DM

[01:14:13] [SPEAKER_00]: my DMs are open

[01:14:14] [SPEAKER_00]: so yeah those are the main two places

[01:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: you could find me.

[01:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing, amazing

[01:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Wally thanks so much for being on this podcast

[01:14:20] [SPEAKER_02]: everything you said will be linked

[01:14:22] [SPEAKER_02]: in the description for all those watching

[01:14:23] [SPEAKER_02]: thanks so much guys

[01:14:25] [SPEAKER_02]: for joining us on this episode today

[01:14:27] [SPEAKER_02]: and I'll see you guys in the next episode.