Part 4 of 4:

4 Key Lessons in IT – Work Ethic:

I have 4 rare certifications not listed on the resume: Initiative, work ethic, documentation and going above and beyond

My contract at BMW ended which I was surprised I was there as long as being that it was initially a very short term contract. I received a call 2 days later asking if I had any experience with Cisco routers and switches. I let him know that I had a CCNA from my last job but it expired. He told me that they needed to do a refresh because the lease was up and every 3 years or so they would replace the switches and routers with new ones. I told him when does he need me and he saw ASAP, I told him I would drive down that night. I arrived and immediately started working on the humongous campus that they had. I met the senior network engineer and the network operations team. We did a quick tour of the plant to look at the switches we had to replace. It looked like they had hundreds of them. I was just excited to be down there and work with Cisco 6509 and 6513s. Remember, the only thing I really knew was the 2500 series router and everything I did was based on that but now I was able to look at 6509s and I was excited.

One day, I was working extremely hard and focused on the task to the point no one was able to find me. I must have skipped lunch or something because everyone was looking for me. The temperature was the 90+ degrees that day and no one thought to look in the truck. I mean it was so hot the truck was making that “tink tink tink” noise from the heat expanding the metal. At this time we migrated a lot of the the switches to the truck already and I was double-checking the inventory to make sure the line cards were seated. The news that I was missing made it to the heads of IT such as Alonzo Seaborne came to look for me, may he Rest in Peace. When they finally found me I was in the hot truck verifying the inventory. I told them I was trying to get this stuff done so we can get this truck moving. They told me that I am working too hard said to take a break but were so impressed with how I was working and how I was doing everything they were hooking me up. When I finally left and we got them all packed and everything was good. I then headed back home and my manager asked me to come into the office the next day.

The next day I get to the office, my manager tells me about a Senior Network Engineer position and asked if I had any experience. Remember, that CCNA I took back at my previous job and had no idea it would come into play in this capacity? My CCNA wasn’t current at the time but I still had it and knew enough to learn quickly.

They were in the process of hiring a guy that was a Senior Network Engineer, and I was a self-taught network associate with very little real-world experience. He asked me to take a look at the final candidates resume and asked if my skills were comparable and I honestly said that his resume was amazing and that he was a senior level network engineer and that based on technical knowledge, I would hire that him over me any day. His resume impressed me and he had a lot of experience.

To my surprise, whole team including the upper management that I met in South Carolina called my manager and said they didn’t care how good the other guy was and that they wanted me on the team. I was hired on the spot and was shocked because I never thought that I would become a Network Engineer for BMW Headquarters and it was a dream come true.

I have 4 rare certifications not listed on the resume: Initiative, work ethic, documentation and going above and beyond and it’s amazing how they greatly change the projection of your entire career and open opportunities that you can’t even imagine.

– Bernard Hardy