The Long Walk…to the Start Line.

Just how long have I been on the journey to exam day? It’s complicated.

Like I said in my first entry, I’ve been using the CCNA as a framework to learn as much as I can about the job I have. Long term, I think I might want to pivot from SysAd to a proper Network Engineering/Architect position but that’s so far off right now there’s no point in worrying about that.

Right now, I’ve carved out a position where I’m assisting or independently working on different components of the company’s IT infrastructure. Some days I’m doing boilerplate Helpdesk stuff, others I’m in the server room troubleshooting one of our UDMs. My responsibilities would match those of a junior system administrator.

And that’s fine, but I do feel dumb as hell sometimes.

It also kinda doesn’t help that I’m wedged in between a couple big moving parts. On one side, you’ve got my boss, who’s been a one man band for so long at the firm he kinda looks at you funny when you don’t explicitly understand each component of his boutique system right away. On the other, you’ve got the longtime MSP that my company’s worked with. They’ve cordoned off a bunch of (seemingly random) parts of our infrastructure. My exposure to certain elements of the job are sometimes hamstrung because of random Group Policy actions or scripts that I can’t see.

I had to find a way to make up whatever experience I was missing, and it’d have to come on my own time.

Sourcing External Educationl Resources.

I first began looking for means to improve my knowledge base back in December 2024. The month was mostly spent casually looking for learning materials seeking out certifications to use as aspirational activities.

The first major decision was to skip CompTIAA certifications. From most of my research, it didn’t seem like a need for any sort of job, and I wanted to be efficient with my time (this is me being really nice to myself rather than just saying that I was broke and didn’t want to spend more money than I had. This will become a recurring trend.)