Upon returning home less than two weeks ago after completing

his training through LAN/WAN Professional, Boyd sat down to

share about his whirlwind experience of training and in landing

a competitive, high caliber job with Inpanema Technologies.

Tell me a little about your story and what you were doing

before LAN/WAN Professional.

Before LAN/WAN Professional, I was a professional European car

mechanic over the last few years or so. But with the economy and

stuff changing, things slowing down, the business started to slow

down as well and I wasn’t seeing the kind of income that I was hoping

to see so I decided to look into other options. I had a previous IT

background with a skill set that was dated – it was probably 8 to 10

years old – and it kind of put me out of the market in the IT world.

So I decided to do a little research and: A) discover what kind of things

I wanted to do in IT and then B) how to go about getting myself a

marketable skill set that I needed to get a really good position in a

quality company in the IT world.

Can you tell me specifically what it was that made you start

looking into LAN/WAN Professional? What really attracted you

to the program to point where you applied?

I became attracted to the LAN/WAN Professional program when

I started researching careers in the IT industry and decided that networking was the way to go. With so many different devices and ways to connect to the internet, it seemed logical, it’s a niche of the market that’s never going to go away and it’s only going to continue to grow. I did some preliminary research on how to become certified and that led me to Cisco Certifications, which in turn, led me to LAN/WAN Professional. I did some preliminary reading on their website and actually reached out to LAN/WAN Professional to get some information and some insight into how their programs worked and what kind of training they provide. I was really impressed with the depth of information they provided me and the quality of the training program. So I applied to LAN/WAN Professional.

Did you look anywhere else when you were looking into training, any other options or was LAN/WAN Professional your only option? And if you did look into other options, what were those options?

Well, a preliminary search reveals a lot of boot camp or certification farm style programs out there. What I found in my research, and my initial discussions with these companies, is that a lot of them get you what’s called “Paper Certified.” In other words, sure, they can give you answers to the test that you memorize and then you can pass a test, but you don’t

1. have any real world hands-on experience like configuring a router, setting up network environments, and installation and configuration. All they provide is a piece of paper that says you passed a test. With LAN/WAN Professional, the level of hands-on training is really focused in-depth. With the way the program is set up, it just seemed like a better solution. It creates a more balanced candidate.
   

2. 
   

3. In what ways did your training at LAN/WAN Professional exceed your expectations?
   

4. The programs at LAN/WAN Professional certainly exceeded my expectations and they did that in a number of ways. Part of the program involves job placement and interview training; things of that nature. I expected maybe, these are the things that you wanted to say, but there was a full day devoted to ways to search for work, ways to make yourself more marketable. In addition to the level of technical training, there are a number of skills they provide you that help you to secure that job.
   

5. 
   

6. In your opinion, what was the most beneficial way LAN/WAN Professional had helped you become placed in your current position?
   

7. I had a unique situation with having some IT background while having a really large gap in that IT experience which made me kind of vulnerable in the market because I was behind the learning curve so to speak. The staff at LAN/WAN Professional, including Mr. Choi, had come up with a program and some techniques for me to use to learn the skills and to learn how to interview with potential employers and address the issues of the gap in the IT experience and associate it to professional skills and things that actually do apply. Even though I was performing those duties in a non-IT environment, they still applied and I had to learn how to relate those two careers to the IT field.
   

8. 
   

9. Can you tell me a little more about your new position?
   

10. The company that I’ve just secured a position with is Inpanema Technologies. They’re a Paris, France based company that has been in business since 1999. They are one of the 50 fastest growing companies in France and they’re just establishing a footprint here in the U.S. with their wide area network products. The product that they’re marketing here is actually a WAN acceleration product that prioritizes the company’s internet. For example, a project or company specific application that maybe runs over the internet needs bandwidth priority over email or YouTube or something like that. So it classifies those data packets and gives those mission critical applications priority. My role and my responsibilities within the company is being a team leader of the operations and support department of the U.S. cloud services. Short story of what that means is that I’m responsible for the creation, design, and build-up of the department that is going to support this WAN optimization product as it rolls out to small or medium businesses in the U.S.
    

1. Did you ever imagine this would be the kind of position you’d secure after LAN/WAN Professional?
   

Actually, no and the story behind how this happened is really kind of interesting. It’s a testament to the quality of training that I received from LAN/WAN Professional. At the end of my second camp, which was at the end of July 24th, I had an interview scheduled with Inpanema Technologies on the 26th. I spent an hour and a half in an interview with the Chief Technology Officer and then two weeks later, they called me and told me that they wanted me to interview with the Vice President of the company and then they made a job offer. Basically, it was the first interview out of camp.

What were some of the stumbling blocks that were

present to becoming hired and how did you overcome

those obstacles?

There were in fact stumbling blocks and issues that had

to be overcome and a lot of them were more on the side

of my experience along with my interviewing experience

and realizing what kind of questions the employer is

asking you and what that question actually means.

There were some valuable skills in the interviewing

portion of the LAN/WAN Professional training. They

actually teach you what that employer is actually

asking you and what kind of information they’re

actually looking for in an answer.

Since you’ve completed your training and now you’ve been placed, what are your thoughts on your overall success that you’ve had, maybe both professionally and personally?

I think that the success that is happening so far is a testament to hard work and focus as well as a well-designed focused training program that I received from LAN/WAN Professional. The potential now for me is unlimited and it’s still kind of processing. The doors that are opening and the potential that can actually come from this. There’s still a level of shock value that’s coming in.

What do you think, impact wise, this is going to have on your life in the long term? Is this just a one-time shot for you or do you think this is going to have a long term effect on your whole career?

As far as impact on my career, it certainly is a huge impact on the long term of my career. I had left my IT career awhile ago and I decided to come back to it. And this is actually the LAN/WAN Professional training has actually helped to catapult me almost to a point back where I didn’t have that gap. In other words, I’m at a point now with this new position which is probably in the ballpark of where I would have been had I not left the field for 8 years. It’s given me the chance to resume a career and follow the path that I was supposed to take.

What would you say to someone, when you’re explaining to them the success that you’ve experienced in such a short amount of time, how do you explain how this happened?

That’s a really good question, Rebecca. It is kind of difficult to explain and it’s hard to get your head to wrap around how such a great opportunity can happen so quickly. All I can attribute it to is the quality of the program and the preparations that go into the training of the candidates that LAN/WAN Professional graduates. They give you a skill set – a set of tools that are really second to none and you come out of interviews and employers are just shocked with the level of professional presentation you put forward and your ability to speak about technology and processes. I can’t imagine that my story, in the future, would be an unusual one for any graduate at LAN/WAN Professional.

If you met someone who was considering LAN/WAN Professional, what would your advice be to them?

I would certainly, if I ran into someone who was considering a career in the LAN/WAN industry, recommend LAN/WAN Professional. Especially because of the level of training that they give you. Sure, there are a number of competitors out there and anyone can get “Paper Certified.” The thing that I would emphasize is the hands-on training and the very close work with the mentors and the staff at LAN/WAN Professional who were in constant contact whether you’re studying at home or whether you went to their facility in Southern California or however your study program is set up. There’s constant contact and constant availability, there are tons of research materials that can be utilized. The whole process is just a really, really high quality experience.