Career changes are possible
Forging ahead in IT
| As a financial institution with 20 branches serving the southern Interior of British Columbia, Thompson Interior Savings Credit Union of Kelowna, B.C. needs IT technicians with a solid grasp of LAN and WAN interactivity, routing and switching, and - above all - strong troubleshooting abilities. In network support technician Jerry O'Brien, it has all of those skills. "The CCNA program really helped fill in a lot of the more technical underlying things that happen [on the network]." |
The 33-year-old Nova Scotian transplant came late to the IT field, having been an auto upholsterer in his early working life. "The job was good, but the pay wasn't there," he recalls. "Besides I was ready for a career change." To upgrade himself, he took an Electronic Engineering Technology diploma at Okanagan University College in 2000.
The choice was natural, since O'Brien had been interested in electronics since childhood. But the Okanagan program gave him his first exposure to computer networks; and it also led to a co-op placement at the credit union. "The manager of IT was a good friend of the instructor in the electronics course, who recommended me," he says. When the co-op stint ended, O'Brien was hired full-time. He provided desktop support initially, then became one of three network support technicians.
In June 2002, O'Brien returned to Okanagan University College to enroll in the Cisco Networking Academy. The networking academy program teaches students in Canada and around the world the funda-mentals of networking. They learn how to design, build and maintain networks capable of supporting national and global organizations. Combining online learning and testing with instructor-led training and hands-on laboratory exercises, students apply what they learn in class by working on actual networks.
"The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) program gave me a way better understanding of what's really happening on the network," says O'Brien. "Anyone who is interested in computer networks would enjoy and benefit from it. When I started, I just knew how to ping the IP address; I didn't really understand how the packet gets to where it goes or the error message it brings back when it doesn't get there. The CCNA program really helped fill in a lot of the more technical underlying things that happen."
O'Brien completed the CCNA program last September (although he has not yet attained certification.) He says it prepared him for a new network environment - one that resulted from the merger of Interior Savings (O'Brien's original employer) with Thompson Valley Savings in January 2001. "One of the main reasons my employer paid for me to take the CCNA course was to make us more merger-friendly," says O'Brien, who anticipates further consolidation of B.C.'s credit unions.
Chi Bun Chan, the Network Administrator who has been O'Brien's supervisor for the past two years, says he is "demonstrating lots of good skills." O'Brien was the first employee to be sent on the CCNA program. "We needed someone in-house to have a more in-depth knowledge of our Cisco routers" says Chan.
Chan intends to encourage O'Brien to enroll in the the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) program: "As we continue to grow, with more mergers, we need someone with more advanced skills," he says. O'Brien would be happy to oblige. "I plan to stick around here for a
while," he says enthusiastically.
May 2003
