I took a bit of a break after receiving the incredible news that my CWNE application had been approved. I was tired and the Birthday and Holiday season had begun at my house. I have a few big and small projects I’m working on that I’ll write about as they happen, but for now I figured I would work my way back into blogging with a story…
It really all started with the talks of us getting a new network. We had been a Cisco switch and Aruba wireless shop. Wireless was always part of the networking teams role, but only a small part. I’d been trying to learn all I could and had taken one online Aruba course and had Just come back from taking another at Atmosphere 2019. The responses to the RFI included the recommendation that we have a dedicated wireless person on staff under the title of Senior Wireless Administrator. My team lead had noticed my interest in the wireless side of the network and asked if I would be interested. I was definitely interested!
After all the RF_s were sent out, came back, and were sorted through by our execs, the decision was made to go with a full Cisco DNAC network. This would include new everything and changing our wireless from Aruba to Cisco. So I signed up for the online self paced Understanding Cisco Wireless Foundations (WLFNDU) training. The videos were super helpful with introducing me the cisco way and was taught but an incredibly knowledgeable man with a great accent 🙂
We already had the Ekahau software and sidekick so training on this was suggested. I enrolled and was going to be taking the class like in New Orleans on May 5th, 2020…as you can guess that didn’t happen haha. After a few attempts the training was rebooked for online class the end of July 2020. **Sign up for Ekahau’s webinars. There’s always lots of great info and Wi-Fi knowledge included.
A week before the class began I received an update email with course info from the online Ekahau trainer who’s name I recognized. It was Phil Morgan. The amazing trainer from the WLFNDU videos 🙂 During the training, someone had asked about wireless certification training and Phil had mentioned CWNP. Now, this would be the part in the movie where the clouds part and the sun shines down. That night I was checking out cwnp.com and looking at the courses and how everything worked.
I started using Ekahau more in my day to day and learning all I could through their webinars and the webinars put on by 7signal. **You should definitely sign up for those too.
It’s now November 2020 and CWNP is having their Black Friday sale. I’m a sucker for a deal so I ended up purchasing the CWNA exam and book bundle. I started picking away at the book when I could but hadn’t found my focus yet it seems.
We flash forward a ways to June of 2021. I’m definitely working away at solving problem, fixing poor Wi-Fi coverage areas, and absorbing all I can from webinars and podcast. But I still hadn’t managed to consistently study. Then one sunny day as we’re sitting out on the back deck with our neighbors talking about random things, somehow the fact that I’d purchased the CWNA bundle comes up and a comment is made by a neighbor about how it’s one of those things that you just put off for too long and never actually accomplish.
That kind of put some determination in me, but I still had a bit of a confidence issue so I gave the Certified Wireless technician (CWT) a shot first. It seemed like a great entry option (it really is) and the exam was done online through CWNP and was not proctored through Pearson Vue like the others. And, since my work will reimburse me for things like this if I pass, I figured if I did muck it up I’d only be out $200 haha. I wrote the exam about a week later and I passed with no issue. This really did help to boost my confidence in my wireless knowledge. So, if you’re stuck on how to start I highly recommend the CWT.
My team lead had previously attended WLPC in 2019 and when she found out it was going to be happening again in Feb. of 2022, she suggested I attend. After I was given approval to go she gave me a few notes on the event. One was that twitter was heavily used by all of the wireless people in attendance. I even found a very helpful list online someone made with a lot of people twitter handles.
I had to create a twitter account first, but was able to follow lots of people from the list and they were nice enough to follow me back.
Right around this time there was a…I don’t want to say malicious comment, but at minimum it was a thoughtless and hurtful comment made about women in networking/tech. If you were on twitter at the time, you know what I’m talking about.
This happened basically my first week of twitter watching and it did make the platform seem a bit over the top, but I learned it wasn’t the norm for most. Because of the comment, there were some very wonderful male members of the networking community who stepped up and offered to help where they could.
One of these great guys was Rowell Dionicio. He’s one of the two hosts of the Clear to Send Podcast (the other host Francois is also great but he comes later in the story haha). Rowell was offering their Practical Guide to Wi-Fi Site Surveys (https://courses.cleartosend.net/p/a-practical-guide-to-wi-fi-site-surveys) course to females who might be interested in Wi-Fi. I put my hand up for that one. It is a great course with real world info provided by two very experienced wireless designers. There’s also things like templates and question guides which are really helpful, even now.
This also gave me another knowledge of their Podcast https://www.cleartosend.net . **Highly recommend you sign up for this one. I learn something every time.
And I got to reach out and talk to my first Wi-Fi person 🙂
Now this brings us up to December of 2021 and during this month something else BIG happened. Well 2 things. One of these was that registration for my first WLPC was coming up on December 15th! I was going to have to decide on a boot camp before registration opened and I was at a bit of a confidence crossroad again. Do I take the CWNA boot camp even though I’ve already been studying for what seems like forever or do I take something else to give work more bang for their buck?
Well, I decided to have the choice sort of made for me. I booked my CWNA exam for the week before registration with the voucher I’d been holding on to since November of 2020. If I failed, I would take the course at WPLC and use the exam voucher that comes with it for a second try. If I passed, I choose something else.
On December 7th, 2021 I walked down the street from my work during my lunch break, entered the Pearson Vue writing centre for the fist time. I sat in a small little cubby, with my mask fogging up my glasses while I second guessed half of the multiple choice questions. l still remember the panic and then swell in my chest as I hit submit and saw that PASSED come up on the screen. I had passed my CWNA! I had to cover my mouth so I didn’t scream haha. It was an amazing day 🙂
So that made my decision for me. I now had a week to decide what boot camp to take at my first WLPC. I also got to make my first big announcement on twitter. It was here that I was given the idea of what I should take next. During their congrats, more than a few people pointed out that the CWAP, being the hardest of the professional exams, should be the one I start studying for next. And as luck would have it, there was a CWAP boot camp being held that year and it was being taught by the “man who wrote the book” as I was told, Mr. Peter MacKenzie. (He can see the frames in the air I swear 😊)
Part 2 WLPC and the CWAP firehose!
Let's Ginger-Fi it! 
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