Low -Voltage Technician \ U.S ARMY Signal Support Systems Specialist \ Arcade Hobbyist

Let me start this with a little background I started getting into IT stuff in 1998. Truth be told the reason I started getting into computers was because I wanted to burn music CD's. Plain and simple that is all I wanted to do. I attended a computer repair class in Clearfield UT and during the time in that class my mind opened up to all the possibilities of the IT industry. I year later in 1999 I got the Comptia A+ certification and then attended Salt Lake Community College. In college I learned alot of networking and had aspirations on becoming CCNA certified. I was able to take the necessary CISCO courses needed to take the CCNA but that never happened. Instead I took several part time jobs migrating computers from Windows Millennium to Windows 2000. Four years had passed since I started this IT journey in 1998. In those years I had attained the skills to burn CD's and much more. I now knew the in and outs of computers. I had software and hardware knowledge and had networking skills to boot. Fast forward to 2003 I joined the U.S ARMY in a IT related military occupation specialty(MOS). I spent 10 years dealing with radio antennas, jamming systems, computer and radio networks. I also dealt with alot of cabling. I learned how to terminate coax, Ethernet and other types of low voltage cabling. The day came when I ready to leave the ARMY in 2014 and pursue other things in life. To my surprise my military occupation erroneously translated to the civilian equivalent of telephone repairman. I said erroneously and I will get to that in a minute. After the ARMY I was able to land a job editing and writing technical manuals it was a nice paper pushing job but it wasn't what I wanted. I desperately posted my resume online and I listed all the skills I had learned over the years. It didn't take long before someone called me and asked if I knew how to terminate copper cabling. I didn't hesitate and said yes I can do that type of work. I was then hired to terminate coax for CCTV systems (security cameras). So I installed and terminated coax cabling for Walmart for a couple of months. I then had to move from my current locations and moved to the state of Washington. I had been in Washington for two months when I got a call asking me if I knew how to terminate and install Ethernet cables. I gave them the same answer I gave the other guys yes I can. Fast forward to today and I worked on various cabling systems nurse call systems (uses CAT6 cables), CCTV systems (uses CAT6 and Coax cables) and data systems(uses CAT6 cables). Granted I had to learn news things there and there but the main skills I used on all these jobs where the skills I used in the ARMY. Okay going back to the civilian translation of my MOS telephone repairman. What a joke? The real translation for my MOS low-voltage technician. More to come........