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 At 43 years, all my friends would say “you are too old to study for Microsoft Certification”. Well I needed to prove a point. On the other hand I was nervous. The day to travel to India came-by and I was at the airport when my best friend-sister called and wished me good luck. At least there was hope for me. When the aircraft took-off I felt too old to undertake any studies, luckily the man sitting beside me was talkative and I forgot all about the studies.
When I landed in Kenya where I had worked four years back, memories of fear caught-up with me and fortunately I met my former Mentor at Coopers and Lybrand. When I told him that I was off to India for studies, he told me not to waste the opportunity because Indian institutions are considered the best. Lastly he mentioned that I look healthy and much younger than my real age. This gave me back the confidence that I had lost. I got into a bookshop and purchased a book by Bill Clinton; tell you what, I thought it was by Bill Gates!!! When I got into the plane to India I quickly opened the book and went straight to chapter 1. When I was half-way through the chapter I started wondering why the book was mentioning ‘political’ matters. I turned-over the book and then realized that it was not Bill Gates but Clinton. Clinton mentioned that he enjoys reading and gaining knowledge --- from here onwards I felt 33 not 43.
At Bombay Airport, I was the only Black guy and I knew that I was there for a mission; to study, gain knowledge and pass. I was very far from home, very far from everybody else and I realized that I needed this kind of environment to prosper. I have never been at a busy Airport like Bombay, everybody looked serious, focused and at the Airport for a purpose. I felt a surge up my spine and excitement in my nerves that I had made a good decision to study in India. I liked the food on the plane, I liked seeing people looking at me – I wonder what they thought.
 In New Delhi, the Airport not very busy, outside was a man holding a white paper-board written my name. Too much traffic, small cars, too many cycles, fewer women than men in the streets, Horning all the time, not giving way to other traffic. I wondered if the training was even organized at all. I Arrived at Patel Continental Budget Hotel, took a cold bath because there was no hot water, I was told to leave the water running for a while for the hot water to come-out but this was in vain. I ordered super and enjoyed the vegetarian meal and in the morning had Indian tea and butter toast. I waited anxiously to be picked to college. As I sat in the lobby, I saw six other men, some looked older than me. I was so much relieved. We got into the school cab and arrived at the college. to the outlook of this college was not impressive according to my expectations, However as I entered inside, it was a different story altogether , a state of the art labs, courteous staff, professional reception and an organized orientation. From there I was driven to Patel Training Centre from Moti Nagar Training Centre, introduced to Abhijeet, a pleasant young man who took me to my lab where I met Nitin, my teacher for MCSE 2003/ISA Server.
School started, I asked about exams and I was assured that I would pass and I needed to concentrate on my lessons and labs. The teacher met my expectations and day after day the training was consistent. I enjoyed doing my labs; I enjoyed the lessons and ordered Maharajah Mac(define this ) with Large French Fries and a Diet Coke from MacDonalds for lunch. After school, I went downstairs and met the lovely, helpful and cheerful drivers. At the hotel, I decided to go to Lajendra Place for my supper, it’s about six minute walk. There is a variety of food, Chinese, MacDonald’s, and Indian NO BEEF, now I wonder where the milk comes from? Goat? You might have to ask. I Got back to the hotel, studied what I had learnt and prepared for the following day’s lecture. I liked New Delhi because it gave me a conducive environment for studying and no social life. The culture is different from all the cultures I know, Indians take education seriously, are eager to gain knowledge and to pass-on the knowledge. The budget hotel does not provide the comfort for laziness, the television channels are in Hindi, and therefore one hardly switches on the television. I had all the time to take-on my studies head on and I enjoyed it a lot.
After a week I registered for my first exam. I was nervous and had two sleepless nights studying and when I got to the test room, I remembered all that I had studied. I passed the exam, and felt more motivated. I did the same for all the seven exams and cleared my studies within the scheduled timeframe. I decided to do Windows 2008 Server, and I was moved to Moti Nagar Centre and Mathew was my tutor for the 2003 to 2008 upgrade. An excellent teacher, good English, speaker and he have experience of what is happening in the industry. Mathew is so valuable, he made me feel comfortable by always assisting me with all challenges I faced during my labs. The guy has answers on his finger-tips, is energetic, and he can easily leave his chair to assist you anyhow. I really enjoyed his teaching. The exams were very easy and I was the first student to be MCITP – Enterprise certified. I need to mention that the college looks after its students like they are its own siblings. Whenever you can’t pay your tuition immediately, the service is rendered then a student settles the debt after the course.
CCNA was one of my easiest certifications. The truth is I have never come across somebody so knowledgeable to the extent that he does not refer to the book in front of the student and during labs. I thought CISCO was difficult but it’s not compared to Microsoft. The tutor easily explained and clarified areas where students usually get confused. I enjoyed the simulations and I did all the labs that were needed and more. I liked the lectures as I was getting the knowledge that I needed. This course was an eye opener. I now know networking and together with my 2008 MCITP I am a networking Engineer. I am encouraging students to take CCNA because it provides you with a deeper understanding of protocols, networking and the concepts that are much needed. Much appreciation and gratitude goes to the teacher, who changed my life. I have the confidence and feel young enough to take-on any networking challenges. The labs are good enough to provide students with the basic experience to configure routers and switches. As I write, I have configured to routers and Vlan.
Lastly, the Experience Course, I am proud to say I was the first student to undertake this course whose duration was eight days. This is what has been missing in the MCSE curriculum where students would learn the theory, do the labs under virtual machines and then face challenges as they are provided with the real situation in the industry. The Experience course, demanded me to implement what I had learnt in a real environment. I had four servers and had to install the servers, configure DNS, DHCP, Trust relationships, clustering and many more. I valued this course more than the theoretical part of the course because students do not need to seek experience anywhere but do it right after their courses. I am planning to send my assistants to attend the Experience Course, because IT is a practical subject and this course is what is very important. I was given an opportunity to implement technologies that I had read about but had no idea how it’s done, was given the hidden skills on how to trouble-shoot, learnt the best practices and the hands on experience was just excellent. IT professionals excuse me for a while, I have a VPN to setup, this is all because of what I learnt at Koenig – it’s one of the best, it’s the best.
I love my job, I now have confidence, I have one of the highest qualifications, I have the experience and I have the knowledge from the same college –Koenig Solutions. I could write more and more but like I said I have work to do and friends to help.
Thank you
Jonathan |
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