For me, working in IT was a 180-degree switch. I was a trial lawyer for 16 years and felt that I had done and tried nearly everything. I was having a conversation with my husband, who works in IT, and I asked him, “What do you think I should do?” He said, “You should do what I do. I think you’d be really good at it.” I took that to heart and started looking into what makes IT go ‘round. I was literally asking, “I don’t know what a router is. What do you mean by a switch?” So, I basically started my tech journey as an IT learner.
Along the way, I met this great community in Cisco Learning Network (CLN). I wrote about a dozen articles on the CLN about data center networking. As I kept creating content, I realized that it was showcasing my ability to break down something complex into something simple and digestible. Eventually somebody said, “Hey, I could use those skills.” It made my transition from a volunteer to getting paid.