I have been in IT since 1987 so I guess I have earned the nick name "Old School"

My first job in IT started in 1987 at Great Southern Computers in Thibodaux, LA.  I was still in high school and had no idea how this part time job would change the trajectory of my life.  I had grand plans of becoming an attorney and even did some time at Nicholls State University in pre law until I had an epiphany.  "Let's make this part time job a career".  At that time 8088 and 286 processors were the norm.  Novell was THE business networking option and these networks were still connected by rg58 coax, BNC connectors, passive and active hubs.  MFM and RLL hard drives were the high end storage options.  Can anyone say g=c800:5.  Ah those were the days :)

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Philip Wu was the owner of Great Southern and it is no secret in our community that he was not the easiest boss to work for.  That being said I one hundred percent owe Philip for giving me a career in technology.  Along with teaching me current technologies, Philip taught me the value of processes when approaching projects.  One example was a simple trick of velcroing an empty tic tac box on the back of an Acer workstation to keep track of the screws.  Another good example was the assembly line stile preparation of 100 computers that needed to be staged and prepped before onsite installation. 

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After five years at Great Southern, I went to work for Cliff LeBoeuf who is the owner of Computer Sales and Services.  Cliff was the former service manager at Great Southern so he was familiar with my emerging work acholic obsession with technology.  

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Once I embraced the though of making technology my career focus, I went on a knowledge acquisition bender.  I learned how to teach myself new technologies and then used those techniques to acquire the associated industry certifications.