Keep It Nice and Simple!

Keep It Nice and Simple!

Michel Thomatis

About the Author

Michel Thomatis, CCIE #6778, has spent the last 15 years as a network engineer/architect. As a 10-year CCIE, Michel loves the opportunity to provide training in a wide-array of network technologies. He formerly worked at Cisco, as well as in government, banking, and non-profit organizations.  Currently, Michel is the owner and Chief Network Architect and Trainer at RouteHub Group, LLC.

Chapter 1: Starting Out

The purpose of this book is to provide a simple approach for organizing your life in terms of what you think about, the things you may find impossible, to improving on an area that you may be struggling with in a nice and simple explanation.  I’m not trying to fix to you because there is nothing wrong with you.  This book is to provide a method to organize what is in your mind and doing it in easy steps.

Why Listen to Me?

I know what you’re thinking.  What makes me, the author qualified to provide a method for organization and structure when there are many methods and people out there doing the same thing.  Well, I’ll get into the other self-help programs in a different section, but it’s because I have been doing this in my life long before high school.  People who know me can all say that I have always been organized and structured in every aspect of my life.  So, what have I done exactly, here are a few things I have accomplished:

•I graduated from High School in 1994.  Sure, not really a big deal.

•I graduated from San Jose State University in 1998 in only four years after high school.  My major starting out was Computer Engineering, but I didn’t like the type of classes I was taking.  My interest at the time was creating computer animations like in the movies Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.  That’s the stuff I wanted to do, so I changed my major to Computer Science.  However, I quickly noticed that it involved a lot of programming classes like C++, which I didn’t find interesting.  Lastly, I changed my major to Industrial Technology with a minor in Business Management (required for my major for some reason).  With the constant changes with my majors I still finished in four years.  I was committed to taking summer to even winter classes so I wouldn’t fall behind and still finish in 4 years.  I did exactly that graduating in 1998.

•Building my professional career.  During college, I understood that getting job experience was critical.  Otherwise it would just be experience on paper, which isn’t what employers are really looking for.  It was because of my work experience in college when I landed a job at Cisco Systems in 1998 before I graduated while many of my friends were still looking for related employment.  But my professional career began with a company called Unisys.  At the time, I applied for any computer related position and was willing to work for free to gain work experience.  Writing exactly that on my resume impressed the management team to call me, interview me, and eventually hire me.  I worked there as a Computer Desktop Technician fixing computers and training users on how to use their computer.  That was a lot of fun.  This experience happened when I was only a sophomore in college.  In my senior year, I worked for a non-profit company called Catholic Charities where I continued working with computers, servers, and now networks.  This was the point I determined what I wanted to do.  I understood that you have to do what you love.  I wanted to be a Network Engineer.  For those who do not know what is a Network Engineer it’s a job in the computer field, but more advanced.  When you are on your computer at work/home you will likely access the Internet to check your email, go to Facebook or YouTube, do some video chatting on Skype, and so forth.  Well it is the Network Engineer who is responsible for ensuring that you can do those things on the Internet.  That is what I wanted to do and I was focused on getting there.  That eventually led me to a 3-day interview with Cisco Systems right before I graduated and I got the job.  It was an exciting time that established me as a Network Engineer.  After Cisco, I worked at an Internet Service Provider then to an Internet multimedia company.  From there I worked for an International bank and that lead me to work for a sector of the government as a Senior Backbone Engineer.  There I managed the network architecture of a 10,000 user environment.  It was a great moment to accomplish what I was reaching for when I first started on this path.  But it was my focus, my life plan, organization, and structure that created that for me.

•Certifications.  In the computer field, college itself isn’t really looked upon as being valuable unless you want to get into management.  When I interviewed at Cisco, they were more impressed with my computer experience at places like Unisys and Catholic Charities.  And less impressed about me graduating from college.  What is creditable in the computer field is certifications, which someone can achieve by taking multiple choice tests.  Therefore, getting certified was exactly what I needed to do.  So I studied hard and got the entry-level and intermediate certifications under a year.  But, I later pursued the hardest and the highest certification one could achieve as a Network Engineer called the Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert or CCIE in short.  This consisted of not only a multiple choice exam, but also a hands-on test to make sure the person knew what they were doing.  It took me two long years and long nights to achieve this certification being CCIE #6778 since January of 2001.  The CCIE would be equivalent to a person getting their PhD or becoming a doctor, but relevant in the computer field.

•Self-Employed.  After working for companies and becoming a Senior Backbone Engineer in my professional career, the next challenge was determining what I wanted to do next.  It either involved getting into management or becoming a consultant for another company.  Well, I didn’t want to be a manager or be a consultant for another company dealing with the day-to-day politics that I never liked.  But one day, when I was at lunch with a friend while working at my government job the idea of starting my own business came to light.  That was it!  I wanted to start my own company where I would do Cisco Consulting to build a new direction I wanted to pursue.  I went right to work by becoming an LLC, defining my core business, creating my website, marketing, to advertising within 2 months.  My business quickly grew with dozens of clients ranging from small businesses, medium, international customers in Africa, to non-profit organizations.  I continued to push the envelope and define my company further by providing Cisco training, which has been very successful.  But, it was my drive, organization, and structure that created a lot of that because it was something that I wanted to do.

•Family