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Ethan Banks

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Life & Career

I, The Braggart – A Network Fable

Ethan Banks · 3 minutes to read
Published August 3, 2022 · Updated August 3, 2022

“Hey. I just got out of a meeting with Lewis.” I groaned inwardly. Lewis was my boss’s boss, and while Lewis was a fantastic human being, meetings with him were usually in the context of projects. Big ones. I put on a fake smile to mask creeping despair. “Oh? How did that go?”

Marketing Docs Are Not Written For Engineers

Ethan Banks · 2 minutes to read
Published July 14, 2022 · Updated July 14, 2022

Marketing words are not for you, the engineer. The dog whistle is blowing at a frequency your ears are not attuned to. These words are meant to entice folks with purchasing authority. Your boss. Or his boss. Or her boss.

I’ll Be At Cisco Live US Las Vegas 2022. See You There?

Ethan Banks · < 1 minute to read
Published May 27, 2022 · Updated March 1, 2022

I’m attending Cisco Live US 2022 in Las Vegas this June. I’ll be there on the Explorer Pass, crawling the World Of Solutions and chatting with anyone and everyone. If you’ll be there and want to meet up, DM me on Twitter or ping me on LinkedIn.

How To Work With A Sponsor For Your IT Blog

Ethan Banks · 7 minutes to read
Published April 26, 2022 · Updated April 26, 2022

You’ve got a niche blog where you write as a deeply technical expert in a IT field such as cloud, networking, storage, development, or security. Your audience is made up of fellow nerds in similar orbits. You’ve been writing for years, and have developed a faithful audience who reads most of your stuff. After all this time, a real-deal vendor appears, wanting to place a sponsored blog post on your hallowed site. Now what?

Career Advice I’d Give To 20, 30 and 40-Something Year Old Me

Ethan Banks · 2 minutes to read
Published March 28, 2022 · Updated March 28, 2022

A list of career-related maxims easy to consume, but challenging to apply.

Podcast Guest: Can You Have A Successful IT Career Without A Degree?

Ethan Banks · 2 minutes to read
Published February 23, 2022 · Updated February 22, 2022

I was a guest on the February 22, 2022 episode of the So You Wanna Be In IT podcast. I chatted with hosts Pat & Dean about how my career got started. Along the way, we discussed whether or not someone can have a successful IT career without a college degree. Put another way, are IT certifications good enough? I think that yes, you can have a successful IT career without a degree, but that the question, “College degree. Yes or no?” deserves more analysis than a simple yes or no answer offers. Give the episode a listen for more nuance.

They’ll Remember The Rage Monster

Ethan Banks · 3 minutes to read
Published December 6, 2021 · Updated December 6, 2021

After a several minutes of answering her scripted questions, I lost it. I unloaded on this kid. I was yelling over the speakerphone at her. In an open office. With my boss standing next to me. In front of my co-workers and the junior network engineer I was mentoring, all of whom had either also been there all night or come in early to help with testing. In front of everyone else, I just leveled this poor JTAC girl.

The Best Technologists First Try To Solve Their Own Problems

Ethan Banks · 2 minutes to read
Published August 31, 2021 · Updated August 31, 2021

I prefer to hire a person who first tries to figure things out. While I want neither a cowboy nor science experiments making their way into production, I do want a motivated individual who will research difficult technical challenges and grow as a result. As that person grows stronger, their team grows stronger as well.

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