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I\u2019ve been reflecting on my career recently, and one thing that stands out is that I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without the CWNP certifications\u2014and the amazing community that\u2019s grown around them.<\/p>\n
Certifications have always played a key role in my professional journey. Even today, a large part of my time is spent taking, building, and teaching certification programs. But CWNP holds a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n
Back in 2002, while studying for my CWNA, I fell in love with Wi-Fi. It might sound strange, but studying for that exam genuinely changed the direction of my life. I discovered this technology that felt almost magical. I was like a kid with a new toy\u2014I just wanted to tell everyone about it. (Some things don\u2019t change!)<\/p>\n
I remember the comments I got at the time: \u201cWi-Fi will never replace wired networks\u201d<\/em> and \u201cThere\u2019s no money in Wi-Fi.\u201d<\/em> But those opinions didn\u2019t matter to me\u2014I was completely hooked.<\/p>\n Looking back now, I realize it wasn\u2019t just the technology I loved. A big part of it was the CWNA certification itself. It was created by a company called Planet3 Wireless (later renamed CWNP), and what made it so unique was that it was vendor-neutral. It didn\u2019t focus on any one product\u2014it focused on the technology itself, diving deep into how it all worked.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always been a detail-oriented person. As a kid, I was the one constantly taking things apart with a screwdriver just to understand how they worked (and occasionally attempting to put them back together\u2014much to my mother\u2019s dismay). The CWNA took that same approach: it wasn\u2019t just about how to configure or manage Wi-Fi\u2014it was about why<\/em> it works the way it does. And I loved that.<\/p>\n Years later, at a CWNE roundtable event in Atlanta, I met Devin Akin\u2014one of the founders of CWNP and the author of the original CWNA. Meeting Devin made it clear why CWNA resonated with me so much. Before then, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d met anyone quite as detail-obsessed as I was. We had conversations that I couldn\u2019t have with anyone else I knew at the time. Maybe we were just two slightly strange, oddly similar individuals who had finally found each other.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t stop there. Through CWNP, I met more people like us: Ben Miller, David Coleman, Keith Parsons, Kimberly Graves, Chris Hyde, Tom Carpenter\u2014just to name a few. I had found my people<\/em>.<\/p>\n Over the last 20 years, the wireless and CWNP communities have only grown. We\u2019re not alone\u2014there are so many of us who share this passion for wireless technology and a deep desire to truly understand it. Events like WLPC, Tech Field Day, and Wi-Fi Congress have brought us together even more.<\/p>\n CWNP is more than just a certification company. It\u2019s been the foundation of a community. It\u2019s connected me with people I\u2019ve learned so much from\u2014people I now consider close friends.<\/p>\n And for that, I\u2019ll always be grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been reflecting on my career recently, and one thing that stands out is that I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without the CWNP certifications\u2014and the amazing community that\u2019s grown around them. Certifications have always played a key role in my professional journey. Even today, a large part of my time is spent taking,Continue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","no-thumb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mackenziewifi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}