Living with Voices

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 (2015)

About 1-1.5 years passed and by working odd jobs outside the field of the Information Technology (IT) industry, I was able to make enough money to survive and eventually get back into the IT game. A regional IT reseller by the name of All Lines Technology made me an offer to come aboard in the fall of 2015 and train me as a (Data) Storage Engineer. I was back in the game and I was feeling great! (I felt like everything was clicking on all cylinders. I felt healthy both mentally and physically and was excited about the future!) Their specialty was Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) but they also had a few other vendors in their data center so I was really getting some great hands-on exposure by working in their data center.

For most of my 1st and only year with the company they had me studying for something called an HPE Master ASE (Accredited Solutions Expert) certification for Storage. I learned the different HPE systems as I went along and was given plenty of time to study. They really did treat me well.

My Boss, Dave Siegel was pretty much hands off as far as a management style went. If there was nothing going on in the office like a team meeting or even a meeting at a customer site, I was given the option to work from home and study for my exams. I converted my mom's attic into a small study and both my dogs enjoyed lying on the couch from Ikea as I sat at my desk and studied. I was literally getting paid to study, I had my dogs with me, they were healthy, I had a solid income; life was good.