At 41, being laid off from a job held for 13 years may seem like a hopeless situation. Not so for Dave Kuehne of Fayetteville, NC. The slow economy made the few positions that were available ridiculously competitive. Even with his past experience as a network administrator and military background in electronics, Dave was not getting interviews. Dave came up with a plan. He enrolled at Fayetteville Technical Community College in the Network Administration and Support program. A major part of the second-year curriculum centers around CCNA training from the Cisco Networking Academy. “All my networking skills were self-taught to that point. I knew what routers and switchers were, but was never allowed to touch them in my old job. I touched them a lot at the Academy.” Dave’s Academy instructor, Doug Jarboe, recalls Dave in his first year at FTCC. “Dave stuck out from the crowd. He was on a mission to gain as much knowledge as he could during his time here. He never turned down an opportunity. I know he received the Network + certification and he was the first student from our most recent Academy class to earn the CCNA cert.” Even before graduation, Dave landed a position as the System Administrator at Maidenform. “Who would have thought two years ago I would have a better job today? It’s true what they say…when a door closes another one is out there somewhere. The trick is finding that door and getting it to open. You have to do that yourself…no one is going to do that for you.”

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site created:  02/09/2008    revised:  02/09/2008