Katherine's details: Blog: www.network-node.com/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermcnamara Twitter: twitter.com/kmcnam1 Routergods: www.meetup.com/routergods/ Katherine's story: 10 years ago: - I was barely starting out in IT with no college degree or certifications making $12.50/hr -Worked as a security guard at night to barely scrape together money for study materials and certs. I only had 4 hours between the two jobs to sleep. - Couldn't afford regular meals so I was eating out of a snack machine most of the time. - My stress levels were through the roof since my car was always breaking down, didn't have any savings or really a place to live to call my own. - I was probably in a constant state of working through any illnesses I caught because I couldn't afford to take a day off. Friends who saw me during this time said I was wrecked and I certainly felt like it. Now in 2018: - Finished college and grad school - Definitely have some certifications out of the way - In a job that I love - I don't have 2 full time jobs with only 3-4 hours inb - I've achieved a lot of great professional goals and I have a lot more on the horizon that I'm working on - I eat much healthier now - I work out - My personal life is much better. Here's to another 10 years of progress and health! See here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6490492376430313472

I have similar story...4 years ago I was Security guard making barely 10eur/h. Started studying hard, got my CCNA RS and CCNA Security in 3 months from scratch. Then got my first IT job in DataCentre. Continued studying for CCNP and after six month later passed all three exams. Then started looking for Network Engineer position, and found in less than 2 months. Now it's my 3rd year when I'm working as a Network Engineer for mobile operator, and have passed CCDA and CCDP last year. Also got extensive experience working with multivendor environment, like Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, HP, DELL, and much more. Almost making six figures :) Hard Work always Pay off..keep studying and everything is possible, sooner than you can imagine.

1) You can't train ambition. 2) Make yourself stronger than your excuses. 2 of the best quotes i've gotten from David's vids so far and im sure more to come. Thank God for these people inspiring other people.

I Love this woman and her story. I follow her on Twitter and didn't realize this was her journey. I remember working 80-90 hours working 2 help desk jobs. She really motivates me to become a CCIE one day.

I was lucky enough to attend a training course a number of years ago with Katherine McNamara..(she was taking the same course)......she's an absolute legend in the IT sector and an inspiration to all. She nails it every time, and is one of the most impressive engineers I've met in nearly 30 years

Good interview since it hits home. Since I've become homeless myself I've gotten my Sec+ cert and am close to getting ICND2 / CCNA. Hoping to get (back) into the IT field.

I went through the same situation worked as a security guards during night 12 hour shift but gave me the chance to study for CCNA now im a 1st line network support Ccna changed my life

I watched this video few days before my last interview at Cisco and I took all the Katherine advices. Now I’m part of Cisco and I’m very grateful with this kind of videos and the sensibility of David. THANK YOU!

She has an inspirational story, that is the first time I’ve heard the homeless to CCIE from her. Great interview David. Katherine’s online training in Security has been helpful for me in my studies.

Im homeless now living in the local Salvation Army (long story). I recently was accepted into a program to study and take a+, netwrk+ and security+ . Im excited and scared and grateful its an opportunity that is beyond belief to me.

Katherine is such an awesome person really glad to see her tell her story. I've seen her work habits through Routergods and she is forever hungry.

Simply amazing, you can't teach ambition, that'll forever stick, so true!

Man....I had to share this to Twitter! Excellent as usual!!!!

thank you so much, David. Katherine's story is absolutely amazing and it is very motivating for all of us.

It's AWESOME to hear another story like this! I also was underemployed, at one point living on a friend's couch, only working 2 days a week, etc. Worked my way up always learning, got my CCIE nearly 10 years ago, work for a large tech company playing with the latest and greatest, great $$. Even then it's always been new things. The learning never stops. If it does you should be nervous! Congrats to Katherine and for everyone watching you can do it too!

Just finished watching this really good vid. TYVM David & Katherine. It was a lot of great advice and really enjoyed Katherine's career in IT. Def. motivational and makes me wanna hit the books again and work towards my CCNA. Currently a HD Analyst.

Thank you for sharing your story, Katherine. I empathize with you completely. I've been where you were and knew I had to do something about it or risk forever being a "could've been". I'm far too stubborn (Scorpio and Sicilian) to just give up though. So now I'm working towards my CCIE, knowing it will lead to my dream job. When one works a job they love, it never feels like work. Ambition indeed cannot be taught. Neither can perseverance and resilience, which are two important qualities when it comes reaching such a lofty goal as the CCIE. Let alone two. Congratulations on your successes and on being the central character in such an inspiring story.

"You can't train ambition" - love that one it's so true. Thank you for the interview.

Hey David, only just recently found your KZfaq Channel and I wish to thank you VERY much for the excellent content you publish. Thanks VERY much to Katherine for sharing her hard and inspirational journey, and her work with 'RouterGods' and giving back to the community. I share and watch these sorts of things with my kids in the hope that they take some of the inspiration in (as well as me)! Many, many thanks, cheers Stewart

Ive seen this video at least 10 times since I started working towards my first cert. 3 years ago, I was working loss prevention for target making $13 an hour. Now with just a sec+ and ccna(ccnp on the horizon), I started a job 2 months ago with a 6 figure salary. Im not saying this to brag or inflate my ego, I'm saying this because if a clown like myself can do this, than anyone can do it with enough time and effort put towards labbing and studying. Keep grinding guys. We all deserve success

This popped up on my KZfaq feed. First time visitor. Thanks for sharing her story.

I have the pleasure of knowing Katherine in person and she is truly an inspiration every day

Thank you David for this, I really really needed this because I resonate with her quite alot. I was among the best in school, then got to uni but life came in the way (my mom got sick and needs someone almost all the time) so I dropped out. After that was basically like her, a slave working shitty jobs and simply put, I was barely able to make ends meet. It was in this dark hour that somehow you find the true you and I decided to do the heavy networking stuff and follow the CISCO Route. I have passed ICND1 in december and i am currently learning for ICND2, and after watching this video at 3 am in the morning while Spanning Tree Protocol is busting my ass I feel even more determined to push forward. Gonna make myself a pint of coffee and I'll see you next as a CCNA.

Thank you David and Katherine. It gives a lot of motivation to us to fulfill our dreams working in IT, security or whatever we have dreamed about...

Excited to watch this, love the motivational/real life content you put out

I saw here post on linked in about this a few months ago - it's cool she's sharing her story. It's very hopeful that with hard work - you can go as far as you want.

She's amazing. Much respect.

Thank you, David, for posting this. Very encouraging!

"i have meet people who have one year of experience 20 times" that's very deep. thank you for making me realize that at my very beginning as a cybersecurity engineer, much respect 🙏🙏👏👏

This is a life advice exactly what I needed to hear!!! Thank you Katherine and David for sharing your story. Great interview David ;-)

Very inspirational! An example of how you can achieve anything as long as you work hard and put your mind towards it. Thank you!

She’s amazing! I’m very impressed! My future instructor David and motivation from Katherine.

wow katherine ....you are such a motivation for all. I watched all your ISE videos, it helped me alot.

Thanks David; Katherine is great and an inspiration for us all

WOW. I just found this video and I been following you for about as long as this has been out. Inspiring

Amazing inspiring storey, been studying for my CCENT

Wow, I know I am a little late to the party, but that was an excellent interview and story. Some great advice from Kat! As you can tell by my profile picture, I am old. I have been in this field my entire work-life, with a few transitions along the way. I remember making the switch from electrical engineering to IT and taking a course from a very smart and talented network engineer. She told the class that technology changes so fast and the demands for training are never ending. She continued that you can only do about 18 months to 2 years at a time, then you need a break. She became a barista for about 6 months or so every couple of years. I couldn't imagine that at the time and thought it would never apply to me. She was right that the technology changes fast and that you will always be training, but I have never tired of that. It's what makes the job so interesting to me. I can not tolerate the boredom of a stagnant job. A job in IT is anything but stagnant unless YOU choose it. And if you do choose it, you will devalue yourself. You have to constantly be learning. One thing I would add to what Kat said... When I started in IT, you could pretty much be an expert at everything if you wanted to be. The roles and technology silos were not that clearly defined and were closely enough related that you could more or less master every area. That is no longer the case, not even close to being true anymore. There is just too much breadth and depth now-a-days in technology, you can not be an expert at everything. Heck, it's even hard to be an expert on one area, say routing. There is so much to it, datacenter routing, WAN routing, storage routing, cloud routing, voice routing etc. You have to focus on one thing for a while. If you want to switch up after you feel you have conquered that, then find another area to focus on and do the same there.

Kathy thak you for inspirational story! Came across this video and I can tell you I'm glad that I have found you David.

If i were to settle down with someone, she must have a similar passion and attitude to life like this...amazing individual you are Katherine, your story is a Hollywood type and ma'am you just woke me up from "sleep". I'd be honored to have you as a real friend. Thanks David for this interview and for bringing such awesome people like this on...

Thanks Dave, for such an inspiring interview with Katherine McNamara. You have lately becoming my IT role model. Thanks for all you do.

Absolutely the best / most helpful video interview of someone working in the cybersecurity field that I've seen so far. As someone who's been working in IT for 20+ years, this was most valuable as I begin to shift my focus toward CySec. Thank You!

"Work with people who are smarter than you."

Love this. I’ve been working operational security for 4-5 years since I was 18 I was interesting in the sheriffs roles and correctional officer field but life gets in the way personal and sub human conditions were applied. I’m now focussing to the HR manager field and keeping my manpower security experience and credentials and use it alongside with a university management and accomodation/Infrastructure/after hours experience into this field anything security cyber with HR potential government or anything is the dream.

This is very refreshing. I love the inspiration and confidents that this video gives me.

Humbling story nice work Ms. Kath!

i remember i listened to this back when i worked at fedex office, then i didn't have any certs. this just popped back up in my feed and now i have my A+, Net+, and Sec+, its a good feeling. i tried to use this year as chance to throw myself into IT after getting furloughed from fedex, oddly enough it was the best thing to happen to me. i was able to use the extra free time get the A+ and Sec+ which allowed me to get a job in a NOC working over night, which enabled me to get my Net+ not too long ago while having my job pay for it. Now i'm working on my CCNA with hopes to learn linux(maybe through the linux+) and python, i know i have so much to learn (AWS, GCIH, CEH, CCNP) i can't wait to get deeper into networking and security. On another note she is completely right about not bloating your resume its good to put skills you hope to learn but make sure you label them, i was just as honest as possible with the company i work for now and told them i had a lot of theory under my belt but no hands on experience they let me in and its been a huge jump in not only learning environment but also with peers who hope to attain similar goals which i think is invaluable. The pay is nice too.

Seeing this now I'm confident that my approach of always keep learning really does pay off, currently working towards ccnp security.

What a great interview, I just found her KZfaq channel she has good training video.

Thanks David for this interview with Katherine. Her words have affected me positively.

Mr.David. you make my life to studying more and more. Thank you very much.

Dedication and consistency is the key! Beautiful story, gives a lot of inspiration and motivation.

Great ethics, passion and drive to learn will also win, it’s also about doing things you love. I fell in love with computers at 15, I am now 56 and even though I have been a tech PMO and manager for 12 years I love the tech and still know more than 98% of people, which shocks me every week! Just found David and chucks stream - they are such fun delivery of content ! Well done guys 👍 security will get more and more important with time and it’s unique , constantly evolving and requirements increasing .

David - you are amazing! Thank You for everything

Simply amazing! I love this story and example of life and why anything is possible in life. We are our only obstacle! Thank you David.

Great interview David, thank you for share to us, well done!

Awesome interview, Katherine is awesome! Very inspiring, thank you

I passed my CCNA same day as David, and I'm currently working on CCNP (will take the exams immediatly after the Lockdown has passed) and start persuing CCIE. thanks for the mortivation @David-Bombal and @Katherine McNamara. This is shear hard work... then there's these suckers who thumbs-down other peoples videos, if you don't vibe with someones content...move on instead of feeding negativity into other peoples craft.

What an inspiring woman she is. Loved the interview! Great advice!

Thank you for sharing your story, Katherine!

Her story is truly inspiring. Thank you sir for posting another great motivational video.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I am sorry if I am wrong: but is she the one in Paris Hilton's KZfaq documentary? I think it's her, and if that's true: Katherine McNamara is a survivor of Provo Canyon school, which is a psychiatric youth residential centre in Utah, well known for abusing the students. What an inspiration she is, as a human: after such a tough and abusive childhood, as well as a tough adult life to begin with: about which she speaks in this video, she has reached such great heights! I honestly am short of words to speak about the inspiration she is!

Ms.Katherine story somewhat resembles to my life and now you've inspired me even more on my way to ccna as a start in this industry.I am also a cyber security enthusiast. Thanks Mr.David.

This was great. Followed her on socials. Thanks David.

I needed to hear this. I love people who motivate others!

this reminds me of the book the intuitionist for some reason. there was a character who was a security gaurd who spent his time studying a university by mail course. I guess when you keep at it for long enough though you actually get somewhere!!! Too easy to give up though when you see how long it will take to get there. Which is what I think most people do.

I needed this. Much appreciated.

This is really amazing 😉 every interview is 🔥 a Big Congratulations David

David, you are always the best. Thank you for all your efforts to hep inspire people.

I've found my community. You're all very supportive... thank you

Thanks David! This woman is truly remarkable!

They’re both AMAZING

Wow she is an inspiration, thank you for sharing such an informational and motivational video, thank you David Bombal you are the best!!! Love you

What a fantastic story. In the end, hard work pays off. Inspiring indeed.

The point Katherine made about Job Titles versus Role. Seriously, the truest statement ever made. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I was hired as a Systems Admin, only to do everything from Network Admin to Network Engineer, if there is such a thing as Title and Job Description. The problem I faced, was that I did the Network Engineering stuff as my primary, but my title never changed, therefore, i was passed up on future potential employment, due to that fact. I even had a previous Manager call me (before I was hired) and ask me, if I was a Systems Engineer or a Network Engineer; since my Titles stated one thing, but the experience stated another. While I believe Titles are nothing more than that, a title; too many people give too much credence toward them, thinking that the title dictates your experience. It's very unfortunate that some companies do that.

I almost destroyed the replay button on this video XD. There's a lot of great advice in just a few minutes. Thanks for creating this wonderful video David!

cudous to Katherine, you are true inspiration to all aspiring tech enthusiast. It goes for show that the phrase “where will there is a way” is still true more so than ever. Good luck to your your future endevaours and thanks for David for sharing this interview :)

Who sat on a journey, he should arrive! motivated story for every one in this track and want to get inside this track...thanks for sharing this amazing story

New to David's channel and I'm hooked. His content is very motivating. Awesome and inspiring interview. Thank you for sharing.

i been a fan from your blog and video but suddenly landed on this video and i saw this for the first time

She's amazing... Inspiring story. Congrats to Katherine.

decently is amazing motivation. Thank you for sharing us such a tutorial.

True definition of a SLAY QUEEN!!!

Thank you for this interview it add more to my knowledge

Another great video David, thank you 👌

Oh wow she's cool! Glad to see her interview and hear her story. I follow her on LinkedIn. Very knowledgeable and insightful. This is my 5th lab attempt, and I don't see stoppage anytime in my future. Her story inspires me to keep drilling

Absolutely Fantastic Story, Katherine your my heroine.

"Benevolent Dictator" - I resemble that remark! Great interview!

Great story. Well done Katherine!

Another great interview David...Katherine's story is so inspirational

Mashalllah a great inspiration not only for women but also men....

Concurrent with any IT studies, you should be working on Linux. It will help you in all areas of IT. Try doing most/all your work on a Linux VM, primarily in the terminal (bash shell). That will expand your tech understanding greatly.

great interview loved her story very touching you do so well david thanks for all you do

Very inspirational story!!! Currently working on CCNA R & S with the help of Davis's course.

Katherine, you are amazing and an inspiration

Really impressive story, thanks for sharing this interview with us. Love ya both. :)

Love your dedication. Really inspired by the way you attained your CCIE. following u on LinkedIn

Wow..Truly motivational and I'm sure this will inspire some if not all of us to work harder for what you want to become in life..Thanks for the interview David

this video gives me hope,thanks for the positive broadcasts :)

Hi Mr.Bombal I would like to thank you for providing this video it cleared alot of questions i had, thank you very much

Thank you for this video. Truly an inspiration.