Kelsey Hightower

And there's a little practice exam in the back.

And so for someone like me, having that fast feedback loop of like, you put the CD in, you take the exam, and even though it was multiple choice, you kind of felt like, if I got anything wrong, I would just go back to the book and make sure that I understood what was written there, and then you go take the test again.

And it had a little randomization to it, so you couldn't just rely on absolutely remembering everything.

And I remember going to the facility to take the test.

And you know, you're in that little room and they want to make sure you don't cheat.

So there's a camera pointed at you and you're just going through.

And so the nice thing about those tests, there's no trick questions.

Either you know it or you don't.

And I think they maybe give you an hour, hour and a half.

And I remember finishing that thing in like 10 minutes.

And when I walked down, you know, you wait, the dial-up goes and they calculate your score and say, hey, you passed.

And then you walk out and you're like A plus certified.

And that was like the first time in my career that I felt like, oh, so if you put the effort in, you can gain the certificate.

And when I got that certificate, I remember there was like a job fair where, hey, anyone that has A plus and network plus certification, you can be part of the contractors that were replacing people's dial-up with DSL at the time.

Okay.

And so that's how I, I guess, officially got into tech.

Yeah, I never saw the examples.

I never saw the end game.

a lot of the stuff that they were teaching the curriculum, it didn't make sense that you would pay all that money.

You know, look, maybe it wasn't a good school.