E22 - David Brazewell at QubeGB

During this episode of The Route to Networking, our Director James Dean was joined by David Brazewell, the Technical Director at QubeGB. The pair discuss where it all started for David, how he ended up in his position at QubeGB and his biggest Networking disaster since joining the industry.

So where exactly did it all begin?…

It’s a funny story, he dressed up as Bertie Basset outside a newsagent and ended up getting spotted by a recruitment company. They offered him a position for a help desk role helping people configure Outlook. Within a few months, he was in and out of offices, installing SDSL and within 18 months, BT had launched ADSL, so he hopped on to do that as well.

During his Computer and Electronic Systems degree at university, he found that it gave him a good foundation, not just on the technology side but the approach to problem-solving, and document writing which came in handy in the design and presentation phases.

Following his help desk position, he got involved with installation work, then move into the Network Design and Interconnections side of things. “When you’re younger, you can be slightly impatient.” This allowed him to get to grips with what he really enjoyed and gave him experience in multiple roles.

He ended up in a Network Support role and was lucky enough to have a manager who picked up that he was good as a team leader. Shortly after that Easynet was acquired by Sky wanted to get into a triple play and was told he was going to be involved in the consumer side of things and the other half stayed at Easynet. He was heavily involved in the set-up of Sky’s PTSN Network and moved from design to a Leadership role. “When the team who work for you are doing all the work, that’s when you know to start looking for the next role.” At this point, he stepped up to the Director position.

With technology constantly evolving, it is impossible to predict where we are going to be in the next 10 years. For David, he hopes there are less social media and prays that people eventually get bored of it, although he knows this almost certainly won’t be the case. With the rise of the work-from-home model, the demand is going to drive the infrastructure. People will need a strong network for video calling.

If anyone is considering getting into the industry, he suggests that you need to be interested in how things connect. Networks are everywhere and you must be in that mindset in order for you to truly enjoy it. He also believes the CCNA certification is a great foundation to start your journey alongside being prepared to relocate.

He talks about his biggest Networking disaster; it involves an outage for 2 days and a hacker… Do not miss it, tune in now!