E79 - Matthew Crawford at Glide UK

Our Managing Network Consultant Billy Holloway was joined by Matthew Crawford, the Head of Wireless at Glide UK. Matthew talks to us about how different qualifications enabled him to learn different skills. He delves into his opinions on taking the university vs degree route as well as what route into the industry may be best suited to you.

His route into the Networking space all started with his passion for wireless and describes it as always being part of his DNA. He started at Ethereum Live doing outdoor events, festivals and jubilees and became fascinated with how you can communicate and connect through wireless. Being outdoors and at festivals, being connected is where his passion came from.

He started at Glide as a Network Architect, working on the new products and services they had to offer. The solution they passed to their operations to make their products and services profitable was wireless and how they can make wireless that cookie cutter. From that point forward, they formed a wireless team to tackle that problem.

Matthew started his journey down the university path to get a better understanding of computing. What he took away from his time there was critical thinking and how to solve a problem. To sit down and know that there are 2 or 3 points of view is incredibly important in the Networking space. Many vendors will tell you different things, so the university route taught him how to make his own judgement based on the facts and figures.

After finishing university, he went down the certifications route. He describes it as a great way to fill in the gaps in your experience. Certs will give you the time to think about the theory behind what you are doing and why they do things in certain ways.

There is no right or wrong way of getting kickstarted in the space. He took both routes, but he would think twice if he was to do it now only because of the price. If you can, he suggests doing both. If he could go back in time, he would’ve done certs a lot sooner in his career because when he was trying to get a job, they ask for certs a lot so could be hard to find a job without them.

Glide UK…

Glide UK is a combination of 4-5 companies that deliver WIFI to universities, university accommodations, and residential and businesses.

The analytics that are coming into wireless is something they are keeping an eye out for at the moment. There is a bigger push for people to find out about their own wireless. Through covid people wanted to know who was connected and where on location-based services. They found people meeting when they should not have been because they were connected to the WIFI. The data-driven element to WIFI will be an exciting piece to look at!

Some career advice he shares with those looking to get started in the Networking space is to have a go at it! If you do not like it, then move on to the next thing. There is so much for you to do in the Networking space and so many industries to branch off into.

Make sure you listen to the full episode to hear the quick-fire round where he shares his biggest Networking disaster!