“Bob, what do you do for a living?”
A few days ago a good friend admitted that he doesn’t understand what I do for a living. He knows I’m not retired, but he’s not sure exactly how I make money. In all fairness to him, my wife Penney says that she has trouble explaining what I do. She says that when friends ask her, “What does Bob do?” she replies, “Magic. He does tech magic. I can’t really explain it any better than that.”
Other friends may wonder, too, so I’ll try to explain it a little bit here.
A brief work history will help explain, because all of the experience adds up to what I now do…
1) US Navy, Aviation Electronics Technician (heavy emphasis on transmitters and receivers).
2) Two-way radio shops, Electronics Technician (more transmitters and receivers)
3) Paging systems (remember beepers)? I oversaw the design, budgeting, building, and maintenance of various terrestrial- and satellite-controlled paging systems, using both analog and digital signaling.
4) Cellular phone systems. Capital budget up to $132M. Oversaw the construction of much of the CellularOne infrastructure for a little over a year, starting in 2000.
5) Two-way radio shop, this time as the Service Manager.
6) Started my own company in 2003. Originally focused on wireless system consulting, it morphed into more Information Technology (IT) work than anything else, because that’s what people wanted. I’ve been self-employed ever since.
7) College professor. I taught courses in wired and wireless telecommunications, antenna systems, computer repair, network design and troubleshooting, server room design and management, cybersecurity, and – back to my roots – I developed and taught Basic Electronics and Troubleshooting (BET) at Everett Community College under contract with Boeing. I taught at colleges for 17 years, starting in 2002, and overlapping the startup of my consulting business.
Now, with that work history as background, here’s how I make money today.
1) Most of my annual income happens in a few weeks every year. I travel to various public utilities and teach technology courses under private contract. The courses include subjects about computer networks, cybersecurity, server management, VoIP, Wi-Fi, and telecommunications.
2) The rest of the year I provide cybersecurity and IT tech support to small businesses and residential clients. A typical business client has around 6 to 10 computers, and one or two servers. Too small to have a full-time, in-house IT person on staff. Some business clients are even smaller: an attorney with one computer and no server, for example.
3) Some of the tech support is on-site, here in the Greater Seattle Area. A lot of it is remote. I’ve taken care of client issues in Vermont, Hawaii, Georgia, California…
4) The work runs the gamut. I’ve “wiped” phones for people getting a new phone. I’ve recovered data from locked computers after a loved one dies. I’ve designed antenna and tower systems for the Veteran’s Administration and city governments. I’ve done cybersecurity evaluations for electric power plants, megachurches, and small businesses. I’m a city government consultant on city policy regarding cell towers on city property. I was a major contributor on the team that designed the system for fresh water distribution in a city in Washington State.
So you see, that work history I mentioned earlier is important to what I do now. That’s where I got cross-discipline experience in electronics, wireless systems, telecommunications, computer networks, and cybersecurity.
Most of my business is from referrals. Someone is talking to someone else, they hear about a technology problem the person/company is facing, and they say, “I know a guy…” Now you know why it’s so hard to describe what I do. One day I’m helping someone get their email working again, and the next day I’m in a policy meeting in a city government’s conference room, talking about 5G cellular systems on utility poles. A week later, I’m evaluating cybersecurity issues at an electric power plant in another state. It’s a pretty broad range of stuff.
I’m required by contract to stipulate that this photo does not imply an endorsement.