Here are some examples of letters of reference. Leaving a great job and need a reference? The first one uses excellent choice of words. Do not use AI to create these. Find templates like this and use them to make a foundation letter and edit the details.
Example #1
This correspondence will introduce to you Mr. Jim Deluhery with whom I have had the pleasure of working with for over eight years. In addition to being a gentleman of great personal charm, he is also an individual of exceptional ability and energy. His is a record of high accomplishment made possible only by his ability to work with others, his capacity of organization, and his enthusiasm. In addition to his ability and personality, Jim possesses the highest moral qualifications. He is a man of clean habit and fine ideals. He applies to both his business dealings and his personal life the highest of ethical standards and moral values. He makes a fine appearance and wins friends easily. Mr. Deluhery combines tact with complete candor. Though he is always considerate of the feelings of others, one who asks for his frank opinion receives exactly that. Because he possesses both the courage of his convictions in the broadminded attitude toward those whose opinion differ from his, Mr. Deluhery is well liked and respected. He is the type of man one can recommend with complete confidence, and without reservation. I have found him efficient, cooperative, and absolutely honest. His judgement is sound; his business ethics above reproach. He has a gracious, friendly manner that makes one feel completely at ease in his presence. Obviously, the undersigned would be happy to provide personal references in behalf of Jim Deluhery who acted as Chef and then moved into the ranks of Operations Management at the Anaheim Convention Center for Szabo Food Service. We have come to know and admire Mr. Deluhery and his entire family.
Example #2
TO: Whom It May Concern FROM: William C. Smith, Jr. Director of Food Services RE: Letter of Reference for Jim Deluhery While employed with the University of California, Riverside Food Services, Jim Deluhery did an outstanding job as manager of our largest unit; Aberdeen Inverness Food Service. He supervised 90 staff and student employees and a budget of 1.4 million dollars while managing a large residence dining commons and a table service restaurant in our University Club. Jim interacted extremely well both with the resident students he served and the large student staff he employed. He was very well liked and was actively involved in many training programs in student staff development. His outstanding technical background in food service and his ability to work with and train students will be a valuable asset to those who choose to employ him in the future. I can give him only my highest recommendation. Please feel free to contact me personally if any further reference is needed. Sincerely
I have been looking into the Microsoft PL-800 certification. The PL-800 certification is for RPA (robotic process automation) using Microsofts tool “Power Automate”.
I just started this journey so I am not going to school you on this. A few things I have learned though, are in order. Power automate is a cloud tool and also a desktop tool. The desktop tool can be used to work the RPA process alone or connect to the cloud. The cloud “Power Automate” can work alone and do RPA process on documents, websites and such. The cloud system can also register and interact with the desktop power automate app. Meaning the cloud workflow can find an value or integer or string, then trigger the desktop power automate app to do some function. Meaning like a function to update an excel spreadsheet, or many other tasks.
Udemy has a good course by Bryan Lamb. After reviewing some of this, my strategy for passing the exam is this.
Take the power automate class on Udemy.
Then go through the Microsoft learning for this certification. This is not a trivial rocess for me.
Then purchase the practice exam. Once through some of the practice exam, actually do the labs using the demonstration licenses available for Power Automate.
Once practice exam shows a decent score, go and test out and get the certificate.
Anything that people or IT admins do in a business can probably be improved by RPA. Configuring firewall rules with RPA? Why not? Need to configure firewall intrustion detection, allow a bypass for that odd application? Sure, the security manager approved it!! 🙂 Configure switch security for new employees network port with RPA? Yes! Configure user accounts and onboard training? Yes RPA could help.
I think this field will grow and you are missing out if you do not know RPA. Don’t miss out!! Meaning your peer and coworkers will become more valuable by earning the certificate and boosting RPA at your company. They will be brilliant! And what happens to you without RPA is well, lets say, not so good.
here is a typical network job. Know specific Cisco tech but also know XXXX cloud provider. Yikes, who fits these, not many people. People will know one cloud well, others not so much. Yes?
Example job description found today April 2024
Preferred Background & Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field.
A minimum of 8 years of relevant experience.
Proficiency in basic administration of Linux distributions, including package installation, BASH scripting, and scheduling cron jobs.
Strong troubleshooting skills on Linux distributions.
Extensive experience with Microsoft Azure is required. Experience with other public cloud solutions like Google Cloud or Amazon AWS is also beneficial.
Excellent teamwork skills and a keen interest in learning new technologies.
Effective communication skills, both verbal and written.
Fluency in English.
Skills:
In-depth knowledge of Microsoft Azure.
Proven experience with Microsoft Azure ARM templates.
Experience managing Linux environments, particularly Debian and Ubuntu.
Hands-on experience with Cisco ASA firewalls.
Familiarity with Citrix Netscaler load balancers.
Proficiency in Microsoft PowerShell scripting.
Remember – read these posts to stay up to date on Cisco Issues with routing:
I would have to say that there are not that many incentives for learning networking. Want to learn Cisco? Bring some cash!! Want to learn healthcare? Prepare to get paid cash for doing the training. I am serious!!!!
I watched a coworker learning some healthcare training, and I was impressed with the paid incentives they gave the students for taking the classes. Yes, you got paid to take the healthcare classes! The government pays for these. . . yet the government does not take network training or computer training as a serious problem, so you do NOT get paid. So I was impressed that you got paid. So what did I do? I signed up! And then I was impressed with the content and the quality of the training. The healthcare training had great videos and graphics, unlike many network training videos. Why can not learning networking be this fun!?? The healthcare training kept me awake. Network training will often put you to sleep. That is why there are few network engineers. It takes a special person to want to learn this stuff.
If you need network training, I suggest flackbox.com and networklessons.com
Reading about 40g is so exciting at 6am. I do find this of interest, that you can divide many of the 40g and 100g interfaces into multiple interfaces using breakout cables, which are fiber splitters it seems. Once configured, you end up with four (4) new interfaces with four new mac addresses. Below are some snips on how to do this with Cisco. Perhaps a way to economize certain networks by using this feature to have redundant paths at a lower cost? For example you could have two 40g core switches that are redundant. The servers connect to 10gig switches. So the 40g core have connection splits to breakout cables going to four (4) smaller switches that support 10gig only. I will add a drawing.
Breakout cables (fiber) for 40g and 100g
Cisco guides on this for nexus 7000. I can see a use case for these. Like anything, be aware of the new procedures for troubleshooting and limitations!
Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches support breakout cables. These cables support 4×10 G by enabling a single 40-G QSFP+ interface to be split into four 10-G SFP+ interfaces and a single 100-G QSFP28 interface into four 25-G SFP28 interfaces. Starting with Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.11.1, support for breakout cables is enabled for Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches – High Performance with Cisco StackWise Virtual.
Note
Breakout cable support is available only on the following switch models and network modules, with a few limitations. Switch Models
Limitations for Breakout Interfaces Catalyst 9500 Series Switches
To enable breakout for dual mode QSFP breakout cables, the hw-module breakout module slot port port-range switch switch-num command must be configured on all the ports of the switch. The range for the variables in the hw-module breakout module slot port port-range switch switch-num command are given below:
slot — Slot number of port depending on the chassis model.
port-range — Single port or range of ports on which breakout is configured. The range varies from 1 to 24.
switch-num — Switch number in the stack. The range varies from 1 to 8.
See Configuring Breakout Interfaces for the list of configurable interfaces.
Catalyst 9500 Series Switches – High Performance
Breakout is supported only on 24 ports of the C9500-32C switch model. Every 4th port of C9500-32C does not support breakout due to ASIC limitation. Port numbers 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32 — Hu1/0/4, Hu1/0/8, Hu1/0/12, Hu1/0/16, Hu1/0/20, Hu1/0/24, Hu1/0/28 and Hu1/0/32 — do not support breakout.
Parent port is disabled after breakout is enabled on it but configuration on the parent port is saved.
Breakout is not supported with Stackwise Virtual.
Breakout ports appear in the output of show run , show interface status , show ip interface brief and other show and configuration commands once breakout is enabled and they are automatically removed from all the show and configuration CLIs when breakout is disabled.
LED of the physical port on which breakout is enabled turns green if any one of the four breakout link is up but it turns off only when all the four breakout links are down.
See Configuring Breakout Interfaces for the list of configurable interfaces. Default Ethernet Interface Configuration
To configure Layer 2 parameters, if the interface is in Layer 3 mode, you must enter the switchport interface configuration command without any parameters to put the interface into Layer 2 mode. This shuts down the interface and then re-enables it, which might generate messages on the device to which the interface is connected. When you put an interface that is in Layer 3 mode into Layer 2 mode, the previous configuration information related to the affected interface might be lost, and the interface is returned to its default configuration.
Note
The default switchport mode for all Ethernet interfaces is dynamic desirable for C9500-32C, C9500-32QC, C9500-48Y4C, and C9500-24Y4C models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches
This table shows the Ethernet interface default configuration, including some features that apply only to Layer 2 interfaces. Table 1. Default Layer 2 Ethernet Interface Configuration
Feature
Default Setting
Operating mode
Layer 2 or switching mode (switchport command) for C9500-12Q-E, C9500-12Q-A, C9500-24Q-E, C9500-24Q-A, C9500-40X-E, and C9500-40X-A models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches.
Layer 3 or routed port for C9500-32C, C9500-32QC, C9500-48Y4C, and C9500-24Y4C models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches
Allowed VLAN range
VLANs 1 to 4094.
Default VLAN (for access ports)
VLAN 1 (Layer 2 interfaces only).
Native VLAN (for IEEE 802.1Q trunks)
VLAN 1 (Layer 2 interfaces only).
VLAN trunking
Switchport mode dynamic auto (supports DTP) (Layer 2 interfaces only) for C9500-12Q-E, C9500-12Q-A, C9500-24Q-E, C9500-24Q-A, C9500-40X-E, and C9500-40X-A models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches. Switchport mode dynamic desirable (supports DTP) (Layer 3 interfaces only) for C9500-32C, C9500-32QC, C9500-48Y4C, and C9500-24Y4C models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches
Port enable state
All ports are enabled.
Port description
None defined.
Speed
Autonegotiate. (Not supported on the 40-Gigabit interfaces.)
The C9500-32C, C9500-32QC, C9500-48Y4C, and C9500-24Y4C models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches do not support autonegotiate. Their speed is determined by the type of transceiver module plugged in.
Duplex mode
Autonegotiate. (Not supported on the 40-Gigabit interfaces.)
The C9500-32C, C9500-32QC, C9500-48Y4C, and C9500-24Y4C models of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches support full duplex mode.
Flow control
Flow control is set to receive: on . It is always off for sent packets.
EtherChannel (PAgP)
Disabled on all Ethernet ports.
Port blocking (unknown multicast and unknown unicast traffic)
Do you use open network switches? Cloud providers uses them at scale and perhaps you should also? They suggest a cost savings of 50% on capital expense, which is amazing. They call this open networking – disaggregated tech, as the software that runs the network is separate from the hardware. Well mostly. Pika-aid, no sorry Pica8 has a pretty good video on this.
Read about this network system.
“SONiC is an open source network operating system based on Linux that runs on switches from multiple vendors and ASICs. SONiC offers a full-suite of network functionality, like BGP and RDMA, that has been production-hardened in the data centers of some of the largest cloud-service providers.”
What switches does this support? Sonic supports open network switches. These switches are high end 100 gigabyte switches. The list is below but I did notice that nothing from Cisco is on the list. Cisco is a supporter of the project in some way it seems, but apparently Cisco does not sell an open network switch!
Computer security is a part of everyone job. . . or is it? Why would one need a CISO or a special security person, when everyone’s job is to keep the systems secure? I laugh when I hear about computer incidents and the CISO struggling to make other departments work on the security incident matter. Complete rubbish. . . you do not need a CISO. My two cents!!
Check out Unit42 for good thoughts and news on computer security.
Make sure all your staff has some knowledge of security incidents, and computer encryption. Those are computer basics in the IT industry. A bit of crypto knowledge will help also. It is not trivial to understand how crypto payments work. Yet basics on encryption like public and private key encryption. . every IT person should know the basics of encryption keys!
Do all you staff need to know how payments are made with crypto currency? No.
But basic public key encryption should be a part of everyone knowledge base. Everyone should know the basics of public key encryption. Everyone needs to know this. Who? Every staff person who is a computer operator with substantial responsibility. Public key encryption is part of everyday use of the internet (SSL secured websites).
Emotions are a valuable and a key trait for humans. Emotions, they are an integral part of the system, a system that helps us capitalize on opportunities and protect ourselves from threats.
How many times do we see emotions as negative? Let us say someone has an emotional outburst? Or someone has a heated discussion. Often these are rants are interpreted as unprofessional, or disrespectful. True?
There is a reason for it. We are powered by emotions and emotional energy. Partners, peers and coworkers that do not have emotions or passion? They do not exist. . . these people simply are people afraid to express themselves in that situation.
One thing to remember. Any heated discussion will often find one side not listening. They decode what you said as a different sentence than what you just said. They misinterpret the words. This can be career changing and make a simple conversation turn ugly.
Example? A heated discussion, where someone is very upset at another. They throw an insult. That someone says “F you” to another. Meaning they just said only that. They did not say fu** you, they just said “f you”. Often that will be remembered as the four letter word, even though you never said a four (4) letter word. In heated discussions, make sure you repeat any sentences that are open for interpretation. If you abbreviate a word, make sure you define what abbreviation. It’s probably a good idea never to say words that are so easily open to different meanings.
If you are going to say something like “f you”, you must define what “f you” means. Especially anything like “F you”. Make sure you repeat and emphasize that you only said “F you”, and that means “f you”, not “fu** you”. And “f you” can mean anything you want it to be! Make sure you tell the other person it means “freak you” for example. Do not let that type of narrative be open for interpretation. You will find yourself regretting that you did not make your self clear in that discussion.
I see renewed interest in the 4.9 gig bands for public safety. I think that it is a good idea to keep this area reserved for public safety. . . although I have several questions about it.
Are there any other countries that plan on 4.9g band for public safety? I see some evidence that other countries are allowing anyone to use these bands! More universal adoption would lead to lower cost equipment.
Power levels should be increased. There should be more power allocated to allow p2p connections to work as needed and be reliable. Read up on system operating margin (SOM) and som calculators.
Note: The City of Anaheim has some 4.9 gigahertz radios and infrastructure that was attempted many years ago. A city wide network of radios was setup, yet I am unsure they are used except special events?
I have only worked with the 9400 series chassis switches a few times. There are many features that support high reliability. ISSU is one of them. Some notes:
“While ISSU allows you to perform upgrades with zero downtime, we recommend you to do so during a maintenance window only
Between major release trains, ISSU is not supported from:
An EM of a major release train to an EM of another major release train Example: 16.x.x to 17.x.x or 17.x.x to 18.x.x is not supported”
The ability of the 9300 series to do zero downtime upgrades, well it has exceptions and those exceptions to some people mean different things. In my last job, it meant “The 9300 does not support upgrades without downtime”. True statement depending on the version and major release you are going from and going to. I did research on this for my employer but never got the chance to actually run an ISSU. The directions to perform an ISSU on a 9300 or C3850 switch are pretty straightforward. To me, the directions read like you must have two (2) devices paired together in order to do the ISSU. Not sure if that is the case, but that is how it looks to me. Meaning if you have just one (1) c9300 switch, then you can not do in place upgrades with zero downtime. True? I am still unsure! The ISSU instructions say this:
“StackWise Virtual (SVL) comprises two switches that are connected together to form one virtual switch. SVL supports In-Service Software Upgrades.”
It does say this: ISSU is supported on all Catalyst 3850 and Catalyst 9000 series that support Stackwise-Virtual and also on Catalyst 9400 / 9600 stand-alone chassis with dual supervisors.
So if you have one C9400 with dual supervisors, the ISSU will work. But not for a single C9300?
What else is great about the 9300? A major design feature of the 9300 is the VSS function. VSS will consolidate two or more switches into a single logical switch. The blue lines are port channels. If one of the c9300 drops offline, the port channel will stay up and continue to service the access layer. 
Cisco VSS design drawing. Blue lines are port channels (etherchannel). And they are also MEC (see below).
Need a Cisco interview question? Question: What is Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC) ??
Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC) is an EtherChannel bundled with physical ports having common characteristics such as speed and duplex, that are distributed across each Cisco StackWise Virtual system.
Cisco facts. 