Ron Reyes:
CLASS OF 1973
Oakton High SchoolClass of 1973
Vienna, VA
Ron's Story
Life
I never quite felt in place at high school, nor did I find the subjects much interesting. I got in plenty of trouble, and worked at night. I barely made it through high school, and then wandered through life for a while doing mostly restaurant work and even became a restaurant manager. By 1975, I found real direction when I discovered Computer Science and Hustle dancing. Soon after I achieved a Certificate in Computer Technology, started an enjoyable career in field engineering, obsessed with hustle dancing by night, and also attended and completed a Park College Bachelor of Computer Science degree by night. I was very good at both of these talents, Computers and Hustle Dancing, and made a name for myself in both. Although I never really dated in high school, I certainly had my share of relationships during these dancing years. By 86, I was into network engineering and also met the lady of my dreams... though she didn't know it, so we were only friends for years. In 95 I became an independent network consultant, and by 1996 my dream lady woke up to me and we married in 1999. We now maintain an apartment in Virginia and a home in West Virginia. My wife and I have 9 cats, which sometimes eat better than us. My hobbies, besides dancing have been computers, photography, meditation, astrology. I've achieved much of what I always thought I wanted to, and realize we always want more, so life continues as I plot new destinies.
Workplace
After high school, had no clue what I wanted to do so I continued in the restaurant business where I was a manager until 75. I then worked in some jobs that I never really adapted... construction, lawn care, and lighting expeditor. That was the last straw. I decided I had to make a really big move to put me on my path and after much research I decided on computers. I started going to college in computer science, but impatient of the time this took at night I decided to get a CDC Computer Technology Certificate. By June 1977 I became a computer field engineer at Four Phase Systems ...Expand for more
for 5.8 years, and was promoted with in 3 years to senior field engineer managing my own territory and staff. My research showed the future growth in communications I left this job to be more focused in networking with the company Tymnet as a network consultant configuring various protocols for companies who need to communicate to other offices. After that I worked at a bank as a Network Control Supervisor on a SNA network for 9 months, and then for engineer consultant on the Defense Data Network for Telenet/Sprint for the next 6.8 years. At the end of the contract I moved to Netrix for two years as a test engineer, and then by May 1993 to Dynatech Communications as test engineer manager. Dyantech started to have problems, and I arranged to stay on board for a total of nine months to complete test projects and received a $5000 bonus to stay until complete. I was then unemployed for 6 months, and found that my networking skills were somewhat outdated. I started training for Novel Networking and started advertising my self as a consultant. By November 1994 I landed an independent consulting job supporting CACI to engineer the ADTN2000 (FAA network) that lasted for 7.5 years using the skills I had and developed many more competitive skills. I called my consulting firm Infoage Consulting. This was the single longest position I ever worked anywhere. At the end of the market bubble and up to May 2002, my contract business ended but was fortunate the FAA program director referred me to Trios Associates as engineer on the FAA's BWM (Bandwidth Manager) network.
I only just completed my college degree, BS in Computer Science this year 2003 so I feel quite fortunate that my marketing and job experience carried me this far... pretty good for someone who didn't graduate and had to get a GED in 1975.
At this time in my life I'm looking to make some kind of change, like work on computers and LANs, or Nutritional Counselor, Astrologer, Photographer, Dance instructor... really can't decide if I want to change a hobby in to a job.
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