aaron597.com
Blog Posts
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
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New Beginning
This is the new beginning, the dawn of a new chapter. I have been working on Football, Wrestling and NFHS coaching certifications. The main reason that I am doing this is to extend my grandpa’s legacy in coaching youth sports which I am doing in honor of him. There are some altruistic benefits that I will be giving back to the community and to the students. I am working on more certifications in Youth Football and Youth Wrestling.
I am working on getting a volunteer coaching job for both Football and Wrestling. I already hold the NFHS Coach Level 1, and the 2025 Youth Tackle Football certification from USA Football. In addition, I have the Teal certification from USA Wrestling. This is a girls and women’s wrestling certification.
Sports Background
I was in Football from 1997 to 2004, which I did with Spartan Copper from 1997 to 1999 and went to high school at Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, CO where I did Football and Wrestling, graduating in 2004. I have been around football since 1996 rooting for the Denver Broncos and still occasionally watch the NCAA Wrestling Championships. I have done some time in Soccer and Taekwondo and work on my Tai Chi along with stretching three times a week.
I will be better able to work on my dream job, which is still the CIO, CTO or CISO role. Coaching will help me achieve my goals by being better able to train my staff and be a mentor to my future employees. Working with a sports background has helped me get back my life by doing exercises to help me not be stiff and to reduce my anxiety.
Technical Training
Life is not all roses and sunshine as I will still have some work to do on the technical training. I have got to a point where I don’t want to work on the MD-102 certification even though I have completed the training materials. I made this choice due to my interest level in learning more about Intune and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.
I will be working on the Microsoft Certified Trainer designation, however. I’ve decided to pursue the AZ-104 instead of what I perceive as a more general certification in the MD-102. This is in line with my career goals, as I am going to study for the CCNP ENCC which is where the AZ-104 fits in.
Conclusion
I will be working on both the Sports Coaching certifications and the IT Certifications next year along with hopefully getting a volunteer coaching job with Spartan Youth Club and Eaglecrest Wrestling Club. I have been working on the NFHS Middle School Coach Level 1 certification and plan on getting the USA Wrestling Copper Certification next calendar year.
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
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Conferences
I tried to go to the VR & XR Entrepreneurship conference however the link didn’t work as that was the day that the Cloudflare outage happened. The next day was the AI Small Business Summit, and the Eventbrite email system was down, and I couldn’t get into the event. They were both virtual conferences and I am planning on doing one or two per month.
Training
I have been training for the MD-102 and am hitting it hard so that I can get a better score on the exam. Having goals has put me working on the CCNP ENCC exam. This will be in about eight or nine months. The training that I am doing is more for my IT skill set and I am working again on the GSEC with an indeterminate goal as of now.
The GSEC is something that will help me out with one of my career milestones, the GIAC Security Professional. Working towards this will help my anxiety out over time. I am still working on the MD-102 and have scheduled the exam for December 4th, 2025.
TryHackMe
I am currently doing the SOC Level 1 learning path again due to the updates on this learning path. Through about 64% as of now. I am ranked all-time at 5151, in just the U.S. I am ranked at 626. Also have done 317 rooms with 47 badges and 39094 points.
Aaron W. DeJong
Being more engaged at my sole proprietorship has made me think more about sponsored links and some study plans to sell for one of my new projects. I will be doing mrcertification.tech as a website that hooks into Medium and Linktree and do another division of Aaron W. DeJong focused on certification related content.
I am also redoing the aaronwdejong.net website and should have both up in the next two or three weeks. The sole proprietorship is getting into more things like the study plans and sponsored links on my Linktree page.
Conclusion
There are things that I will learn from doing more with the CCNP ENCC and GSEC studying. I am pursuing more certifications and will be doing around four or five next year. These will include the Network+ and Certified in Cybersecurity at least. I did get resolution on the Udemy Streak issue, I am now at 183 weeks which is the highest that I have gotten.
I have some free tickets to two more virtual conferences in the next few months so we will see how it goes. I will put them off until I get to the event and will provide some synopsis of the conference and how I did with my anxiety. I am excited to start working on the ENCC and will be doing the certification that is mainly a cloud networking certification.
Go to my Linktree at https://linktr.ee/dejongaaron. Connect with me on social media.
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
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Article
There is an article that I wrote on Medium called CCSI and MCT Technical Training. Click on the link below
https://medium.com/aaron-w-dejong-it-articles/ccsi-and-mct-technical-training-164500402d9f
The article is about the process of becoming a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and a Cisco Certified Systems Instructor (CCSI).
Conferences
I have been thinking about how best to market myself and my sole proprietorship and came up with the idea of doing virtual conferences. These conferences are sometimes having a free tier. I am interested in these conferences because they allow me to go as my sole proprietorship and they help my marketing in the industry.
I am going to attend two this month, which are the VR & XR Entrepreneurship Conference and the AI Small Business Summit. These conferences are about Metaverse technologies and AI technologies, and I am excited to go to them.
The VR &XR Entrepreneurship Conference is more about the Metaverse and the accompanying technologies. The AI Small Business Summit will help me get more of a business orientation on the AI technologies in a small business setting.
Training
I am working on the training materials for the MD-102 and am still on for the exam which I have scheduled for December 4th, 2025. The training is going well, and I just finished the second readthrough of the MD-102 book.
There are some things that I am studying for my Home Lab and some that I am working on as hobbies. Thinking about doing the Docker Certified Associate sometime in the future as this will help with the Home Lab.
CCNP ENCC
I want to do more Cisco stuff and came up with doing the CCNP ENCC certification as more of a longer goal to have in around eight or nine months. I am putting together the Study Plan and will share it once I get to a good point in my studies for the ENCC which doesn’t have a book for it.
I also am working on doing a recertification for next year and want to pass the Network+ for the recertification of my A+. Another one of my goals by the end of February 2026 is to take and clear the Certified in Cybersecurity certification.
Conclusion
Studies for the Certified in Cybersecurity will resume and I will be working on the ENCC exam knowledge through notes and courses. These are on SD-WAN, VPNs and IPSec along with how it relates to AWS, Azure, and GCP (Google Cloud Platform). There are a lot of training materials on the ENCC, just not a unified certification guide.
I will be doing some more video courses on Udemy, LinkedIn Learning and YouTube videos on the topics covered. I will be working on the AZ-104 next year in preparation for the AZ-700 which is somewhat covered in the training that I have selected.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Check out my Linktree at the link below!
https://linktr.ee/dejongaaron
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
- Category: Blog Posts
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Training
I am working on the MD-102 and have scheduled the exam for December 4th, 2025. If I pass this will be my tenth certification. I would be one step closer to who I want to become. The progress that I have been making every day is something that makes me more consistent in my studies.
Technical Training
I am doing something new; I am training to see if I could become better at being a technical trainer. Going through the CTT+ training material and will complete the training-the-trainer course which I am doing on Udemy. I am trying to develop a base level of knowledge and want to be both an MCT and a CCSI.
For the MCT, I am doing the right certification for me currently which is the MD-102 that is a prerequisite to being a Microsoft Certified Trainer. With Cisco, the Cisco Certified Systems Instructor does allow for a CCNA to apply for the CCSI program. There is training that needs to be done through a Cisco Learning Partner Sponsorship.
New Goals
There are some new goals that I have and will be still going for the Cisco Insider Champion and the Microsoft MVP designations. These goals include the MCT and CCSI however, I will be working on my Cisco ENCC certification after the MD-102. For the Cisco certifications there are also three more cloud certifications, SPCNI, SCAZT, and CLCEI. I am planning on taking these and going for four CCNP paths. These are for the CCNP Enterprise, Service Provider, Security and Collaboration tracks.
I decided that I should specialize more in Cloud Networking and go for the ENCC certification which is the Enterprise Cloud Connectivity certification. One of the draws for me is that I can compile my notes and maybe self-publish an ENCC e-book after I pass. I will be starting with no book and the exam outline. This will push me more in the direction of specialized knowledge where I can thrive as a writer and blogger.
TryHackMe Status
I am currently ranked in all countries at 5259 all-time and in the United States at 649 all-time. Also, I am on a 103-day streak with 310 rooms completed and 46 badges. Working on the SOC Level 1 Learning Path that I am 56% of the way through for the new update and have 38,446 points on TryHackMe as a Guardian. The next level is Titan at 50,000 points which is one of the goals that I have for my TryHackMe progress.
Conclusion
I will be focusing mainly on the Cloud Networking certifications and want to still get the CISSP. I am shying away from the Network Security side of computer networking and going in more as a Cloud Networking specialist to build up some more expertise. This will get me some more opportunities and will build on my core computer networking skills.
As a technical trainer I will be able to teach courses for Microsoft and Cisco along with maybe doing some virtual courses to supplement my sole proprietorship income. This will be beneficial because I could also do tutoring or even some mentoring and learning how to be a trainer will help me out with this.