From Assistant Direct to Control Room Analyst | Richard Martinez

Richard Martinez has always been a guy with his eyes on the stars. It would be a winding path, but someday he knew he would reach them.

He had reached a pinnacle working in the education field by becoming a director and realized he was floating down a river without direction — there was nowhere else to go in that stream for him. He’d reached the peak, but he was on the wrong mountain.

With a lifelong interest and dedication to IT, he set his sights on NASA. The only question was how he was going to get there. 

What Richard did know was that if he was going to fail at anything, he wanted it to be at doing something he loved. 

As most of us do when we encounter a complex issue, he turned to Google, where he would find NexGenT and hop on the phone with one of our kickass founders, Terry. 

“Terry called me and told me I could get my CCNA in three months instead of a year,” Richard recalls.

It was exactly the type of accelerator he needed to reach NASA.  

He hasn’t been to a technical college. Hasn’t done anything besides learn as he goes and follows his interests. He has no traditional IT schooling or work experience outside of teaching.

And he was about to land the job of his dreams.

While in the thick of the program, a recruiter reached out after noticing he had network engineering education but not a lot of experience. That was enough to spark interest.

They discussed Linux systems in his first interview — something he happened to be studying on his own at the time — and they saw that he was perfect for an entry-level Linux worker, a prime spot to get on the network engineering track he was aiming to reach.

“NexGenT creates a foundation. That core knowledge sets in stone the ability to learn beyond networking. Those foundational aspects are stronger in the long run — valuable and applicable to IT work of all kinds.” says Richard. 

He’s on a fast track to the career he’s always wanted and has put in the work to get there. 

“This is something you invest your whole heart, body, and soul into. I did it. I put in 16-18 hours a day because I wanted to change my life, and it worked.” 

Richard has earned a pay bump from 30k in education to 50k, with a projection of 80k by the end of his first year with NASA. 

He doesn’t have to wait 8 years to get where he wants to go. He just has to prove himself for 1 year, and he’s won the keys to the kingdom.

“Thanks to NexGenT, I leveled up to NASA, and I’m at max level. I’m ready to begin the next decade of my life with nothing but gratitude because, without them, I wouldn’t be at NASA.”

If you have a wild dream, a far-flung fancy, or an outrageous goal, give us a call — we’ll help you get there. We can help you make it real. 

It’s what we do.