Raymond Hendrix is the owner of Wi-Fi Wise International and one of our newest Field Day delegates. He started in IT after obtaining a degree in economics with a focus on databases. Raymond served in the Dutch military, where he gained expertise in electronic warfare and expanded his IT knowledge through training. His interest in RF and antennas stemmed from his experience operating a powerful jamming vehicle. Raymond’s favorite aspect of his work is making Wi-Fi solutions seamlessly function for customers. However, a significant challenge he faces, along with other Wi-Fi engineers, is obtaining clear communication from clients. Raymond acknowledges that effective communication skills are crucial in his field, even though IT professionals tend to be more focused on technical aspects. Attending Mobility Field Day, Raymond looks forward to exploring the latest advancements in the industry, assessing their practicality and real-world use cases. When asked about an alternative career, he expresses an interest in forestry work and even reveals a talent for axe throwing. You can see more of Raymond and Mobility Field Day 9 on the Tech Field Day website or YouTube channel.
Connect with Raymond
Raymond Hendrix is the owner of Wi-Fi Wise International. You can connect with Raymond on Twitter or on LinkedIn. Find out more about what he does over on the Wi-Fi Wise International website.
Transcript from the Interview
Raymond Hendrix: I’m Raymond Hendrix, owner of Wi-Fi Wise International
Tom Hollingsworth: All right Raymond you’re one of our new delegates here at Mobility Field Day and we’re very excited to get to know you a little bit better. So why don’t you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do right now
Raymond: so who I am, as I said I’m the owner of Wi-Fi Wise which is a company which focuses on the RF side of things of communication. So we we started in in Wi-Fi now transitioning into other technologies as
well like WAN, but we try to stay clear of all the other layers. We do need to know of course about, for example, DNS because it’s always DNS when stuff doesn’t work. We try to focus on the wireless side of things.
Tom: So not everybody starts out doing IT. How did you get into the IT space?
Raymond: Well I did start out in the IT space but I… after I did my, well I think a bachelor-ish a degree, um for economics and which I had an in-depth I think the English word is in IT so it did databases and stuff. And then I got drafted in the Dutch military so and I kind of liked it so I stuck around for six years. I did training and did electronic warfare over there and then expanded my IT knowledge, military paid for a lot of training. I did my MCC so started with NT35 back in the day, learned about token ring networking, but in electronic warfare I had this big vehicle which was a jamming vehicle and it had 16 kilowatts of EIRP. So I always tell students as well like 16,000 Watts we heat our food with a thousand Watts now we’re doing Wi-Fi with a hundred milliwatts so different in power but that is what got me interested in RF, in antennas, and so that’s why I got started in IT.
Tom: So what’s your favorite thing about what you do?
Raymond: That for the customer it automagically works.
Tom: I like that! But obviously making it work magically doesn’t happen every time the same way. What are some of the challenges that you face in what you do?
Raymond: I think the biggest challenge, but that’s not just for me but probably every Wi-Fi engineer, is getting clear requirement from the customer.
Tom: Now I’m assuming that requires a lot of communication skills being able to ask the right questions but also being able to understand that maybe the answers aren’t where you need to be and find a different way to ask that question?
Raymond: Yeah and as IT people we’re kind of autistic, right? So communication might, even though we’re in in wireless communication, people to people communication might not be our strong suit so getting that information from the customer is most challenging.
Tom: Right and a lot of communication happens here at Mobility Field Day when we get our presentations. What are some of the things you’re most excited to see while you’re here?
Raymond: Um well I’m just excited to be here and to see the the newest and latest and greatest and just soak it all in. But also um trying to clear the marketing fluff and get down to, okay, what’s the actual use case can we use it and is it usable
Tom: Yeah, that’s kind of what we do around here and I’m glad that that’s something you’re kind of interested in. Now let’s just step back for a minute, if you weren’t doing this job, if you weren’t involved in IT, what would you be doing?
Raymond: I always thought forestry work would be nice, a lumberjack or like, yeah, stuff like that.
Tom: Yeah it’d be fun. You learn how to swing an axe, fell a tree.
Raymond: Yeah I’ve done that at when we had a trainer as an account trainer at GT Hills Place, we threw axes and turns out I have a talent for it so.
Tom: That’s impressive not only are you great at training wi-fi people but you might be able to use an axe in creative ways if you have to.
Raymond: I can.
Tom: Well, Raymond, thank you very much for being a part of Mobility Field Day we’re very excited to have you here. If you’d like to see more interviews like this, you can head over to our website at gestaltit.com and if you’d like to learn a little bit more about the interview that Raymond and many other people are involved in head over to techfieldday.com and look for Mobility Field Day 9 which will be streaming live May 17th, 18th, and 19th. We’ll see you there.
