EP. 5 - Skills to Pay the Bills

EP. 5 - Skills to Pay the Bills

Is a career in OT still worth it? Which certifications are actually worth chasing, and which ones are mostly marketing? What's the real story behind the skilled labor shortage? And with all the AI noise out there, will these jobs even be here in five years? In Episode 5 of How to Handshake, Ryan LaFlamme and Ping Yao are joined by Jon Spooner and Mike Conway, co-founders of Stacks and Joules [https://www.stacksandjoules.org] — the NYC-based nonprofit running a 14-week BAS field-technician bootcamp with a 92% post-graduation placement rate. We cover what an OT job actually looks like on a Monday morning, why Stacks and Joules deliberately won't scale faster, the fastest path into the industry today (IT skills with a dash of mechanical context), where AI is actually chewing up jobs in the built environment, and the one piece of advice everyone considering the jump should hear: learn PoE, watch out for early-career poaching, and don't take this job if you don't like working with people. Stacks and Joules: https://www.stacksandjoules.org/ [https://www.stacksandjoules.org/] Subscribe to the podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1889945777 [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1889945777] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Jg2yumYXCV2dRl1sIuPHO [https://open.spotify.com/show/6Jg2yumYXCV2dRl1sIuPHO] Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1002831921 [https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1002831921] Read the full show notes and transcript: https://www.optigo.net/how-to-handshake-ep-5/ [https://www.optigo.net/how-to-handshake-ep-5/] How to Handshake is Optigo Networks' podcast series on OT networking, building automation, and the conversations that actually move the industry forward. New episodes every two weeks.

Ep. 4 - Navigating IT/OT Convergence

On this week's show, Jim Meacham from Altura Associates [https://alturaassociates.com/] and Douglas Plumley from Dartmouth College [https://home.dartmouth.edu/] are here to talk about what actually happens when IT and OT teams are told to work together. Where do they misunderstand each other on day one? Who owns what when a controller drops off the network at 11 p.m. on a Saturday? And when IT security and OT security want opposite things from the same network, how do you write a policy that both sides can actually live with?

How to Handshake, EP 3: Decrypting BACnet/SC

On this week's show…Nate Benes from the University of Nebraska joins Ping and I to break down BACnet/SC — is it really the next step in OT networking, should you be getting ready to migrate, and are your BBMDs headed for the recycle bin? We get into the hub-and-spoke model, what zero trust actually looks like when the "user" is a VAV controller, certificates and who should hold the keys, how SC and BACnet/IP coexist, and Nate's honest take on when to migrate (and when to leave a working building alone). Plus a quick rundown of what's new in OptigoVN — ARCNET support, device aliasing, the Niagara packet capture driver prototype, and the Neeve marketplace integration.

How to Handshake, EP 2: Life after commissioning.

It’s Episode 2 of How to Handshake, Optigo Network’s brand new podcast series! On this week's show… Saheel Chandrani from PingCx [https://www.pingcx.com] and Matt Miller of Fred Williams [https://www.equansmep.com/companies/fred-williams/] join Ping and I to dig into what happens after the commissioning team packs up and leaves. For a lot of people in this industry, that's the moment the real work begins—and the moment most buildings start to drift. We talk early warning signs, documentation gaps, the case for and against predictive maintenance, and what it would take to make network health a standard commissioning deliverable.

How To Handshake, EP 1: The drive for energy savings starts with OT networks.

It’s Episode 1 of How to Handshake, Optigo Network’s brand new podcast series! On this week's show… Aaron Hastings from Apex Consulting [https://apexconsulting.ca/] and Alex Waibel of BuildingLogix [https://buildinglogix.net/] join Ping and I to talk about the growing demand for energy efficiency, energy as a service, and how the OT network has become a foundation for energy saving success.  Want the video? Subscribe to the video podcast anywhere you get your pods, or right here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDsTJiKoQFRCGx_9hZ-iaA [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDsTJiKoQFRCGx_9hZ-iaA]