Company History, Philosophy, & Development of Two Stage ''Test Drive''/Qualification Process

The philosophy, concept, structure, and success of LAN/WAN Professional and its clients are based on the experience of Eric Choi, Founder, and many thousands of clients who became successful trough the two previous organizations ICTP and Tech Pros Group. The following is a historical summary of these organizations and their founder, Eric Choi.

Company founder, Eric Choi, comes from a successful career in information technology including consulting, design and management responsibilities with various Government, Military and Fortune 500 to 1,000 corporations. The knowledge and experience acquired during this period became the foundation for ICTP.

The International Consortium of Technology Professionals (ICTP) opened in 1998 as a graduate-level vocational school specializing in "real world" hands-on focused, enterprise LAN/WAN training designed for recent college graduates and seasoned IT professionals seeking to upgrade their information technology skills. The certifications that ICTP handled included multiple Microsoft, Linux, UNIX, Sun, Sniffer, Checkpoint, and Cisco (CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, and the prestigious CCIE Certification). In fact, ICTP had the most successful CCIE training program in the United States with four fully certified CCIE instructors and the largest CCIE hands-on lab in the world at that time. The average training program offered at ICTP cost $20,000 to over $30,000 and was primarily paid for through student loans.

Based on an excellent word of mouth reputation, ICTP experienced explosive growth, expanding from a small 2 person operation in 1998 to a 110 employee company by the fall of 2000. ICTP's personnel included over 60 technology instructors, including 20+ instructors dedicated to Cisco Training including 11 CCIE Written and 4 fully certified CCIE instructors.

Beginning in the summer of 2000 to 2004, the IT industry went into the worst recession it had ever experienced. Thousands of technology companies were bought out, downsized significantly, or simply closed. Even the most successful and well-capitalized companies struggled during this time. Cisco Systems, for example, experienced a loss in value of over 80%, dropping from a company valuation of over $500 billion dollars to approximately $80 billion dollars in just 2 years. In the training industry, over 100 technology schools in California alone closed during 2000 to 2003. This represented more school closures in just 3 years than the previous 20 years combined.

ICTP managed to stay open for another three years while majority of other schools closed, finally closing its doors in October of 2003 after helping thousands of information technology professional's fast track their careers.

"Get busy living or get busy dying" is one of Eric Choi's favorite quotes from the film Shawshank Redemption. It speaks of the choices that we are presented with during times of extreme despair. After spending a year struggling to find the inspiration to "get busy living", Eric Choi found that inspiration and began Tech Pros Group in 2005.

Tech Pros Group (TPG) combined the highly successful technology training of ICTP with a new business model which bound the company's success to the success of its clients in fast tracking their careers in information technology. The reaction to this business model was explosive. During TPG's first year in operation, the company grew some 500%. Beginning the second year, Tech Pros Group experienced growing pains. The problem was not attracting clients; rather, the problem was attracting the "RIGHT CANDIDATES" - i.e. those with the technical aptitude and excellent work ethic to successfully complete TPG's intensive and challenging program.

The IT training programs offered by Tech Pros Group had been tested and proven by thousands of past clients (see ICTP) to help individuals develop IT skills that would normally take 3 to 4 years in just 3 months! The most important factor in ensuring that candidates successfully completed the program was making sure that only the "RIGHT CANDIDATES" were accepted.

Unfortunately, Tech Pros Group did not do satisfactory job of properly qualifying its candidates. From 2005 to 2008, Tech Pros Group serviced over 1,000 candidates. Unfortunately, a majority of these candidates (over 80%) were not the "RIGHT CANDIDATE". In spite of this, TPG's success rate still exceeded 60%. This was due to TPG's well-established and highly effective hands-on focused training program. For Tech Pros Group, a success rate of 60% meant that 40% of our candidates were unsuccessful. More importantly, these unsuccessful candidates blamed Tech Pros Group for their failures, resulting in a significant number of negative blogs being created between the years of 2006 and 2008.

During this period, Eric Choi was confronted with a major personal crisis. His love was diagnosed with terminal cancer and underwent a series of treatments and surgeries. By fall of 2008, Eric Choi made the painful decision to close Tech Pros Group and launch LAN/WAN Professional. This decision was based upon the realization that "fixing" TPG's qualification process would require time and energy that, due to the extreme challenges in his personal life, Eric was unable to spare.

The lessons learned from Tech Pros Group, combined with the proven and effective training system inherited from ICTP, laid the foundation for what is now LAN/WAN Professional, a nationwide membership organization that is passionate about "Developing Tomorrow's Technology Leaders Today".

LAN/WAN Professional launched in the fall of 2008 as a nationwide membership organization focused on helping entry- to senior-level information technology professionals fast track their careers. LAN/WAN Professional's PAID Internship/IMMEDIATE Placement Programs combine the best of ICTP & Tech Pros Group's proven effective hands-on focused, full immersion training programs.

During the launching years of LAN/WAN Professional (2008), Eric's love become permanently hospitalized due to the escalation of her cancer condition. For the next year (2008 to 2009), Eric limited the number of clients LAN/WAN Professional handled to a small group to ensure that he could focus on taking care of his love during the last days of her life. She passed away the fall of 2009.

Beginning 2010, LAN/WAN Professional focused on solidifying the final and most important component to the success of our comprehensive PAID Internship/IMMEDIATE Placement Programs: developing of method for identifying and only accepting the ''RIGHT CANDIDATE''. LAN/WAN Professional began experimenting with various methods for qualifying candidates including phone assessments, remote hands-on technical assessments, and basic to extensive background checks with limited results.

By the middle of 2011, LAN/WAN Professional's success rate had improved moderately from 60% (see Tech Pros Group) to approximately 75%. For most organizations, a success rate of 75% would be considered very good. Unfortunately, a success rate of 75% still meant that 25% of our candidates were unsuccessful.

LAN/WAN Professional discovered that the most effective method for identifying the "RIGHT CANDIDATE" is through a two stage "Test Drive"/Qualification process involving a Cisco Training Grant that allows qualified and employment serious candidates to fully "Test Drive" our program prior to making any serious commitment while LAN/WAN Professional thoroughly validates that the applicant is the "RIGHT CANDIDATE" prior to investing over $40,000 in their training.

Since the implementation of this Two Stage "Test Drive"/Qualification Process in the middle of 2011, LAN/WAN Professional now have a stellar success rate that exceeds 90%. LAN/WAN Professional is proud of our stellar success rate and want to ensure that it stays that way. For this reason, please ensure that you are the "RIGHT CANDIDATE" prior to continuing on with the application process.