Chesapeake Computer Consultant-Instructor Bruce Enders knows he was born with a knack for making things work. "As a child," recalls Bruce, "I was always taking things apart and putting them back together. I horrified my mother when, at age two, I dismantled a light fixture and put my finger in it. I've had an electrical bent ever since."
No wonder then that Bruce is considered Chesapeake's "hardware guru." After just a year with the company, he has already found his niche as the resident expert at teaching the Installation and Maintenance of Cisco Routers (IMCR) class. It's a calling that has come quite naturally.
Bruce started his professional career at Western Electric, then a division of AT&T. As the youngest and most junior installer, he was given the responsibility to manage central office telephone switching installations and modifications. After AT&T's divestiture, Bruce worked as a maintenance engineer for Western Electric and trained technicians in operations and repair.
He spent the next few years with American Chain and Cable Company in Frederick, Maryland. As the senior field service engineer, he was responsible for everything the company built in the United States and Canada -- from micro-computers up to large scale mechanical controls.
"Soon after I started the job," he remembers, "I was sent to the company's largest regional client to respond to a downed billing system. Although I had never been inside a DEC computer, I was told to go and see what I could do. I took out the manual and, with an assistant, figured out what was wrong. After an emergency trip to Radio Shack at 4:30 the next morning to get computer chips, we had the system up and running by 8:00 a.m." In fact, Bruce handled the situation so effectively that, in 1977, he accepted an engineering position with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1981, Bruce became co-owner of Data Systems Marketing, a manufacturer's representative firm based in the Washington, D.C., area. As vice president of engineering and government system sales, he single-handedly led the company into the government contract arena, winning a bid to develop a large-scale communications system for a U.S. government agency. Thanks to his efforts, the company's gross sales increased from $4.5 million to over $14 million annually. Bruce sold out his part of the company and, after several years in retail, the computer industry beckoned once again. Bruce then found his current home at Chesapeake.
"One of my concerns of getting back in the technological world," he admits, "was that I would be lost. The overriding truth is that computers are the same as when I left -- they're just smaller and faster. It was an eye-opener. We all think technology takes major leaps, when it usually is small steps."
In addition to IMCR, Bruce is also certified to teach ICRC and Frame Relay. "I strive to make my classes instructive and fun," says Bruce. "I'd do somersaults in front of a class if it would keep the students' attention. I learn as much from my students as they learn from me and approach teaching from this viewpoint. I try to identify my students' objectives and incorporate them into my teaching. I want my students to get everything out of my course that they expect." His efforts obviously pay off. A recent student critique gave this praise about Bruce: "I have a short attention span, but you made the class both enjoyable and informative."
Although Bruce spends most of his time teaching, he does short-term consulting jobs, from installing routers to troubleshooting systems to gathering statistics. Among his favorite consulting jobs was helping an Internet Service Provider analyze its through-put problems.
"I like the family feel at Chesapeake," says Bruce. "It's very much of a team. And I find the combination of consulting and instructing fulfilling because both services provide answers to real-world problems." He adds, "I can imagine always staying in this industry because I can never see getting bored with it. There's always something new."