Benjamin Piper

Software Engineering Instructor Lead

Online

Ben Piper is the author of several Sybex study guides, including the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide, CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide, and CCNP Enterprise Certification Study Guide. He has also created 40+ Pluralsight courses covering AWS, networking, and configuration management, and wrote Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches [Manning]. Prior to this, he has had a diverse career spanning retail, finance, and healthcare industries, where he performed network, Linux, Windows, Citrix, and VMware administration.

IN CONVERSATION WITH BEN:

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

JavaScript and Python are my favorites.

What is your favorite technical skill to teach to students and why?

The terminal is a fundamental skill that is supremely useful and teaches you more about a system than any GUI could.

What is most important to you about teaching technical skills at General Assembly?

Instilling a sense of confidence, beginning with the fundamentals and building on top of those.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to learn technical skills to reach new career goals?

Always start with the fundamentals, and practice, practice, practice! Theory and practice are both equally important, and you have to crawl before you can walk before you can run.

What would you like to highlight about your experience in your technical domain outside of teaching?

I've done everything from networking to virtualization to Windows and Linux system administration to cloud to voice to programming.