Jonathan Knight always has loved to fix things. Growing up on a farm in Elkview, he always had something that needed to be repaired. So, he learned a lot of electrical and mechanical skills out of necessity. And, he learned as he went. He didn’t have the internet, so most of his beginning knowledge came from the encyclopedia. He says he “would’ve been dangerous” if he had the internet available as a kid.
During his days at Elkview Middle School, Jonathan built a Tesla coil as a project. It was a project that he carried around through his years at Herbert Hoover High School all the way to his days at West Virginia University. It could generate 1 million volts, and it could power lightbulbs that were within three feet of it. As far as he knows, that coil still resides at WVU for students to use and learn from.
At WVU, he was among the first to graduate with an accredited dual engineering degree. He earned B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering.
After school, Jonathan began a career that took him to some of the region’s largest companies. He was lead network engineer for NiSource – Columbia Gas Transmission as well as Supervisor In Network Engineer for Chesapeake Appalachia. In 2012, he joined Advantage Technology.
His title is Customer Solutions Director, and he runs the Network Engineering Department. He comes up with new designs, new concepts for customers. He is customer-driven. He’s proud that he uses his engineering skill-sets on the job, and he loves that he’s still able to be hands-on with his work. It’s who he is. Jonathan readily admits he doesn’t really have any hobbies. He calls himself a workaholic. “I love what I do,” he says.
Jonathan is an expert in networking, connectivity, data communications and data centers. He has in-depth knowledge and can coordinate multi-group, complex enterprise-level projects from concept to completion. He has experience planning, directing and coordinating network engineering projects as well as network based security and disaster recovery solutions. He is an expert on WAN/LAN/MAN, VPN technologies, remote/extranet access, internet/extranet firewalls, vendor diversity, host load balancing and wireless LANs.
Still, as much as technology has changed everyone’s day-to-day life in the last few decades, Jonathan says he uses the lessons he learned as a boy on the farm. He said he has learned to be patient, which goes hand-in-hand with not getting frustrated easily. Both are qualities that serve him well today.
Above all, Jonathan loves being able to figure things out. It’s something he’s has done since his childhood when he tinkered with things. He had to do it then. But today, it’s a source of pride when he’s able to figure something out that makes a customer happy – the satisfaction of a job well done.
