I'm 29 and have been doing network administration for the past 5 years (technology for 9). My training comes primarily from OTJT, self taught, technical training courses for MCSE, CCNA, MS-etc. and certifications, but I live in a fairly small town (28k) which has a very small networking community.
My network of 250-users, 180-workstations, 20-servers, 4-vlans, and 17-multijurisdictional ACL controlled routes is small/medium sized in industry standards, but is a very complex array of technologies to manage by myself(plus+ 1 desktop support and 1 programmer).
That all said, it's communities like this and peers in the industry through whom (in my opinion) these little tidbits of network computing loveliness are found and shared.
Now that you know my story, ... well, now you know. 
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let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance- Proverbs 1:5
