Now I Can Buy Beer

Hey there.  My name’s Chris Shanku.  I am 24 years old and currently live in the greatest city in the country: Athens, GA.  After spending almost the first 18 years of my life right by the beach in Savannah, GA, I moved inland to Athens after high school where I attended and graduated from the University of Georgia in May 2008, getting a B.S. in Mathematics.  I was hired by an IT consulting firm as a Systems Engineer in Fall 08 but the position was eliminated a couple of months later due to the current state (or lack thereof) of the economy, leaving me to live on the streets and forcing me to beg for money and scraps to get by.  

All jokes aside, I have been a soccer referee for over 10 years now and have recently started doing it full time to make ends meet.  I’ve officiated games at very high levels in the country, including professional games in the USL (the level of soccer directly below the MLS) and college games in the ACC, SEC, and other top conferences.  It’s something that I extremely enjoy and I can’t see my life without it.

Although it keeps me in pretty good shape and around a game that I dearly love, I really want my career to be in IT.  I am a Microsoft Certified Professional in configuring Windows Vista and have high aspirations on becoming a Microsoft Certified IT Professional as both an Enterprise Administrator and as an Enterprise Support Technician.  Hopefully this will help me more to obtain a job in a related field.  I am currently preparing for taking the 70-242 (Server 2008 Network Configuration) exam so any advice you have send it my way!

Anyway, I started NowICanBuyBeer in April 2009 to help recent (or upcoming) college graduates deal with life away from constant partying studying.  You can find a bit more out about the blog here.

Other than that, I’m an avid beer drinker and a HUGE sports fan (especially of UGA, the Falcons, and the Red Wings).  I look forward to talking about all kinds of beer and anything related to the job market.  If you have any feedback or if I can be of any help to you with your travels, please reach out to me and I’ll be happy to respond.

All the best,

Chris Shanku
Email: chris@nowicanbuybeer.com
Twitter: @csha