Shane McKenna
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  • About Me
  • Behind the Badge
  • My Old Blog
  • Photography
  • My Garage
  • Quotes

My old blog 2014 - 2018.

10 years of Travel that didn't cost me a dime.

8/8/2015

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10 years ago today August 8th, 2005 I went from working at a Nextel store in Plainfield to working at TeleNav, a GPS software startup company in Sunnyvale, California.  I had a year left of College at Westwood and I was hired as a Channel Support Specialist.  I traveled around Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan and I helped customers implement GPS in their company and supported the Sprint sales team with any questions they had positioning the software and solution.  

When I got hired out of college in 2005 George Bush Jr. was president and the popular cell phones were the Blackberry, the Motorola RAZR and the Palm Pilot, this was 2 years before the debut of the iPhone.  Many phones did not have GPS in them and they had a browser icon we would rarely if ever use.  

In August of 2008 I was promoted to manager of the Enterprise Accounts Team, to this day it was one of my proudest accomplishments.  I was able to accept the job and didn't have to relocate to California, I loved traveling back and forth but I did not want to sell my house in Illinois & reside in California, so I just commuted as often as I was needed.  I LOVED flying into San Jose, staying for a few days and then flying home.  

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April of 2012 I got hired at Sprint and left TeleNav after 7 years.  It was hard to leave, but working at Sprint I would stay in touch with many of the people at the GPS company in California.  In November of 2013 I got Engineer of the Year and I am very proud of that accomplishment.  

Over the last 10 years I have had some amazing experiences, I learned a LOT personally and professionally, I took some chances and I was stretched outside my comfort zone many times; but I am learning that is the only true way we are truly going to Grow.  

I met some Great people and I was able to see some pretty COOL things along the way.  Here are some of the pictures I took over the last 10 years, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

I met some amazing people along the way.

  • We went to San Francisco and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Las Vegas many times & went on the "giant Drop" on top of the Stratosphere.
  • I flew to Canada with Blackberry and went to Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Nova Scotia in Halifax.
  • My absolute favorite trip was to Victoria Canada after taking a ferry from Vancouver just north of Seattle.  
  • I flew back and forth to California many times and attended Management training where I met a longtime friend Phil Dixon.
  • Annual Sales Kickoff Meetings in California, go karting and catching a few ball games.  
  • Meeting John Walsh at a Prepared and Readiness event in Chicago after hurricane Katrina.  
  • Trip to DC with Carl, Mark and Scotty seeing the Lincoln Monument, one of the best trips I have ever been on to this day.  
  • Japenese Steak House with the team I managed eating Hibachi and enjoying some down time after work.
  • Ping Pong in the office and picking up Danny in the Purple Eclipse convertible on his first day.  
  • Driving to Detroit and Windsor, Canada for the first time.  
  • Many drives to St. Louis and visiting my friend Anna while she went to school in St. Louis and saw the Arch.
  • Coney Island with Chris and Scotty, we ate at Nathan's hot dogs and went on the roller coasters.
  • LA with Sandra and changing my flight to stay a few extra days getting work done but also getting my first tour of Southern California.
  • Marketing meetings in Kirkland, Washington outside of Seattle.  
  • I ate Sushi for the first time and even ate the entire anemone bean , not till years later did I learn the proper way to eat anemone beans.
  • I saw the Arch in St. Louis, Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, 
  • Going Public with TeleNav after years and years of hard work!  
  • Surprise party for Gayle and Mike as they retired + got promoted.  Congrats to them.  
  • Watching Wolf of Wallstreet and Boiler Room with Nick and the Team in Oakbrook.  
  • Meetings with Softbank in Japan at 6pm (in the US) because it was 7am there.  
  • Getting a company car, first the Explorer and then the Ford Fusion.  
  • Wrestling with Kyle at his MMA class he teaches.
  • Comedy club with Logan, Nick and Nick + Rager in Rosemont.  
  • Ping Pong in the Oakbrook office and Fantasy football with the Team.  
  • Helping Gayle as she ran out of gas driving home from Bloomington.  
  • Cleaning up the Oakbrook Picnic area 3 years in a row then BBQ'ing after and playing softball.
  • Pickup games of Basketball Managers vs. Reps, so far we've lost all 3 times and the Rep's have won each time.
  • I joined a Men's group hosted by Don and a few others at work and we meet once a month.  
  • We had a beer at the Haufbrauer House & Toby Keith's bar in Rosemont.  
  • I took a trip to our company Headquarters in Overland Park, KC and had great BBQ.  
  • I've done dozens of Trade Shows and spoke in front of over 100 people, who would have thought 10 years ago I would be speaking in-front of CEO's, Police officers, Fireman and other professional business Men and Woman?  
  • Sushi at Dao many many times with the team in Oakbrook.  
  • Japanese Steak house celebrating a good year with Mike and the team, Pinstripes with the team bowling.
  • Gibson's Steakhouse with Eric after I won a $100 bet, thanks for the Steak Buddy.  
  • Chili Cook-off with my Dad & Eric for the Make a Wish foundation.  
  • We went to many Cubs games as a team & with co-workers, Go Cubbies. 
  • Many Thanksgiving team lunches in Rosemont, we have a lot to be Thankful for.  
  • We went to the Safe-house in Milwaukee Wisconsin, a bar which you need a secret password to get IN the place.

I stopped and smelled the Roses...

Some Gems in Black & White.


Rick & Dominic, thank you for having the confidence in me and bringing me to Sprint for the past 3 1/2 years, I enjoy working with you and you are such a positive influence in my career.    

Thank you "TeleNav Tim" for giving me a chance 10 years ago, because that chance I was able to experience, learn and grow so much personally and professionally.


Cheers and thank you three for being such great friends and mentors.
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    I am a young, go getter and I am very curious, a goal of mine is to learn something new every day.

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