My Yellow Brick Road
For so many years, I’ve had passions that I pursued in thoughts of a career path I would love and enjoy. It started with music. I loved to write songs and thought about why not sing them myself. Yet upon this pursuit I realized there is a lot more to it than just writing a song. First, you have to record it. I decided I would learn to do such a thing and went to a recording engineer school in Nashville, TN and got my certification. It was lots of hands on, but now I could record myself and avoid the fees I would have otherwise incurred in going to a recording studio. Like Dorothy in the Wizard in Oz, this was my Kansas. I was comfortable and content.
After this pursuit I ended up recording local artists, performing locally and learning the music business as well as writing for others. It was through this pursuit that led me to web development. Hence, the yellow brick road to software development (so I thought).
I look at my journey as a yellow brick road because I came alone into an unknown land, and along the way met different mediums that are supporting me along the journey.
The Scarecrow-Brain
Well, I knew it was important to establish an online presence and have a website. I started to look into HTML, CSS and tutorials on how to use these languages. Upon doing this, I thought how cool it was to be able to write some code and then see the results it created. It fascinated me at that time as I never knew about this. Basic Web Development for me was like Dorothy (ironically my name) upon meeting the Scarecrow, she had learned the Scarecrow felt as though he didn’t have a brain. There were many times of “not knowing” feeling like I didn’t have a clue or could think like a developer.
The Tinman — Heart
I decided to pursue this interest and went to a community college for Computer Programming and Database Management. It was here I fell in love and realized I actually get this stuff and enjoyed being able to use critical thinking and problem solving to write a program. I started off in Visual Basic and learned to create windows applications, then SQL in building databases and other things like Javascript, HTML, CSS, and even delved into Adobe Flash animations. Ironically, I felt this was the path I should take.
Years went by and I just did the normal routine work as a Certified Pharmacy Technician and school. Yet some family health issues took my mind off a lot, I stopped working on coding and just was dealing with a lot and didn’t have the heart into anything really. This was like Dorothy meeting the Tinman who felt he didn’t have a heart. Discouragement and self-doubt took place.
Fast forward to 2016, I started getting back into learning programming languages and again realized there is more to it. I could learn a language and take a class and do a project , yet how to put it all together I didn’t quite grasp.
I transferred to my cities University and now pursuing my degree in Information Technology with Software development and Cybersecurity concentration. I still felt there was more….
The Lion — Courage
I then learned about Bootcamps and did lots of research on various ones and realized I could actually get lots of guidance and hands on practice with building web apps from start to finish and seeing the whole picture. Like Dorothy meeting the Lion who felt he didn’t have courage. At first, I was doubting if I could really learn how to code like a professional. Would I be able to retain the information? Be successful at this? Could I have the time to go to school, Bootcamp and work? These were all questions on my mind.
I decided the answer was Yes. I attended the Bootcamp and learned about building web applications using Ruby on Rails. I even experienced working with a team to build an online chess game application. Then as I finished this program, something happened……
Munchkinland — Falling upon an unknown land
Just like Dorothy, fell into an unknown land. I discovered security. I always wondered how do we secure applications? So, I began to do some research in secure coding, which led to me discovering the various vulnerabilities that could be exploited. This led me down a rabbit hole of discovering the various tactics, techniques, and procedures threat actors use to exploit these vulnerabilities and the constant threats we face. All this intrigued me to want to know more about cybersecurity as a field as I felt there were many opportunities for solving challenges.
Thankfully, the program I was in at my university allowed me to ability to do an internship in Cyber Intelligence and it was here I discovered I wanted to make this a career.
And now that I’m working as an Advanced Security Engineer in ThreatOps full-time, I have been able to apply many skills I picked up along my journey. Critical thinking, research and problem-solving have all been a part of my day to day role.
Yet as I felt before when I attended the bootcamp, many questions still arise being in the field. Will I be able to retain the information? Be successful at this? I’ve come a long way and supported by many who have saw my potential.
Oz
I am at a place that I know all along things happened and fell into place as it should on my journey. I have found myself yet again in an unknown land, but now I am more equipped to travel this path. I have a brain to understand cybersecurity and apply what I have learned, I have the heart filled with passion in pursuing my goals as a cybersecurity professional and the courage to see it to all the way through even if there are bumps along the way.
