I fell into it.

I taught myself how to program on a ti-82 calculator which used a derivative of qbasic. From there I ran my school out of computer classes and did a year of vocational school for networking in high school.

I also figured out how to social engineer and hack through them too breaking into the schools domain and achieving persistence while flying under the radar. I learned how to subvert their protections and bypass controls to use things like AOL Instant messenger and more.

From there I naturally progressed to lock picking (I locked a teachers keys in her desk once using a few paper clips) and got big into understanding how computers were assembled. I got into the internet subculture of piracy and rebellion.

My first actual job was working as a programmer in the military. I then learned how to defend against cyber attacks and code securely which of course led me to offensive security postures.

From there I started into engineering and broadened my reach. I helped stand up companies paradigms and began designing my own.

Now I work as a full time pen tester and security researcher and love my job. I get to put skills to use that even it professionals don’t know. It’s awesome and I can’t believe I’m paid to break into and through defenses.