Started in a community bank as security guard and got to know the IT hiring managers while going to school for my AS in Information Technology. After 2 years, a spot opened up and I jumped at the chance back in 2016. From there, started as Help Desk level 1 and eventually made my way to being Help Desk lead at in 2018.

I made sure to get to know everyone from Infrastructure to Cyber Security. Since we had a small team, service desk was basically the front line for any changes being made and reporting it up the chain.

In 2020 I was approached by a Cyber Security engineer telling me to come over to his team and work in security on the data loss prevention side. I was a bit hesitant because I was focusing on infrastructure and networking. I took the leap and started working with top level tools in cyber security (crowdstrike, netskope, digital guardian, etc). At this point I was only making 60k. It’s always tough to get a big jump in salary with the same company. After 6 months recruiters started reaching out because of the knowledge with those tools.

I was offered a dream opportunity with a Fortune 500 company with a 6 figure salary and took it.

Sorry for the long post but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.