A love for working in technology
After graduating from college, I took a job as an IT manager for a manufacturing company. At the time, I was still very hands-on with the technical work. My primary role was as an architect, helping to design and implement solutions.
Over time, both my team and my responsibilities grew to where I was doing less of the technical stuff, focusing more on business and organizational issues. It was during a Cisco Live conference that I realized I wanted to get back to working in technology.
So, in 2018, I decided to pursue my CCNA Cisco Certification. I’d always wanted to do this, but never seemed to have enough time. Getting a CCNA allowed me to move from my role as an IT manager to a network deployment engineer, an individual contributor, without a salary cut. This was important, as I had to make sure I could still support my family. Midway through my CCNA CyberOps studies, I learned of an opportunity at another company, working as its SOC operator. Busy as I was, I made time for the interview. The employer was impressed with how wellinformed I was. I knew the subject matter inside and out because it was precisely the material I had just studied during the Cisco course.
