How BowTiedCyber got into Cyber

And it was a complete accident - the whole story from starting college to the first cyber job

Hello frens.

Many of you have wondered how I got into cyber in the first place. This career is absolutely incredible in every way - it’s exciting, always new, requires critical thinking, the people who work in the industry are amazing, it’s extremely high demand, pays very well, zero college necessary, etc etc etc

But how did I get into this job? To know how I ended up where I am today, I need to take you through the entire process from start to finish. We’re going back - way back. All the way back to 2011 when I first stared college at 17 years old (yes, I’m 28). So let’s dive in.

The year is 2011. I’m a junior in high school in the state of <redacted>. My super hot girlfriend is a senior and I hate high school. I have all the credits I need to graduate except my last two semesters of English and some elective credits. I ask the VP if I can take English at the community college so I can graduate with the current senior class in 2011.

“No you can’t because the school needs funding. You can test out and leave (GED) or you can take 6 classes your senior year.”

Fuck that. I tested out. Got my GED and started community college at 17 with my super hot girlfriend (future ex wife). I was studying business and general education at the time - what a joke.

I do that for 2 years, get 48 of my 60 credit towards my degree, get married and move to a new state. I’m now 19. When I go to the new community college, only 24 of my credits transferred. A whole year wasted. Welcome to the university system that’s “for the people”.

I start working on my same degree in the new state - an AA in business management. Three years go by and I finish my AA. During that time, I had a conversation with a biology instructor. This will forever be THE WORST advice I EVER GOT.

“So, what are you studying?”

”Business Management”

“Where are you going to go for that?”

”The local University <redacted>”

“Let me get this straight. You’re going to get a nothing degree like Business Management from a nothing school like <redacted> - you might have a hard time finding a job.”

I then proceeded to spend the weekend drinking beer and contemplating my life.

I meet him in his office the next Monday. I told him, “Allyster, I think I hate you.”

“I’m okay with that.”

“Don’t you want to know why?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Well, I think I’m gonna get my degree in Math with the intent of becoming an Actuary.” An actuary is the mathiest of math nerds - they use advanced statistics to set the rates for insurance companies. A critical job - too cheap and you go under. Too expenseive and you’re not competitive.

“Let’s talk about that. They work 20 hours a week and make $180k/year.”

“That sounds pretty good.”

“Yeah, it should.”

He then proceeds to tell me that I should consider going to the best school I can, regardless of how much debt I have to take out because the payoff will be worth it.

I then go to a nearbyish public university that was “very good” and was taking out $50k/year to survive (because I had a family to provide for and my ex hadn’t worked a day in her life).

I start getting my math degree and studying for the first of 8 actuarial exams. After 300 hours of study, doing practice exams under exact exam like conditions, I was getting 9/30, 10/30, 12/30. The minimum to pass was 70%, or 21/30. And this was also the easiest exam. So I decided to throw in the towel.

To this day, advanced statistics is the only thing academically that I’ve ever failed at. To everyone who says I’m a “Genius,” I assure you. I am not. This is why.

After one year at University, my ex wife had a mental breakdown and we had to move back home to be with family for “support”.

I switched to an online University where I would then finish my math degree. After 6 months, we move back to the state but a new part this time, in December of 2017. I would get my Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics in April of 2018.

From April to July, I was GRINDING trying to learn development to try and get a job. Learning Python. HTML. JavaScript. Front end frameworks. Back end frameworks. Free Code Camp. Odin’s Project. Everything I could to get a job, and I failed.

I then proceeded to get a job as a math teacher because I needed employment - my time ran out.

I hated every minute of it. It made me depressed because I could not handle high school freshmen on a daily basis.

So I started looking for options. I had my Bachelor’s in Math, so maybe I could work off of that. There was a private adult education school that had a data science program. I met the owner, and I was sold. I got accepted into the program, and in November of 2018, I submitted my notice to quit my teaching job at the end of the semester.

Two weeks before my last day, I get a phone call from the data science school:

“We have some bad news. You were 1 of 6 students. 4 of them were from Turkey and they went back home. There aren’t enough students to make the program. The program has been cancelled.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELLED. I JUST QUIT MY JOB AND I HAVE A FAMILY TO PROVIDE FOR.”

“Calm down, we won’t leave you hanging. We have a cyber program starting up in January and a weekend data science program starting in April. We’ll give you the cyber program for free, and the weekend program will cover all the same material minus two modules that we will give you for free as well. You can study cyber until the data science program starts, then you can have both the cyber and data science skills.”

What else am I gonna do? I never considered cyber, no idea what it even meant. Isn’t that hackers who hack Facebook and NASA? Guess it doesn’t matter - this is my lot now.

So I start the program. Dive head first into Networking and get my NET+ first in my cohort. Almost got my SEC+ before the start of the course but never did (and never actually got it at all, more on that soon).

We then dive into the topics - networking, wireshark, Kali Linux, virtual machines, packet captures, Python, everything you could ever want in a program (well, almost everything)

I say that because at the time it seemed perfect. In hindsight, there were more things I wish were included. What do I wish was included? The things I offer in my substack. Sign up now before the price doubles. $10/month today and you can lock in your rate for life.

I then become a Certified Ethical Hacker (the exam is a joke), and then I proceeded to apply to 100 jobs.

This is why I never got my SEC+, because once you have your C|EH, no one cares about your SEC+.

I crashed in burned in more interviews than I care to remember.

“How would you escalate your privilege on a Linux box?” “I don’t know”

“How would you search for this query in splunk?” “No idea”

“Did you hack into the test environment that we set up for you?” “Nope - couldn’t do it”

Then one day, I get an interview. They’re a small startup across the country looking for a Network Security Engineer. Looks like they want someone with a deep understanding of Networking, Python skills, and some red team skills. This looks absolutely perfect.

I applied, had a first interview, a pcap to analyze which I wrote into a report that blew my soon to be boss away, got an offer for $90k, and the rest was history.

So that’s how I got my first cyber job. A complete accident that ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me. And I want that joy for you too - where you found cyber on accident because of a cartoon hoodie with a $10/month course that charged your life.

Cyber really is as great as I’ve said it is an even better. I hope you consider a career change because you really can go from ZERO to HOODIE with just my stack alone.

That’s all for this one. Follow me on Twitter @BowTiedCyber and keep your eyes peeled for new content dropping in the stack every week.

WAGMI

Your fren,

-Cyber