This is officially the start of my blogging experience to document my journey to becoming a cybersecurity professional and what I am learning throughout this transition. This journey started in December 2020 when I decided to apply to a master’s program at the Maryville University of Saint Louis.
After receiving my bachelor’s in 2017, I always knew that I would go back to school to obtain my master’s, but I never thought that my master’s would be in cybersecurity. If someone had asked me after graduating with my bachelor’s, I would have told them that I would be going to obtain my MBA.
Wait – wait, that doesn’t make sense; how does one go from wanting their MBA to obtaining a master’s in cybersecurity?
Let’s start from the beginning…
On May 14th, 2017, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science from the University of Kentucky in psychology and finance. At the time, I loved learning and understanding the human mind and dealing with finance and numbers. After graduation, I applied to many finance/banking jobs through different platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, job fairs, etc. Eventually, I landed a position with a well-known bank. I was excited and ready to start putting my degree to use, so I took the position and left working at Best Buy, the job I had worked throughout my undergraduate career.
I worked in the finance industry for two years; throughout this time, I had the opportunity to learn a lot and practice a lot of soft skills, like communication, teamwork, and time management.
By the end of 2018, I became mentally and emotionally drained.
The work-life balance was not healthy; I began to neglect myself and my relationships with friends, family, and any significant other that I would try to date. The hours were long, and it felt like I had to choose between my finance career or having a social life.
Due to this, around September of 2018, I began to contemplate what other passions I had or what I could do to leave the finance industry to regain my happiness when I graduated from the University of Kentucky. After weighing my options, I realized that I have always had a passion for the IT and tech industries. I just never knew where to begin and didn’t have anyone to point me in the right direction to get started.
I remember in October of 2018; I saw a commercial for Google’s IT Support Fundamentals certificate, which grabbed my attention because it was exactly what I needed to make that transition from finance to the IT industry. I took this certificate course through Coursera, which took me through many of the basic skills one needs to earn a help desk IT role.
After completing this course, I started to apply to IT helpdesk roles on LinkedIn and Indeed. I got turned down from many job applications, but working in Finance prepared me to handle rejection, so I didn’t let that stop me. I continued to apply and finally landed a role as a Technical Support Technician in early 2019.
I was finally in the IT industry, and you couldn’t tell me anything. 
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But I didn’t stop there… I continued to learn and practice my skills which resulted in me working my way up to Level 2 Technical Support Technician and Technical Support Team Lead. By the end of 2020, I realized that I wanted to do more than work in a help desk role in the IT industry. So I began to search for different careers within the IT industry, which brought both cloud and cybersecurity roles to my attention as roles that presented challenges and promising careers with longevity. So after doing my research, I decided to move forward with pursuing a job down the cybersecurity path of the IT industry by applying for my master’s in cybersecurity.
So, there you have it, that is how I went from considering obtaining my MBA to pursuing a career in cybersecurity. Working in the IT industry and pursuing this career in cybersecurity had provided me with the happiness I once had when I graduated from my undergraduate program and has become my new passion.
Thank you so much for reading! Stay tuned…