Intro

It's already the end of January! Hard to believe it's 2022. Last year was unlike any other in my career. I moved from one consulting firm to another and then switched over to the security world.

What Happened Last Year?

Last year was filled with adventure and excitement. I left the place where I worked for over 4 years to join another consulting firm. The move supplied a nice change of pace and some additional perks. It was a bold move but I was ready for the adventure and felt motivated.

Everything went according to plan and I was happy. While content, one thing became apparent. The move was safe. For the last 11 years, I worked in consulting where I was a Senior Engineer. My role encompassed a wide range of technologies and duties. I was responsible for all aspects of technology for the client/business. I worked with Firewalls, routing, switching, Microsoft 365, cloud technologies, and project management for all projects. This provided a ton of exposure to different technologies and services but was also general and quite broad.

Last year I started to fancy the idea of narrowing my focus to more security and cloud-related topics. More and more of my daily tasks centered around security and cloud so this seemed like a natural fit. I was more than happy to continue down the consulting path, but an opportunity to join a startup came up and I decided to jump on it.

What's Going On In 2022?

The shift to security gives me everything I want and allows for a ton of growth. I've been extremely excited to dive in and focus on security and the cloud! I titled this post "Hit Refresh" as in many aspects I'm hitting the refresh button on my career and look forward to learning more and more about security. I'm also thrilled to be working with a government agency. I've never worked in this space and find it quite interesting.

What's Next?

I have a ton of goals for this coming year. One of them is to obtain more certifications centered around security. Say what you will about certs, I like to follow a direct learning path and take the exam to validate my learning. CCSP, CCSK, and CCAK are all at the top of my list. I also am planning on learning more about Terraform and IaC.

I hope you meet your goals and have a wonderful 2022!