when Rick was born

Day Zero

I was young and naive, meeting people while drinking and having fun at a beach party. We had fun, even spent time together for span of 6 months or so and we had more things in common than we even imagined at that point. But suddenly we had to leave our city for studies, and we lost contact for more than thirteen years.

Day Zero v0.5

After all these years we met again three years ago, with different hobbies, but same preferences, we were adults now, responsible entities with our jobs... the whole package!
While visiting the house of a person I like to call friend even today, I saw them operating a start-up cybersecurity company, with only this person being actually experienced with the concept.
The start-up was co-founded from all four of them, an all-around experienced hacker, one technical people pleaser, an investor that loves gaming, and another person like me seeking a way to get on top, but with a background a bit more related than mine to cybersecurity. They also had an intern for some days, and that guy was a real character, one of a kind!

Day Zero v0.7

Walking the doorstep I was filled with emotions watching the friend again after all these years, meeting these beautiful, among others, people. Fascinated from the concept, I asked if I can join and they gave me a laptop to study a bit and check if I change my mind.

I was a gamer my whole life, had a powerful desktop but I couldn't borrow their laptop all the time, so after a couple days I bought a laptop capable of heavy gaming, therefore capable to support a cybersecurity practioner in their day-to-day work and entertainment.

Day Zero v1

Two full months passed and their intern character was competitive enough for a non-technical intern, but unfortunately there was place for only one of us. Known for my intense and bold character, among others, I asked them for a job, which I got fairly easily.
Full time career changer, part-time payment, with a second full-time job that won't drain my mentality within the day. I loved it and pushed even further for technical knowledge, although I started on the wrong foot. Instead of fundamentals I went straight for hard mode, achieving an impressive 40% on CPTS, with a background in theater and arts. I got humbled enough when it had to be done, and my arrogance dropped at minimum levels shortly.

Day Zero v2

The months passed and I took the risk to quit my second job, which was paying way better, and get into cybersecurity full time. I was stupid, not for taking that decision, but for not taking actions that I should have taken at that point and advance into the field. My brain was fried from bad habits and huge amount of information input. The start-up began to fall apart after bad decisions were made, in a market that is valuing information way less than actual money. We lost clients that could comfortably pay 5 figures for our full package of services but prefered to lose their data than pay proactively for assessments. We started educating them for a fraction of cost just to understand that clients' data and a company's reputation are more valuable than currency as threats emerge through internet daily with the most innovative ways.

Day Zero v3 (Final Version)

Tention is a usual aroma in the industry's air, demanding market, hard to enter back at the country I used to live, and with colleagues that were acting like we were a Big-Four corp. Pressure was devastating when unjustified, so eventually the once called co-founders started to jump from the ship like crazy, along with other staff. Out of eight, we only stayed three, without motivation and heavy atmosphere to cover our work environment, I left too.
I got many lessons from that experience, which wasn't the first bad I had as an employee, and with my founder mindset I wouldn't quit earlier, but I couldn't stay longer either. Money run the world unfortunately and being underpaid is not a nice feeling for my pockets.

Day One v0.1

After that experience I decided to take a small break and promised myself that I will be back to finish CPTS one day not far in the future.
Got my old job back, though I didn't really enjoy it... Four months later I quit to work at the Desk Support position at a summer 5-star hotel. Knowing my skills and intuition, observing the level of education and mindset that was ruling that place, I was able to change things and procedures for the best interest of the organization and apply my knowledge in IT section at the same time. I utilized the software they run on their machines to a certain point that I had 4 or more hours daily to study on-site and grow my cybersecurity skills to fill that free time I had at my disposal. But I was still young and naive, and spent my time fishing as a hobby at nights mostly and that 4+ free work-hours I was either sleeping, or trying to fix the organization's issues, either technical or personal, or just doom-scrolling.

Day One v0.9

I met my person just before I enter the gates of hospitality industry and that paranoia of summer season, which gave me will to get a strong foundation, practice my english since it's my second language and I'm not native, and eventually after the season to move at the country she was living at the time. Having little experience on your CV, to a technical field such as cybersecurity is not the best thing to have, but that's why there are certifications, to prove not only that you can memorize questions and answers, but to learn some tools and acquire skills you don't have, with the right path of course.

Day One v1

So here I am, a full time plus self-studying cybersecurity practicioner with productive studying time between 11 and 14 hours daily. Preparing for a job with practically 3 months of serious study, and hands-on experience of almost 2 years, learning new tools on a regular basis, applying concepts I used to be familiar theoretically, utilizing LinkedIn to get to an interview and sending my CV almost to every opportunity I notice. It sounds like normal now, considering the fact that back at my home country I never even thought about CV... everything is based on networking, no matter where or how technical is a role.

To be continued...

This is the first part of my journey, a bit long, including 3 years of my life, but that's just the beginning into a new wonderful life, new unusual and satisfying habits, a better future with the sense of satisfaction to my urge for knowledge.

-Rick