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Ever wondered how one could transition from a banking job to a role in cloud technology? Or how a career in criminal justice could pivot to becoming a Cloud Solutions Architect? Meet Destini Williams, our guest for this episode, who has made such transitions. They take us on a journey from their early careers at Wells Fargo and in criminal justice to their current roles in technology. We also discuss the different cloud solutions available at Microsoft, the role of programs like Level Up in Tech for budding techies, and touch upon our favorite underrated TV shows.
Navigating the tech industry and starting from scratch can be challenging, especially without a tech-focused background. Destini share their trials and triumphs, and we talk about the importance of research, seeking help, and the role companies can play in assisting newcomers. Destini speaks about her unique use of social media platforms for career growth and how she landed an internship through LinkedIn. We also cover pertinent topics like cybersecurity, identity management, and the role of Aura, our sponsor for this episode.
Finally, we emphasized the importance of communication and awareness in dealing with online scams. With the rise of online criminals targeting vulnerable populations, we discuss strategies to outsmart them and the role of scammer payback. Plus, learn from Destini how to navigate workplace resistance, transition roles, and negotiate compensation during a career transition. All this, peppered with a fun conversation on our favorite TV shows that sadly lasted for just a season. We promise you it's an episode packed with enriching insights and experiences!
If you enjoyed the show don't forget to leave us a 5 star review, to help with the algorithm :)
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So, and Riley, that's when you were pretty much decided to go on insurance.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was working at Wells Fargo, actually in collections and bank collections. I just knew. When I was there I was like this cannot be it. There's no way I can do this for another five years, three years, like what's next? So I quit because I was in school and I just kept thinking to myself like how are you going to get a job, how are you going to get experience in cyber if you have this job full time? I actually got my internship basically from my LinkedIn profile. I had the manager reach out to me. I was open for work, posting a lot of stuff that I was doing in class, just posting a lot of cybersecurity related things. That got me in the door, that got me at the cybersecurity table.
Speaker 1:What is a cloud solutions architect?
Speaker 2:It depends At Microsoft. We have different flavors. You can start off on a level zero and you can go all the way to a 10 in terms of your technical capabilities. So my flavor is security and within security, office 365, security Sentinel and Zero Trust. Those are my babies.
Speaker 1:Are you interested in starting your career in the cloud? Well, if that's you, then I got some for you. Level Up in Tech is a comprehensive 24 week program guaranteed to help you land a high pain role in the cloud. Some of the skills that they teach you in Level Up in Tech are server config and troubleshooting, aws infrastructure as code, ci, cd scripting, containerization and more. Level Up in Tech has helped over 800 people start their career in the cloud. So if you're interested in the program, click the link in my bio, click on the tech resources and click on Start your Cloud Career. All right, man, we ready to pod now. I got the energy up. I got the energy all the way up.
Speaker 2:All right, me too, I'm there.
Speaker 1:When we did our intro call, we talked about TV shows and how you're pretty much a movie and a TV show buff. Yes, what's your favorite underrated TV show? So, hopefully, something. That's not why it's widely known that everyone talks about.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say actually Hawthorne with Jada Pinkett Smith. A lot of people haven't heard of it, but it was a big thing when it was on TV Super old I can't even she was playing a, I think, a head nurse in a hospital and I want to say it went on for like three or four seasons and then it just stopped abruptly. It is one of the most underrated shows for sure. Like I love it, I'll watch it at least once a year, if not more.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, that's cool, like I know. For me it's funny enough because she actually was pretty good in Gotham, like as much as Jada's been social media. I was next time. I jaded this one before I left, but I underrated show Okay, underrated show Everybody doesn't talk about. I got two because one of only lasted for a season, but it was very good. Actually, I can throw three in there. One is old. You got to be a certain age, remember this. My brother and me was there trying to reboot right now, which we'll see how that goes. Two would be parenthood Robert Townsend parenthood and three would be shots fired with Senai Lathan and I forgot the other dude that played the other lawyer.
Speaker 2:And I haven't heard of that one.
Speaker 1:Shot fired was only one season and came on Fox and the premise of it was pretty much a white kid got killed by a cop and then you find out there was some other cover ups that happened when another black kid was killed. It was too real of a show and how they showed everything happening to where you was like, okay, we kind of see what's happening and why things are the way they are. So that's that's. That's probably like an underrated shot. I think if you sit down and watch it like, yeah, this I can see why I didn't have a second season. Yeah, that one and even a newer show our kind of people was pretty good.
Speaker 2:Is that on Netflix? It should be on Hulu. I think I've seen it on Hulu.
Speaker 1:She's like she used to be a model. She's also a lawyer on Lincoln Lawyer Brown skin woman. I don't know her. Very nice, very pretty.
Speaker 2:It's not even no it's not even she's.
Speaker 1:She's a.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I'm going to check it out, yeah yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1:It's good, but let me, let me get us some gunshots real quick. All right, welcome back to episode. I believe in one of six of the textual talk podcast, the number one podcast about tech on YouTube. I'm your host, hd, and we got a lovely guest for you guys today. Her name is Destiny Williams. We went to the same Alma Mater for grad school. She is now a cloud solutions architect for a big tech company and, like most of my guests, she has an unconventional path to getting into tech, so I figured it'd be a good time to bring her on to inspire some people that are listening to this show. But first and foremost, are you still rocking with us right now? If you're on Apple podcast, go ahead and like, follow us, leave a comment, share it out it helps us out in the podcast rankings, everything else. And if you're on YouTube, know what to do Hit the like button, comment, share it out, subscribe, hit all for the bell notification icon so you'd be notified when we drop in everything. And if you want to continue to see great in person episodes like this, go ahead and subscribe to the Patreon. Y'all get everything early. Y'all will be hearing what we was listening to before we started the pod, and y'all probably be turning up too when y'all listen to the music. But without further ado, let's welcome our guest Destiny. What's going on?
Speaker 2:What's up? Not much.
Speaker 1:It's a nice day, oh yeah, yeah, so funny enough, like when I reached out to destiny, I was connected with her for a while. I think we've been connected a while on LinkedIn for a while. It's been a while, and honestly, it wasn't until I saw the picture with you and Jasmine I was like, oh, jasmine knows her, maybe Jasmine can extend the invite. But then I was like I'll just messenger and that's what happened. We found out we had a little bit more things that were in common. But for other people who are listening or watching right now, can you just give them a little bit about your background?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I'll start from the beginning in school. So I got my undergraduate in 2016 from Western Michigan University in criminal justice. So basically, long story short, I couldn't find a job in the field that was paying enough for me to be able to even survive, so I knew after I graduated that I would have to go back to school eventually because that degree wasn't going to do me any justice. But I worked in a lot of banking and things like that, and then I so I was I graduated, moved to North Carolina, stayed there for like two years and then I got a job in Dallas at State Farm. So I moved to Richardson, stayed here. I've been here since about 2018, working at State Farm as a claims specialist, and while I was doing that, I went back to school and I participated in their tuition reimbursement, and so you know, when you participate in tuition reimbursement with an employer, you have to essentially choose one of the fields that they have identified that they'll pay for, and so I seen cybersecurity there and I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. So I did a little bit of research on it probably was doing. I couldn't do the tuition reimbursement for a year, so I did research on the industry for about that year until I hit my one year with the company where I was eligible, so did my research and I was like Yep, I'm going to go for it. The program you Dallas that we went to they they pretty much advise that you don't have to have any experience to join the program, and so that was a key for me, because I know a lot of schools I was looking at. You either have to have a computer science degree or an engineering degree to basically have taken all the pre-rex that you need for that particular course. So I graduated with my master's in cybersecurity in 21, December of 21. And I joined I guess I'll talk about my experience there. So right before I graduated I got an internship at co part in their security operation center, specifically focused in on vulnerability management. So it was really cool experience. It was my first time getting to see what life was like in a sock, so definitely I opened in for me. From there I worked at AT&T in their technology development program as a technical business manager and then from there I started at Microsoft as a customer success manager and then I now work there as a cloud solution architect, specifically focused in on our security products.
Speaker 1:Dope, dope, dope. All good Guys. That's the interview we done. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but you laid out a lot of stuff, but now we got to cycle back to really get the took on those feeling strings a little bit and see how this journey has been for you. I wanted to know initially, why criminal justice? Did you have plans to be a lawyer? Did you want to be a detective? Why criminal justice?
Speaker 2:So I did criminal justice because I just love the kids, even still, like I love the youth, and I feel like they really need to be poured into. So I wanted to be a juvenile probation officer and help them more from a rehabilitative perspective. So that was my goal. And then when I graduated and I was looking for jobs and wasn't getting the interviews, wasn't getting the jobs, and even the jobs that were available, the pay wasn't really that great. So I knew I had to do something different. The bills were billing and at that time it was just like what's next for you? You've tried for years to do the criminal justice thing and it just, it just didn't lay out for me that way.
Speaker 1:Got it, Got it. So at this time were you still in Michigan.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was still in Michigan.
Speaker 1:Were you in Detroit or where were you?
Speaker 2:I am from Kalamazoo.
Speaker 1:Okay, why not move to Detroit?
Speaker 2:I wanted out of Michigan. It's cold, too cold, I wanted. I knew when I was young, like I'm moving away, I'm getting away, I'm moving somewhere where it doesn't snow. But lo and behold, it does snow here in Texas, at least it has for the past three to four years since I've been here.
Speaker 1:Right, hang on. I just wanted to be funny real quick.
Speaker 2:It sounds a little bit. Yeah, I could put a little bit of sound on YouTube. May I have a thing to get you to the song.
Speaker 1:I feel so bad for this little boy.
Speaker 2:Oh my.
Speaker 1:God, it's crazy that that's what, like Detroit got known for that song right there that's so funny. But no, I definitely agree with you. Just wanted to probably just get a change of scenery. So was there, I forget. I know I did my little homework on you before you came to Moody Richardson. You did. You make another stop.
Speaker 2:Yes, so in 2016, I graduated in December of that year. By January I had moved to North Carolina. So I was standing in Raleigh and then, shout out to Raleigh they was, they was I, they was I came up, though?
Speaker 1:They definitely have came up, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:And it's a quite a few tech jobs out there actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got some clients there and I think Nate is Nate there. I know Bobby's. I believe Bobby's there and Nate's there. But ironically, when you were talking about wanting to help the youth and one of my previous episodes with a career hacker, Nate, he was talking about how he used to help the youth with one of his jobs and kind of like just one word that like you try to tell the kid like to stop fighting and all this other stuff, and then you come into the house, his grandma saying hit him back. He's like I'm done with it and that's how he got into recruiting.
Speaker 2:And honestly.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that, because one of the things we talk about on Twitter is are you a first generation graduate? Yes, most first generation graduates normally go to school for the wrong reasons. Oh my gosh, we don't know how to research school.
Speaker 2:We're not, unless, as a first generation, you don't even know what's out there. I was just talking to my siblings about this like last night two nights ago actually and I was telling them I would have did things way different had I known the different type of careers that you can have, as opposed to doctor, lawyer, psychologist, social work. Like I wish I would have been exposed to more things. I didn't know anyone in project management. I didn't even know anyone in tech, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me it was the same. Well, if we get like one of the reasons y'all watched this show because it's so real and when I talk to the guests it's like real conversation. So we're having this is like the conversation we would have on the phone. We'll be giving it to y'all right now. One of the other things that the reason why we struggle too, is a lot of us, a lot of our parents, didn't prepare for us to go to school. So we're already just going to school because in high school they said go. We don't have the money or the resources that we need. We don't have anybody that we can reach out to immediately in the family and say hey, I work here, I'm going to help you get an internship. We don't have any of that, and that's one of the hard things too, is why everybody else they have a grand old time because they know exactly what they're there for. Either they parents got a business or they parents work with all these people and their friends. That's what I tell people when you networking in just for you, it could be somebody you're related to that you're helping getting out. Oh, my, you know my cousin. You know he is a CISO at Google or something that's easy to get somebody internship and I didn't realize how not far off, but like how things have changed a lot, when so last year I was working at JP Morgan and I was there during the summertime when all the summer interns were there and I was like man, these kids are going to have it made because they're getting internships are one of, like, the biggest financial institutions in the country. A lot of us didn't get internships because they told us don't go to the career fair until like junior year.
Speaker 2:Literally for no reason. I know that I didn't get any internships because my resume was trash and I didn't know I was doing it myself. I never seen a good one, never reached out to get any help to get one. You know, put together it was. That's why, that's absolutely why.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about that really quick. For me it was. We had a red. Everybody had generic resume that we did in one of the contributions classes. I actually copied the summary for one of my coworkers because I liked the summary. But outside of the issue that I know that I had in school and if you're in school right now I want you to listen up I wasn't learning anything else outside of what I was being taught. If you're in college doing it that route, you're not going to be successful because what you're being taught most of the times is not on job descriptions. So I was not researching job descriptions. I was not applying to internships. They were one because it was a lack of. Back then I graduated undergrad 2013. So it's kind of a different time, but a lot of stuff I didn't or did apply to was I think about why I didn't have a car and all these other things Like I had. I interviewed with CenturyLink right before my fall senior quarter, so before my last quarter in college, and I had to find a ride to drive to Monroe at the time because I stayed in Shreveport. So I was in Monroe to interview with them and I was like I can't really if I asked me in the interview if I had a vehicle or not, and then I had to figure out, like my uncle or somebody else, I say, yo, I might get this job for CenturyLink, I just need somebody. Somebody can help me get a car. I'm supposed to be getting paid this, I'll pay you back, like, but those are the things that you shouldn't have to worry about when you go on through there. But now, granted, it's a little bit more. You can do remote or. What kids don't know is, if you're good enough, these companies will pay for you to come wherever their company is, pay for you, go out there, they'll pay you a good wage and you'll be OK for those months. But the earlier you can get an internship, do it, because that builds up on your experience and you probably can come back the next year in the next year and they're probably going to offer you or you can go to their rival because you work for them. So it's a long game, it's not a short game. So, my little brothers that are in school right now, I send y'all stuff for internships all the time. Please apply, please apply. But back to the schedule program. So in Rayleigh, that's when you were pretty much decided to go on insurance.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was working at Wells Fargo, actually in collections and bank collections, and it was it was. I just knew. When I was there I was like this cannot be it, like this can't be it for me, there's no way I can do this for another five years, three years, like what's next. And so at first, when I moved, I was going to go to law school, but you know how you have to get in the boot, the mood, in the vibe, in the zone, in the energy to even start studying. Every time I opened up the LSAT book I just couldn't even. And then I eventually I was like well, that's just not for you, like you can't even get past chapter one. It's just, it's just not for you. And so that's when I was thinking about going to school but never took the initiative. When I was in North Carolina I saw I was. I have an aunt, she stays here, and she was letting me know like we're hiring. You know you should look at these jobs. And I applied and got the job and for me at the time, from what I was making, it was such a huge pay increase. I was like there's no way that I can turn this down. Like how long in this row, or even at this state am I going to? Is it going to take me to get this money? So I got the job and I moved, and that is when things just started changing. So what?
Speaker 1:was. So what was claims paying back then?
Speaker 2:for you to really make that jump Like I want to say I can't even remember what my starting pay was. I want to say it was like 24, 25 ish, somewhere somewhere in that range, somewhere in there.
Speaker 1:No, no. I say these things all the time because a lot of times people are caught up on social media.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, they see you.
Speaker 1:You'll have somebody swear up and down. You know a hundred thousand dollars isn't a lot of money whatever.
Speaker 2:But we know the median income is probably like if you, it's very low, especially in the black community, maybe 40,000. Yeah, but so I want to say I was making like 65 ish, somewhere Like 60 and 65. I really can't remember, but that's what I was making when I moved and that was such an increase from what I was making before. So if it was such an increase, imagine what I was making before.
Speaker 1:No, no, no doubt, but shout out to your auntie Did you, did you move in with your auntie? Me moved out.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did Shout out to family. Shout out to it. It takes a village for sure.
Speaker 1:It does. And, like for me, I said on my videos when I moved out here in 2016 as well, I stayed in my for what about six months? Yeah?
Speaker 2:about six months. Mine was about that time too.
Speaker 1:And the crazy thing was like I stayed with her. I just want to be able to learn some stuff and then figure out where I was going to stay and all the other stuff, figure that out and then by the time I moved out, that's actually when I got my first security role in 2017. So, like you said, it's like kind of slow but surely, like I said, if y'all get off line and just live your life, I think y'all be better off. Y'all can't compare like y'all journeys to people who big in a journey year, five year, six year, seven for sure yeah. I can't do it, y'all cannot do it, and if you keep on trying to, you're going to have yourself being anxious and being depressed. So no, that's why I try to always have whatever I talk about be as realistic as possible, because I could just focus on currently, right now, but I don't think I would connect with my listeners and viewers the way I do.
Speaker 2:Because everybody starts from somewhere. We didn't just. I, literally I wasn't handed any of this. It was a journey for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. All right, so you were at State Farm? Yes, the State Farm, the.
Speaker 2:State Farm.
Speaker 1:It was funny, though I applied to so many jobs at State Farm and State Farm I probably had an interview for one.
Speaker 2:I was trying to move out of the cabinet Even still, I've applied for jobs there and I was just like, wow, I forgot how tough it is, because it really is tough to get in for sure.
Speaker 1:The crazy thing is I had the experience, I had everything like those people. What I kind of gleaned from that organization. I know for a fact in those type of technical roles I was trying to do I think they probably had older people there- they are older for sure, especially in the tech field.
Speaker 2:I had a mentor and he was probably the youngest guy on the team. He was in his early 30s. Everyone else was older.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my other friend, vernon, who posted in the group chat if y'all need a house, highlight my boy, vernon the FJ real estate. But he used to work at State Farm, so he got on there first. We went to Tech together, then he worked at IBM Louisiana, then moved out here and started doing I think he was doing some type of Java. He was doing something at first with State Farm. Then I think he moved over to doing identity access management with like Serapoint, I believe, at State Farm. But yeah, it was like it was the same thing. It was a lot of old people there too and I thought back in the day I think that gave him like 75 to come. I think that's like the 2015.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like people, that was some money back then. I ain't lying, he was living good.
Speaker 1:Right For sure. I was telling people on my one of my posts people try to minimize 80 K jobs.
Speaker 2:60 K jobs but never seen that money before.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:You never seen it. So how can you minimize that you don't just jump out making a honey cake?
Speaker 1:And that's the thing too I gotta. I gotta take them on, put on Tik Tok. Whenever I record it's like a lot of y'all not finna make a hundred K cause y'all can't even manage 50.
Speaker 2:Literally literally 60, 70.
Speaker 1:Y'all can't manage 50. And it's just you. You don't have no family or nothing, but you want to go get a hundred out there you know as crazy as people raise families on 50,000.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 60, 40. Yeah, people raising families, multiple kids in the household.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and I think that's also. It depends on, like where you say like, well, I'm from, you're not going to live a glamorous life, but 50, 60,000, you can have a house and kids will have food and everything else and that'll be fine. But if you move anywhere else, exactly it's too expensive. Even the funny thing is like yeah, shreveport, you have bozier. So this is, shreveport is a bozier. You cross the bridge, bozier. There's way more expensive with less population and if you move there you'll pay more. You're paying for, like safety and better schools, typically what you'd pay for anywhere, but, like you said, that's the thing, though. People just also didn't grow up horrible money management, like I said, living above their means they want to keep up with everybody, have everything going nice and looking fly. I'm like who you trying to impress. I'll tell you don't nobody that watches your pay my bills. If I want to come on here in a white tee and Dickie shorts, I will.
Speaker 2:I'm messing with it.
Speaker 1:I would. I would for real, but coming out of. So now we get into the fun stuff. You're at State form and you just like you said you research and cybersecurity. I want to ask you something about the tuition reimbursement really quick, because I always tell people when the Constitution reimbursement, read the fine print, because sometimes if you do it, okay, hey, you got to stay here two years because you got to get that money back. So how was their tuition reimbursement set up?
Speaker 2:It wasn't actually set up like that, so there was a cap on it. I can't remember the amount, somewhere around 7 to 10,000 a year, and so it obviously wasn't covering a full year for me. It was lapsing, so like it'll be one year I get this much, the next year I get it. It was weird how it was because of my school semesters, but as long as I submitted proof of my grades that were passed above, you know, whatever they and theirs was to be like, they weren't playing any games with their tuition reimbursement, you wasn't going to school and not getting good grades. So I feel like that added stress to on top of me. So, in a good way, like it made me want to aim for an A because I couldn't even afford to get a B because it might not be good enough, you know right. So, but it was pretty straightforward. They covered books, they covered my equipment. I needed to get a laptop, they covered all of that supply. I just needed receipts receipts from my book, receipts from financial aid, saying the classes that I took cost this much, and then, at the end of the semester, received saying, yep, she passed her classes when these were her grades. Yeah, so it was really straightforward.
Speaker 1:Nice mà, by the way. People are like that somewhere and when you do a little job they also do. If you don't want to owe a lot of money and you want to get like the tech, do like free promo, out course careers link will be in my description. Do course careers through the IT course. Get you a job, let them pay for your school, do it that way and then you'll owe less money and then you keep on progressing. Like that You'll have skills and you'll never be out of work. I'm glad it worked out for you like that. It was supposed to work out like that for me. But, oh, here's the but.
Speaker 2:I quit. So I quit, I quit. I quit because I was in school and I just kept thinking to myself like how are you going to get a job, how are you going to get experience in cyber if you have this job full time? How I barely had time to study with. How crazy and tired the job made me. So I quit in April.
Speaker 1:Climb that busy. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, people get into accidents every day. Every day, like I didn't even know until I started working for State Farm, because where I'm from there's not that many bad accidents.
Speaker 1:No, people can't drive out here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here by fire trucks. Fire trucks come in, it's a big deal, but I didn't realize how many accidents actually happen per day until I started working for State Farm. So, yeah, I quit. And when I quit I no longer got tuition reimbursement. I remember my manager at the time. She was like, well, you know, if you quit, you know you're growing a school. And I was just like I don't care, I don't care, I need to take a risk. And I'm so thankful that I did, because I actually got my internship. Basically from my LinkedIn profile I had the manager in the sock reach out to me. I was open for work posting a lot of stuff that I was doing in class, just posting a lot of cybersecurity related things, which I recommend everybody. Do I tell everybody that?
Speaker 1:We'll get into it.
Speaker 2:So that is how that got me in the door, that got me at the table, that got me at the cybersecurity table.
Speaker 1:Listen, y'all don't have to believe nothing I say, but when people tell you their real world experiences with doing the things that I tell y'all to do, especially my clients, I'm gonna try to listen. I'm telling you you never know who come to look at your profile. It's branding. It's not in a sense you're finna be a brand where she's like an influencer. It's just these people notice that she posts about cybersecurity. So I always tell my clients hey, let's make a postal week, let's make an engaging.
Speaker 2:I tell them like interact with three things a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three things like comment you literally share repost literally just be active on there. Because one of the questions that gonna typically ask you when you're trying to pivot or it's angel level, if shoot. I just interviewed and I shouldn't be saying this, but I don't care SmartPak has. Anyway, I interview for a C-Sert Roller, amazon not too long ago. I always interviewed just to keep my skills sharp and one of the things that asked me was like how do I keep up with the latest cybersecurity news? And I said, hey, I got a Slack channel dedicated to security news. So all the news of like when after like, this is what I do. I always get views doing this After just had a major breach again where, like I think, 11% of their customers' information is pretty much is out there. So it's a small base of the customers, but it's still a big deal based on what they could have possibly got. Especially, I believe they use, I believe they probably have access to support. I gotta read up on it again. However, this is how I live over you. However, I just copied an article, put it in buffer, posted the link. Then now, all of a sudden, everybody's sharing it and they'll come and leave comments.
Speaker 2:Can I comment on that? Yeah, I love watching your videos of you breaking down whatever has happened, because it's different when it's coming from somebody that's your people. I love it and I can share it out with people that aren't even in tech, like I sent the video to my mom, like check this out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. That was one of the reasons for doing that. Right Is so many things you should be aware of, and I'm finna also plug in a different company that I'm working with right now. Let me tell you about today's video sponsor, aura. But if you also look in the link in the description, I have a link for auracom and it's for identity management, passwords, vpns, credit monitoring. They do everything and if you click the link in my bio, you can sign up for a free 14 day trial of their services. And I'm telling you within I signed up within like three seconds. They took one of my emails that I signed up with and they found even though these are older passwords, but they still alerted me like in three seconds hey, this password might be exposed. So a lot of you are not checking have I been pwn or all your email addresses, or probably reusing passwords, which is typical for a lot of people. So you need a service like this. We have too many passwords. That's why companies are moving to passwordless authentication, because it's just a mess. And yeah, so check out auracom. It's free and you don't have to pay nothing and you can check it out so you can keep yourself safe. Use my link below auracom forward. Slash textual chatter to stop data brokers from exposing your information with aura. But I appreciate that and I appreciate you also talking about the benefit of posting sub security related content on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:I tell my students that that's the first thing I tell them like are you on LinkedIn? Get on there and interact with three things a day. If you cause, you're scrolling on any form of social media. Most people 89% of people have social media and they're on it doing something. You can be on it being more productive. That was doing something that could benefit you long term. I tell them that they still don't do it and I still tell them Tell me about.
Speaker 1:I thought about when you said get on LinkedIn. That could be a sound. You know that sound that go on TikTok, you gotta get on your Zoom.
Speaker 2:No, for real, you need to get on your LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that could be a sound, but let's talk about because I don't and, granted, I do see people like we have interns or apprentices that sometimes they work with us in the second IAR but they don't get the performance IAR capabilities that I have, me and a couple of my other guys like we've worked in SoxLife for years and we are the people that try to dispel the notion that, unless it's like a MSS sock reaches routing tickets. We are trying to dispel the notion that has this like meant for entry level people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not.
Speaker 1:No, and I want you to talk about your experience coming from a whole different industry and doing an internship in a sock. How was that like for you?
Speaker 2:Intimidating, super imposter syndrome, times 10. Like, I was like, wow, like, first of all, that was the hardest interview I've ever done in my life. They picked apart my resume. I mean, what's the difference between this and this? When do you use this? Like, if it was on my resume and I couldn't speak to it, they would have known, which is why I don't recommend lying on your resume, don't? do it because you're gonna get in that interview and probably make a fool of yourself. So I'm happy that I was honest about it and I'm happy that I actually went through and touched up on these assignments where I use these tools that I mentioned in that I can bring into the interview. But it was. I was the most entry level person in the entire sock. Everyone else had years in the game. They were scripting, they were doing all type of stuff that I hadn't even been really exposed to past labs. It may be me doing something on TriHack me, but it wasn't. I was nervous, I was super nervous. I felt like and my manager he wasn't like down my neck, so a lot of stuff I had to figure out like simple stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it'd be like that sometimes For me. My first job at McAfee didn't learn squat.
Speaker 2:I thought I didn't learn anything until I left.
Speaker 1:You learned what not to do.
Speaker 2:I learned what I didn't want to do.
Speaker 1:I learned no, I learned what not to do at McAfee. I ain't gonna lie, I learned what not to do because the people that were in charge of us had never worked in the sock before. The guy sitting next to me run was the person was my saving grace. Show me a little bit of hey, do this, because we didn't have. It wasn't a plan like hey, we gonna monitor. For this is that, like the sock wasn't tuned. All the thing we were working on was like submit one across to networking team so they could block the IP addresses and patch the certain vulnerabilities that were related to one across, and so he showed me pretty much how to help the SIM get to him. So I had to excel this to like all these alerts that we had firing in our SIM that technically should not have been firing, because all the updates in our environment will prevent these from even working against us. I did all that just to get laid off. I tell people all the time say look out for yourself, man, look out for yourself because, I will say, though, I felt supported by my team members, and I wanna. That's a good thing.
Speaker 2:Take the time to acknowledge that, if you have the ability to be a good team member, if you have the ability to answer a question to someone that doesn't know the answer, that you know the answer to just do it. Be nice, be kind, because you never know what that person will be capable of doing or how far that can take them Like. I haven't and I'm gonna knock on wood before I leave here. I haven't had a bad coworker experience in tech yet. Everyone in tech that I've come across or worked with have been willing to help me, answer questions, explain concepts, help me understand. And my favorite question is after they help me, is this something that I should have known? And I love when they be like nope, because that makes me feel good, yeah but, just like in real life, when it comes to working, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1:This could be whether you're in office or remote Energy.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Your energy about yourself, how you are, how you present yourself to people, is most of the time what you're gonna get If you come off as a know-it-all or this person that doesn't smile on the camera. Now maybe you could have some type of thing going on where you don't smile, just don't be on camera. I put my avatar on Teams every day. I hate being on camera for no reason. But if you don't know how to assimilate and aggratiate yourself with everyone, you'll probably run into that Yup. Or sometimes you are killing it and maybe the other people don't like it. They're jealous. You have a whole bunch of the politic things that are coming into Like I didn't like from my very first job, from doing help desk, I didn't have really bad colleagues per se, but management they weren't bad, but they were into the point where they were keeping me at a certain level and that's the biggest issue. You're running to that and that's why I made the real the other day, showing people, hey, if you're not being promoted or moving along your career, it's gonna be ultimately up to you, because you gotta be your best advocate and you have to go to bed for yourself and say you worked on all these things and why you should deserve this, and if it don't happen for you, hit the road, jack.
Speaker 2:That's why I left Steve for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yup, I could definitely understand that. I know for me I had it all planned out. I was working at Income, but actually it was OLS, and then they were bought by Income. It comes to Papercar Company based out of Atlanta and I was gonna do tuition reimbursement there, but then that's when I got the McAfee job, but then, like you said, you had to hit a year before you're even eligible. And they didn't have a cap because they had people going to. They paid for somebody to go like SMU for a semester or something. So McAfee didn't have a cap. So I was like perfect, because we know, like you, dallas is like a Spencer school. I ain't gonna lie to you. And I was like all right, cool, I ain't gonna owe too much, I'm gonna do this, I'll be here for X-Mile. You actually be straight. You just say, hey, we got real or it's going on, you can lay it off. I was like but at the same time, just like you, so I did a little bit of Schooling when I wasn't working. So I got laid off and pretty much to begin the 2018, and then I didn't start back working again to June. So I did like a semester where I only focused on like school, working out and trying to interview and and the good thing, though, of going through so for me, I Was did the masters of IT, so technology management, but I did know that I was gonna be alright, because Some of them in the course didn't have any type of working-world experience I did, so it made a lot of classes easier.
Speaker 2:See, and I'm opposite. I was in the classes, struggling, like struggling, calling my mom like I don't know who. I thought I was Choosing this as a degree. This is I don't. I can't even the OSI model. That's foundational. That's what one of the first classes I took and I was just like how am I gonna remember this?
Speaker 1:But now, you remember now.
Speaker 2:Yes, everything makes so much a name for remembering my acronym for remembering is please do not teach stupid people acronyms.
Speaker 1:I got one. I'm not gonna sit on here, I'll let you hear that for this, but shout out to lease, lease. Not in the group, but she's in the group. She got an enjoy sign and put in a group because gonna break out group. She has a funny one that I'll show you. On my Matter of fact, if you watch this right now, if you want to pause it, you can go on YouTube and type in textual chatter, osi model and you'll hear what Lisa's tells you to remember the OSI model. It's pretty, it's hilarious. But the reason why I like masters programs over bachelor's is because I feel masters are more applicable, more practical to real world scenarios. Absolutely it's not as much theory as you get in Bachelor's, where it's like more high level oh, here's this, here's this. No, like a lot of times, like our projects we worked on like actual project. Hey, how are we gonna convince the head of this?
Speaker 2:the CISO you are. This is so yeah. What would you do in this situation?
Speaker 1:Yes, and I remember See, that's why you have to just put your head like, back then, every wasn't really any tech influencers, so back then I'm just enjoying my journey, I'm Driving. At the time I stayed North Dallas, so I stay close to Keralton at the time. So I remember a couple of Saturdays, us meaning that the cause of business and you, dallas, my group, doing work. I Remember that. I remember coming in at night time. So all the things that you did is like, okay, it's led to you getting to a certain point, but if you're not trying to focus on the present and worry about everything else, you're gonna be miserable. And that's what made it worth it, because I graduated December 1st 2018. Yeah, 2018, I had it. Like I said, a good experience. I was mad like one of my professors. I had like the hardest but best professor that I had. She had it about think retiring, but she was pretty cool. I think she might have been I don't know, she might have been there when you there. She might have been gone already. I had professor conger. She didn't, so she didn't teach the cyber stuff, but people know who she was because when I did that, you probably should do one for them the cyber club.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my homeboy Matt. He's over the cyber club.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he's the one that reached out to me and we had a little jump to my wife. We're cousins, could say last night, but now you should definitely do a presentation of them.
Speaker 2:That'd be dope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell them to set it up for you. If you're watching he probably, he's probably watching. I'm in a while so you get out of sock and Well. First, I want let's do this because I've been realizing all my episodes are very good and conversational, but I do need to try to educate you guys some more, since you say I think you specialize in vulnerability management within the sock. Yes could you briefly explain vulnerability management at a high level to everyone?
Speaker 2:So vulnerability management is essentially keeping up with in monitoring the remediation of vulnerabilities within an organization. And that's what I did. So scanning our assets, letting the owners of those assets or teams, whoever owns that asset letting them know like, hey, this device has a vulnerability on it, you need to patch it by this date. That's how we read, that's how we did it. I don't know how other companies are doing it, but that's how we did it. And then every month it was a score in a rating. You didn't do this, you did do this. This is your score, this is your rating. And you know people don't like sock sock team members. They they don't want to patch, they want to. They want you to accept that business risk on that device. They don't want to buy a new server. They don't want to patch it because it's gonna break this. They don't. They have a million reasons why they don't want to remediate the vulnerabilities. So learning how to navigate dealing with team members who are resistant was something that that I felt like made me stronger. So when I get like resistance from customers today, it doesn't feel as tough as it would have felt if I wouldn't have had that vulnerability management Experience. So that's what it is remediating those vulnerabilities on your assets with a no organization.
Speaker 1:And were you using a certain scanning solution?
Speaker 2:Yes, we were using rapid seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, after rapid seven Cuz. Typically, like we know, quality has some free training. I don't know if rapid seven has any free training or not, but I typically tell people VM vulnerability management is one of the areas that it's not a sexy job Definitely not sexy but, I think it has a lower bill to injury than most security related jobs and I think it's something you could replicate over in your personal home lab or whatever you want to do, and Talk to it in the interview. That's why I direct people to try to get into VM management as well, because as Simple as it may seem, it has to be done. You'd be surprised.
Speaker 2:It has to be done, like literally, when it, when something new comes out anything a new, a new CV you need to check. You need to check the next day or that day, depending on how your sock is ran. You need to check to see how many assets you have to have it on there, because if you don't, and it's already running dormant in the wild, then you're setting your organization up. So it is a really good role you can gain a lot of experience from, and I know a lot of people think of sock and they think of incident response. It's more to the sock than just incident response.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and basically how you got a segment out. Yep, it's definitely we got. We got some no talks coming up. We might do that next week. Well, hopefully you make it in town, that'll be. That'll be sock tails version three, all right, so how long was the internship?
Speaker 2:It was initially for six months and then I got to extend it a little bit longer. At the time I received the initial you know communication from that manager. It was are you looking for a full-time? And I really wasn't ready to commit to a full-time because I was still in school. And once I stopped working and was able to focus on school, school became so much easier Because I didn't have to stuff my learning in into this only time, this time block for the week. So I didn't want to do anything full-time again until after school was over. So I did part-time working with them in the sock. It was from July to January.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. Yeah, I know, I don't know if I would be able to do school if I went out to help this work either, because a lot of times once I got off I didn't want to do anything, literally talking to people all day at a stressful job that, like, literally, is physically Making you exhausted.
Speaker 2:You don't, you don't want to get off of that eight hour, nine hour shift and jump right into homework.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so once you finish that gig, then you were a Technical business manager.
Speaker 2:Yes at AT&T.
Speaker 1:So what is that? What does a technical business manager do?
Speaker 2:so I Was assisting the organization with migrating to a new platform and it was something that was affecting the entire company, so it's a really big project. I felt like I was doing. Now that I know what change management is, that is what I was doing. I was doing a lot of change management making a Newsletter for the affected stakeholders of that change, communicating with those stakeholders, making sure there is a website that they can go to to check the status of our past meetings about these updates. Excel, this Excel that Excel became my best friend. Hated it. Hated it when I first started and we're doing better. Me and Excel are doing better. But I did a lot of Work that people would see as admin work, but it was more than that. Like the newsletter, that was a lot every month making a newsletter adding new stuff when we're making changes, letting them User experience, teaching them how to use the new platform, getting with the team of the new platform and discussing how it can benefit the organization and what should our users know about this platform. What training do you recommend based on these different roles and it wasn't like just a one training they can do. It depended on what specific role they do, because that depends on what permissions and what different different actions, behaviors, they're able to do within that the platform.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that definitely sounds like more than just change management. Yeah sound like you had a lot of hats on in that role.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:So how long did you stay in that role?
Speaker 2:I stay there from Like January, the end of January to, I want to say, july, and Then I started Microsoft in August.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about that now. So now you go to big M and you become a customer success manager. Yes, what is customer success?
Speaker 2:so customer success is pretty much helping your customer navigate Change in any issues that they may be having, connecting the right people. So we're the middle man. If the customer has an issue, we're going to find someone to come to this to help them with, you know, coming up with a solution, also driving usage of Our products in that organization. So you're not using it. Why aren't you using it? And helping them identify use cases on how they could use it more and how it could benefit their Organization. But it's really heavy on driving change, whether if it's a new product for them or increasing their use of that product. So consumption.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, and about how long is due customer success.
Speaker 2:I did that from August to March of this year.
Speaker 1:All right, now let's really get into the fun stuff the meat and potatoes. So now you are a solutions architect.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:How was that transition Working with and I'm gonna presume you work with Azure a lot.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:How was that? Were you familiar with Azure at all before you started this position?
Speaker 2:Yes and no. Yes and no. Not enough to really navigate, but I could. I know I knew what Azure was, but Azure is so much. There's so many different layers to Azure. The difference between the two rows customer success for me was super, not technical. Csa, cloud cloud solution architect is a super technical role. So I had some upskilling to do. I had to learn Azure. I had to learn the platform that pretty much everything is built on, which is Azure, and that's that's how it's been a lot. It's been a lot of upskilling. It's been a lot of one-on-ones. It's been a lot of asking questions. I'm a lot of exam and certification getting taken.
Speaker 1:Did they give you a lateral raise from going from customer success or a cloud solutions architect, or did you get a good bump?
Speaker 2:No, but I'm gonna tell you why because when I started the Roles that started in my cohort, csa was one of those roles. Okay, so it was one of those like rotational things.
Speaker 1:It's not rotational though.
Speaker 2:It was a A violent toad situation like you're moving, yeah, okay, yeah, got you, got you.
Speaker 1:So Well then, I guess, so it didn't matter. So Was the increase from the business manager to customer success. Was that much of an increase? Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:What do we have? Because you know earlier we were talking about moving the richest in it was about almost 15,000 more.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you get any and I'm asking these things too because these are some questions I know people ask sometimes on the internet. What's your role? Were you able to get any equity in the company Yep and were you able to get a sign on yes, okay? Did you have somebody help you negotiate that, or you just asked for your.
Speaker 2:I did Shout out to y'all, shout out to my mentor and then this other gentleman who I know. I reached out to them immediately because I feel like I have certain people that I can talk money with and you want to talk money with people who have experience with money and experience with negotiating. So she actually reached out to someone that she knows, who's a recruiter at Metta, I think, and then they were like tell her to negotiate, tell her to negotiate, and it paid off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, yeah. I think this last position was probably like the best negotiating I did. I was able to get a sign on and a cup buy out, because I knew they weren't going to put me at the top of the range. So that's why I tell my clients sometimes. I say, well, we can work on something. They might not want to put you at the top of the range, but they may be able to get you a sign on to make the TC worth it, at least for the first year, and then you can go on from there. So that's cool.
Speaker 2:Speaking of sign on, I had to pay my sign on back when I left AT&T, but I already knew I was leaving. So that's something else to consider If you're moving within that timeframe, because they all pretty much have a timeframe just be mindful of that.
Speaker 1:I think it's about like a year. Yep, that's what I was, so you can maybe can't get a sign on, but you could negotiate them paying that back for you as well, if they really want you, or you can do the unethical thing and see if the rows don't compete with each other and kind of just do both and wait the year I'm quit. Yeah, I'm just saying I need all the money. But now, even though we said in so many times I know you said it was kind of like technical what is a cloud solutions architect?
Speaker 2:It depends. I know that that is a really rough answer, but it really depends At Microsoft. We have different flavors.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what I'm saying, because I tell people sometimes.
Speaker 2:sometimes a cloud solutions architect may not be, as it's technical, but sometimes not super technical, but you can start off on a level zero and you can go all the way to a 10 in terms of your technical capabilities. We have different flavors at Microsoft, so my flavor is security and within security. Office 365, security Sentinel and Zero Trust. Those are my babies.
Speaker 1:Those are money makers right there, so no lying. One of the questions my clients had for me the other day was like hey, how do I find I don't know what's in my throat, how do I find ways to make good home labs? Then I could talk about interviews, and so I went through some job descriptions of like, just like, if you want to work in the sock, and it's okay. Boom. I said, now I'm going to show you something. I showed them what chat GPC showed them, which is the typical stuff they've been telling people for years oh go, do Elk, stack and Snore and Syracotta and yada, yada yada. I said look, most jobs you apply to aren't using those. So I'm going to give you a solution that works a little better. I said let's hop over to Azure. You can set up Microsoft Sentinel because you can set it up for free. They'll let you set up Defender on a couple of hosts. You have like 30 days with Defender. You can learn everything about 0365. You can learn how to forge your logs into Sentinel. Microsoft has like a sock analyst certification. You can take that and learn more about KQL and you can just start building on your skills to where maybe the role you're interviewing for once. You know how to use Q-rated or Splunk, but if you know how to use One Sim, you can use them all. But having some type of commercial grade Sim solution on your resume is bigger than having open source ones because, like I said, everybody isn't using those. So that was one of the things I just went through and showed them and I talked about different use cases of what you can use them for, because everybody doesn't know, like you said, if you never worked before trying to go through a job description and understand, what type of problems am I trying to solve? That's the real thing. One thing is you can learn all stuff on courses, but how do you solve problems with the skills you gained? And then that's what I come in at. I can even say different things you can look into, you can listen to different things to figure out. Oh hey, what are the common problem socks running to. So I said now you can tell me in the interview. Yeah, I set up all these rules out of the boxing and I tuned them because I wanted to adjust for alert fatigue and false positives. I constantly looked at, you know, retail fees for new CVEs, all the different things that we do now, but we have different things to do. You can do it on a micro skill and just because you don't know everything what you've been trying to do on your own. Sometimes higher managers can't coach effort. They got people that had the capability that just do the bare minimum just to get by, which is cool, because sometimes that's where people are adding life. But then you got people where, in certain companies, hard to fire people, so they just do whatever and just dare you to fire them, and you would just love to get some new energy in there, because one or two things happen. They gonna show everybody up and make them get better or they're gonna quit. And that's one of the reasons why I always try to get women on our sock team, because I had a couple of analysts when I was working on opt with that like I knew that could do it, but they didn't put forth the effort and I wanted them to get showed up so they would go ahead and get on it like they're supposed to, but I ended up leaving before they could ever get a woman on the team, unfortunately. What's the day in the life of a solutions architect? And don't be funny, use your TikTok voice. Do you go to like? And this be funnier. Let's do a typical day of a solutions architect when you go into the urban office.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, so a tip a day in the life. So I don't go into office to work with customers because I need my monitors and I have like my screen. I need my setup.
Speaker 1:How many you got?
Speaker 2:I only have two plus my laptop now, but I really need a third.
Speaker 1:How big are they?
Speaker 2:22. I would say my desk is only 38 inches so, yeah, it's like it's the perfect size desk. But I finally upgraded my life and I got my monitors like they are in the office. Oh, so you got like a monster arm, yeah.
Speaker 1:I was going to say you probably say so I got two deaths my desk I shoot content on, I have a 27 inch monitor, and then my other desk that I do a lot of work from and I work from, and that's standing desk. I have, I think, a 134 inch on there and it's, which is more than enough for me yeah. Cause I have now my new gaming setup on now, when that's also my lab device and everything. Now then also I just have it plugged into my work Uh well, my docking station for my work laptop. So whenever I'm going to switch back and forth, that's what I do, I think. I think it's bigger than about I think 27 is probably like the good. So if you get like two 27 inches and then you get a uh, get like a L shaped desk or something like that, I think you'd be in there you can multitask like that but I'll let you continue with your day in the life.
Speaker 2:Okay, so a day in the life for me. So, depending on the day of the week, if it's a good day of the week, I'm getting up at 530, I'm going to Pilates, I'm coming home and I'm getting dressed for work. Dress for me is nothing too fancy cause I'm typically off camera, so probably join on a T shirt or a sweatsuit, something of that sort. Um, I then need some breakfast and I get started on work. First things first check those emails. See what's going on, um, see what's on my calendar for the day to see what to expect. Do I have any scoping calls with customers and my scoping customers for potential engagement that I'll be delivering to them? See if it's a right, a right fit for them. Do they see the value of the deliverables that are as a result of this engagement? So, doing more of that stuff. And then you also have if I'm actually delivering. So if I'm actually delivering, meaning me and the customer are engaged in a conversation all day, whether that be an assessment or whatever it is uh, we're. We're on the phone all day. Um, could be about anywhere from two hours to eight hours to longer, just depending on what the particular engagement is. Um, we're taking lunch. Um, I try to laugh at my customers a lot Honestly. It just helps lighten the mood on the call and they can feel that I'm a human. Um, and it's not so mechanical, because I know a lot of the times you can have those individuals who deliver to customers who are super mechanical, like they'll put you to sleep. I try not to bore my customers to death, so I try to throw different things in there. A lot of the things I like to present to my customers are like financial impacts of not having something implemented. I'm like, well, look at this, so and so didn't have this and this is how they got there. Or pulling up a lot of the reports that we have available. Like I like to pull data from the Verizon, the DBR report with Verizon, where they talk about what's happened this past year, what trends are in the tech industry. So I like to pull stuff out of there, like when it comes to fishing, because that is I mean the easiest way. Yeah, so it. And then, um, depending on the day, I may or may not take lunch, and then I move on to the, to the next job.
Speaker 1:Okay. So let me ask you this when you're working with the customers, are you interacting with their engineers or your team's engineers, like who's setting up what in their environment?
Speaker 2:I am interacting with their engineers, so I'm either going to be helping them deploy something or I'm going to be assessing their environment and telling them how they can make it better. Like this is where you're at. This is where we recommend you to be, based on industry guidelines and our guidance.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 2:So would you say, those vulnerable management skills came into play with assessing the cloud environments, absolutely, absolutely, even if they have something going on. Maybe you know they talk a lot about what's going on with their organization while we're in these calls. So I'm able to understand their conversation a little bit better. They not pertain to what we're talking about directly, but if let's say I'm like, well, let's schedule a follow up for Wednesday, and they're like, oh, I can't Wednesday because we're having a meeting with so and so to set up X, y and Z we're about to implement, whatever it may be. So it helps me follow the conversation a lot better for sure.
Speaker 1:That's nice. That's one thing I miss about my current role. I'm used to being in a role where I can help solve problems and I feel like that's where my value lies, to where I can actually solve issues, whether there's different teams or different lines of business. I like to do that. That's. That's fun, because it's always a different problem. Well, it should be a solution for everything. Now, when it get, when they get implemented, and how it gets implemented is pretty much down. That's the different story, but that's definitely fun. So, on a foundational level, what skills would you say someone would need if they wanted to be a cloud solutions architect?
Speaker 2:I guess it would cloud specific dive into a cloud.
Speaker 1:I. And then, before you get on SP, I want to ask you something real quick, because I'm of the stamps, like you say, diving to one of the big three. Yes, is there now? I can see a benefit for people getting the CCSP I think that's the cloud joint. Yes, but I do not see a benefit for getting the company a cloud plus.
Speaker 2:I haven't even looked at the content for that one, but I do feel like there's a difference between there's a difference between being a cloud solution architect and a security cloud solution architect or a whatever other industry that they work in. So you have those industry specific skills because I'm helping them from a security perspective, but I have data and AI cloud solution architects you know that I work with. They're focused on something completely different, and so I feel like dive into a cloud, pick a cloud, put the names in the hat and pick one randomly if you can't decide, but pick a cloud and go deep. Go deep on learning a particular area. I work in Azure, but I don't work with VMs. I don't work with Kubernetes. I don't do any of that. I can't speak to those items. That's not my specialty. Exactly so I would say pick a cloud and then pick an area that is interesting to you in that cloud. Don't pick an area because it sounds interesting If you're not actually interested in that, in that component of the cloud. It's not going to make the learning journey easy for you. You're going to struggle more than you're already going to struggle because it's something new. Pick a cloud, go deep and pick a specified area to focus on within that cloud or product.
Speaker 1:Right, and when you say that, that's the reason why I tell people when they're trying to get into the cloud, I don't want them to rush out and get so many different certifications, but I say, hey, get that foundational, either the practitioner or the AZ 900 or whatever the Google's each level one is because it's going to introduce you to all the services that they pretty much use and that's where you can figure out, maybe, what you want to specialize in cloud wise, and that's the whole reason for that. Would you also say that they should have some foundational understanding of maybe like IT networking, anything else like foundational?
Speaker 2:level. That's possible if you don't. But the only reason that I say yes is because it makes everything make so much more sense. I took the A plus course. I did the A plus boot camp but I dropped out because I was like I, this is not what I want to do. And I did security plus right after that. But learning that A plus material, I'm 10 steps ahead of the game. I can understand conversation from different perspectives and levels. I'm not just only boom in security. I can understand what's going on with that router, what's going on with that switch, what's going on with your computer? Oh so, and so is happening. That could be a RAM issue. Like I'm able to understand different, different things. I I definitely recommend it.
Speaker 1:That's why I would tell people to get the IT course of course careers, because if you get a regular IT gig first, you'll be good. And I'm seeing a trend of less and less entry level type of cyber roles and like you need to have some type of foundation of some type of skills that really from databases where you're doing networking, it, whatever you're doing, you had some foundation of level skill so that you can go over and have some type of value in cyber. If not, it's going to be hard for you or you'll be trying to interview for a long, long time. So that's definitely. That is definitely one of the things that I agree with as well. It's like I tell people you don't have to do the A plus, like you just know the material is cool. You're not going to have to get the network plus if you don't want to.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll say them just though networking material. But if you do want to get a networking cert, I would prefer you go CCNA versus doing that work.
Speaker 2:Plus. I feel like I always tell people that security plus is a good starter if you want to work in cyber, because it covers mostly all things cyber, especially like if you're focused, if you, if you want to work in a sock, security plus would be a good entry level cert because if you don't have any background, it's going to teach you those foundational skills that find that foundational knowledge that you need to have to move on to the bigger certification.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, like. My first certification was security plus, but I already had an understanding of from school yeah. I already understand the IT, and then I had took this networking class where we actually had to build out a network environment for a three story building which in turn actually ended up being our college of business of street floors.
Speaker 2:What that's, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was my first one too. Yeah, crazy thing is like I go back in time and it's like I could have got an internship. I could have talked about that project more indefinitely. Actually I couldn't. And that might be one of when I started going live, one of the funny things I started talking about like things I experienced at school. That's funny, I'm going.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say why wouldn't you highlight that? I didn't know the only thing, because you don't know that I'm not telling my students now that I teach in class, that write down this stuff that you're doing, so that you, I, go back and look at my assignments from two years ago and I'm like, wow, I did that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I had. The only thing I highlighted was the capstone.
Speaker 2:I definitely highlighted our capstone, but see, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1:So this is this is my resume was bad. I had my name, my summary skills course related work. What I should have had was the skills and then projects.
Speaker 2:So that's what I added and that's when I started getting hits. That's when I got my interview at Microsoft, is when I added my projects, because I felt like it was like okay, you got your master's.
Speaker 1:So what yeah, literally yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I went through my syllabus and all the big projects that were cyber focused or security focused. I went through and pulled them all and did a summary of it, acted as a CISO and prepared a organizational strategic plan. Like that's a big deal. Yeah, that's something that you absolutely should be talking about.
Speaker 1:The only reason I didn't go in depth with my master's things because I was already working, but if I needed to, I can go back in time, hey, whatever. While we did it was like my first time doing a statement of work I learned a lot of stuff like in that class. So I tell people like I love masters, I love that class. It was hard because we were the person. We were like on two different sides of, I think, the country, but we had to figure it out doing the stuff through Google drive and delegating work things.
Speaker 2:You do it in real life yeah.
Speaker 1:So now this is a fun question to have for you. Thank you At a high level. Could you discuss a problem you had to solve at work and how did you overcome it? Go ahead, give us that good start method.
Speaker 2:Situation task. I would say the first big challenge I had since getting a quote, unquote big girl job was coming up, was doing a business review. Oh, that, even the word sounded intimidating to me. And then, once my manager was explaining like what we needed to do, explain how you're going to help bring this in for the company based on what you've been assigned pretty much is what it is, and so I had not the slightest idea of what, even how, even to start that process. So I started reaching out to teammates who've already participated in them. How did your last one go? Can you give me an example of what it looks like and like? What did you actually present? What did you talk about? And you know what's crazy is me and the girl shot off the page. We were both a part of the Aspire program, which is for recent grads. We did it so good that we received recognition from our managers managers. She was so impressed with how great we did because we kept it short and sweet. We hit the point, exactly that what needed to be hit. Whereas other people were going way off, way left off with their review, ours was short, sweet, simple, so good that she was impressed and that was our first time doing it.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. Yeah, I know for me, and that's why it's fun to just do different things. At JP Morgan, I was in a different type of position I've never been in. It required me to set up these different meetings and figure out, hey, what do we actually do and who does this, and how to reach out to people about that Is there a draft. Where's the documentation? This is one of the big ones that we all talk about. Like I made a joke. My cousin was in our group chat that they saying they got a new client or something at work and he was doing training. I was like training, what's that? I was like I ain't been trained in so long Pause. But I hadn't seen any training in a while and I was like I'm lucky. We tell people that all the time say as you start, well, based on the company, go to, but as you start to make more money, they pin you sometimes six figures that don't start with a one. They want you to when they mean hit the ground running. That's the level you supposed to be at. So I'll be wanting you all to know, and y'all really want the money that comes responsibility. Hit the ground running Really mean hey, one, two weeks, you might be got on board at the first week. The second week you probably just shadow some people. Now, third week, they really expecting you to get the work and you should know this. Let's think so. Don't lie, Just be honest. So what are like three things that you believe have helped you in your career so far?
Speaker 2:Networking. Number one point blank period, I think, having a good support system and then also just being the type of person that I am like being. I'm the type of person that when they say they're going to do something, they're going to do it. If I say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. And so I feel like me starting out in the career field with no experience, me setting forth and saying I'm going to finish, I'm going to do it, I'm going to get a job, I'm going to get a good job, I'm going to make good money, I'm going to enjoy my job, I'm going to have a great work life balance. Like me claiming all this stuff for me and actually putting in the work to get there, because it you can't just claim it and then just think it's going to fall into your hands. But as I'm studying and I'm getting through assignments and I'm struggling and I'm like oh, I'm thinking in the back of my head like it's going to pay off, it's going to pay off. Just think about you going to look back at this day and you're going to be like girl, you know the answer. So, definitely just being a determined and devoted person. My support system because when it does get hard, I have those people to lift me back up when I do feel defeated, I have people in my life who are like girl, now you got it, you done, did X, y and Z, you can do this. This is nothing. So I love my cheerleaders, my people who I call on when I'm having a bad day to bring my spirits back up so I can stay back focused on the, on the goal. I have tunnel vision. I'm a tunnel vision person. I can't stop until I get to the end. And then networking you never know who can help you, pour into you, benefit you, show you something different, connect you with someone new, have a job for you, have a referral for you, have an internship that they know of, sending you resources, sending you knowledge. Like networking is everything. But I did not get into the networking world until I got into tech.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so. I think. I think that'd be most people. I think I've always been networked and talked to people good enough. Like I said, how, through grade school talks, too much in class won't be called, doesn't all that stuff. It translates over to now. So, parents, if you got a talkative kid, give him a mic and let him start talking like, let him channel that stuff elsewhere. They got a lot to say. They are probably very intelligent and they have problems just sitting down and having anything to do and that's probably why they need something to do. They need an outlet to talk because they love to talk. They got answers. You know they got the answer sway, but I wanted to ask you this what would you and you kind of already answered it already, but I guess we'll make more specifics, so they'll tune into this part right here for people who are in your current Well, who people currently who were in your previous position and say like, hey, I need a career change, I'm doing this insurance or this financial collection stuff and I don't know what type of roles I could possibly pivot to in tech, like what would you tell them right now?
Speaker 2:I would say what I did was get on YouTube and look up a day in the life, shout out to influencers, shout out to influencers in tech, who get to show us what it's really like in the field, versus us assuming. I would say start there, tick, tock, instagram, linkedin. Then I would also say, like, step out and go to some mixers, get to know people who are not in your field and ask them what are you doing, how's your day, how's your life Like? What type of freedom and flexibility do you have? What benefits do you have, like talk to talk with them and understand different things? I would definitely say mixers, for sure there are so many. Depending on where you're at in the DFW area, there are tons that you can participate in. And then I would also say, once you find whatever field or area that may be, then reach out and seek out mentorship, because people will help you, regardless of them feeling like they're an expert. Because I am helping people and I don't feel like an expert in the field, you know, but I still can pour into someone who is not where I'm at Right. So that's what we have to realize is that you can help somebody who is not yet where you're at, you can still pour into them.
Speaker 1:Funny that you say that I was having a conversation with a young lady on LinkedIn. It's just like I'm shocked you've been responding to me in the messages Like you're just so personal. I'm just like I'm a regular guy. I typically respond to everybody, as long as you're not talking foolishness like in my messages and you need help with something. That's one of the things I pride myself on is just not seeing like I'm so far removed from people and I think me being a career coach helps with that too. I'm tapped in. So I really understand, like the things you guys are going through or going through these different interviews and really wanting a job and just not working for you. I'm one of the people that go through interview processes and tell you, hey, it just went for me, the situation a couple weeks ago, it didn't work out. It didn't work out for me. However, a friend of mine has made it to the round, the next round of the C-cert interviews, so I was happy to help him out with that as far as I recorded my interview, so I sent it to him and was like interview went hard. I probably just didn't hit the leadership principles like I should have. But, based on what he didn't want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Because in that moment, when it's done, you're like, oh God, you can't even think back to. You know, you might have an idea.
Speaker 1:Once I got the thing the next day, I kind of knew and for me it was just like I was trying to search back. The hardest thing was and that's how I learned going through these processes was like, hey, you start writing stuff down because you did some stuff that somebody thinks you, you kind of talk to, but you can't remember.
Speaker 2:Whether it's a digital footprint or an actual, you put in pen to paper or keyboard to your whatever, the more complicated the problem, the better, especially if it can speak to some stuff in that.
Speaker 1:In that position you're interviewing for, that's perfect. But, yeah, I always do it like the last one I did last year in Microsoft. I knocked the principles out of the park. I was a little rusty on the technical stuff because I was like, non-technical for like a year. So now it is what it is and you already answered this, though, too because I have, like you know, for people that find it hard to network, Me.
Speaker 2:I'm her Really. Yeah, you wouldn't even know. I got social anxiety, but I don't act like it in a business or professional setting, because when I started I would say when I started at AT&T, but the culture was a bit different but when I got to Microsoft I was like I'm taking advantage of all of this, of everybody that's here, of all the people. I'm gonna talk to everybody, I'm gonna get to know everybody and hopefully they remember. You know who I am, but if you see me out somewhere else, I might be acting a little socially awkward.
Speaker 1:So if you wanna be honest, I could tell a little bit, not necessarily like you're anxious, but I could tell like a little nervousness. You know what? I know Cause you and my friend Markey did the same thing when y'all was on the podcast. He was doing this yes, when I see somebody do that, I was like, yeah, that's cool, it's all right man.
Speaker 2:But once I warm up, I'm good. But I feel like once you push yourself outside of that shell, it becomes a lot easier. When you're having those social encounters Like now, if somebody asks me what I do, I can tell you what I do. Before I used to be like I'm a I do. I didn't have the words but because I'm talking to people and networking so much, I can tell you real quick. Oh, I'm a cloud solution architect. I help customers do blah, blah blah.
Speaker 1:Focus on blah, blah blah blah, I'm just your elevator pitch. Yeah, I can spit it out 60 seconds. Now it's funny, though, ironically, I've always been like a talkative person. People have always gravitated to me in some sort of manner. However, I didn't used to be that outgoing. I used to get that from my dad, like my dad really went places, but now I think what happened like to me was like death seeing death and I was like you know what? I'm gonna get out my cover song and I'm gonna go places. I'll go. When I moved out here, I became the person that would go anywhere solo.
Speaker 2:Same, same. I never used to be on the solo, solo tip really. But, yes, absolutely Anywhere Except for a mixer. I'm not going alone, unless I know somebody else that's going.
Speaker 1:Right, I forgot to ask you this in the middle of the pod, but I think it'd be pretty funny. I love asking this question. I remember you mentioned your mom earlier. How would your mom describe what you do for work?
Speaker 2:She wouldn't even be able to describe it. All she would say was girl, she working Microsoft, something technical, that's probably it.
Speaker 1:Do they, do you like, they do me Like anything computer related.
Speaker 2:My grandma, oh my gosh, my grandma, for sure. And it's like she could call my mom. My mom stays super close to her. She could call her and ask her questions. But she'll call me and it will stress me out because I'm like, well, me share your screen. Flip the camera, that's what I'm selling it. Can you flip the camera so I can see? Look at the back of the router.
Speaker 1:That's me and my aunt. When she calls me, I say well, auntie, call me on duo, let me see how I can help you. Well, my grandma, she doesn't have one of the phones. I do that, but she's. She's pretty smart, but I don't know. She looks at her computer but she's always getting the fake Microsoft things Trying to say call it, but she's smart.
Speaker 2:Literally my grandma. I'm telling her, like there's no way you can fall for fishing and your granddaughter has a degree in cyber. There's no way, like there's no way.
Speaker 1:She always calls me. She said, well, I unplugged my computer and the router. I was like good, they can't do nothing to him yeah, you're not on the internet.
Speaker 2:She knows something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Cause she didn't. She'd been going through it like plenty of times before, cause like that's how they get you, Like they.
Speaker 2:And I was just going to say, the older that they get, the more people are targeting them, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because you don't know, like if you don't know anything about this, you don't know that Microsoft is not hitting you up saying, hey, your IP address been compromised, we need to get you another one. And these people are over there like scamming. That's why shout out to scammer payback. They be killing the year. I scammer payback on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:They be killing them people. Man, I had see, I like to play with them when they call me or like, if they do like the little, I don't want you to scam. Hey, your warranties out. They answer the phone. Hello. Hey, yeah, I got a. What kind of car you got? I got a Lamborghini, click. I was like, and or sometimes I say, you called me what kind of car I got. You supposed to know. Cause a guy called me. They know what kind of car.
Speaker 2:I got and if in doubt we hang up and call back.
Speaker 1:Get somebody else. Yep, if I had like that's one of the things I'm gonna do one day too is like my own version of that. See how much we can get along with them. Like I had a coworker he knew how to speak what's a Hindi, whatever it is, and he spoke that to the guy One time. He called the phone so I put on speaker and he was speaking to him. He was like, yeah, the dude said he's just doing it cause he's trying to pay for school and I was like it was, it was hilarious.
Speaker 2:But I was like they have, like crazy, like a whole car center, like and they I love when they pull up the video of them, like when they get the survey, and they're like we're watching you right now and you can see them screaming through the office looking to see where the cameras are and how they're watching them. Not that smart.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to get like a little voice changer, so every time they call me I can sound like Liam Neeson on the phone.
Speaker 2:Yes, from taking.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna find you.
Speaker 1:That's what I said. Like I don't think he ever saw my podcast, but there's an episode while back with me and Eric and we're saying he should be on retainer for Mandiant and everyone else, Like when the hackers come in, like his voice should be a trademark of when they send people to the computer. Or a mitre, yeah, while just saying all the firms that they bring in to help with these big breaches, and when you're communicating with the attackers, saying we will find you Speaking of and I guess I could without you, don't have to divorce too much. I just thought about this. I know your company actually went through something a couple of months ago where they kind of had the stuff where they said, like the Chinese state actors got the what was it? The Azure keys or something like that. Like was everybody in the frenzy or they just. I know that you don't have to reveal anything, but I know like a lot of times when stuff like that happens, it's kind of like on the high alert or they're trying to say we're fixing this or that, because I attribute when bigger companies that offer these security solutions, when they have these issues. It's more of the things like, if you put it to real life, let's say you're a therapist or something. You focus so much on helping other people but you forget about your own self. I think it's sometimes like this like I got all the stuff going on and somebody came. I was moving too fast and I left the door locked, like stuff like that, like that's as simple as I could put it sometimes.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's when they say it's not about if you'll be rich it's when? Absolutely yeah For anyone. For us, with our personal devices, our social media, I'm sure people have experienced in some way, shape or form throughout their social media journeys where someone tried to get in. Maybe you got an alert from Facebook that said so and so trying to change your past. Whatever it may be, it's not if, but when.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually one time I didn't fall for it, I wasn't really paying attention. I was talking to my friend about something and I knew it was fishing and I put the stuff in, but I played them because I knew. Right after I did it I was like I'm stupid, that's not them.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about two fishing emails that I fell for. One was so, if you're not from Texas or a state that has tolls, we have tolls here, and I was working.
Speaker 1:Is it? Those is it? I want to ask you something because I've been getting annoyed and I think I know for a fact it's BS, because the real people will call me.
Speaker 2:They will send a letter for sure.
Speaker 1:Right, I've been getting these fake text messages telling some hey, you got to sum with the toll authority.
Speaker 2:That's definitely some scam.
Speaker 1:I know it is Yup, absolutely they would never text you. I was like. First of all, every time my balance get low, they take day 40 out automatically. Yup.
Speaker 2:Or they gonna send you a letter for sure they gonna send a letter, but it was a fishing campaign going on at the company and the email was like your toll balance is negative. Something about it's about to go to collections. And I'm freaking out because I had just moved here and I knew we had tolls, but I didn't even. They preyed upon that emotion in me and I clicked on it and it was like there, there there go, take this course.
Speaker 1:And then the second time. Oh, that's what I did, y'all there, yes, yes, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:And the second time I was in the sock, I knew we were doing a fishing campaign and I failed for the fishing campaign.
Speaker 1:Really how you fare for it.
Speaker 2:I clicked on the email. I don't even remember what the scenario was, but as soon as I clicked on it I was so embarrassed I was like, oh my God, my name's gonna be on the list. Like I can go to the ticket and see my name Like uh, mortifying. But since then I don't. I'm reporting everything. I'm reporting everything.
Speaker 1:And listen. That's the thing, Like y'all be reporting everything and sometimes I don't even know, like whether it's external or not. It's a company that we do business with and it's legitimate.
Speaker 2:Don't know.
Speaker 1:No, that's what we have to do. Like they'll let us know when we're doing a fishing test, like one of them they try to get us one. They're like hey, if you want, I can see how they can catch some people like this because people have changed their password. If you want to keep your password the same, click this link. I'll say yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like now we start going to smart cars which I believe we should It'd be much easier.
Speaker 2:Like I got an email that says you got a gift card fishing. Welcome to find out it's not fishing. It was actually a gift card, but I mean that was suspect to me.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So how can our listeners and everybody keep up with you If they want to follow you on LinkedIn or social media or anything like that?
Speaker 2:I'm on LinkedIn. My name on LinkedIn is Destiny Williams D E S T I N. I Last name, williams, spelled the normal way. And then I am on Instagram. I have a cyber page. Is cyber shorty with three E's. So C Y B E R shorty, three E's, and that's how you can keep up with me.
Speaker 1:All right, and y'all already know how y'all keep up with me Textwithtalkcom. Leave a review. Join the mailing list. I got some big stuff in store. Listen, I don't know when it's going to be, but we're going to do a live show soon, so if you in the DFW definitely got to pop out with us, we got a lot of stuff in the works. I got some big things. I'm a spain of y'all. Join the Patreon for real. I'm about to get very active. I figured out a faster way to edit these episodes so I finished our batch recording and getting them out to y'all. But I appreciate everybody for rock with me. Y'all been turning me up the whole last part of this year. Keep on doing it. We trying to get the 30 K before December and, like I always say, let's stay sexual. It's your boy, hd, and we out Peace.
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