Career Essay Sample: My Journey into Cybersecurity

📌Category: Business, Career, Life, Myself, Science, Technology
📌Words: 1215
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 11 June 2022

Introduction: The year is 2020, not knowing what I want in my life I head into college to find my way. Going to St. Andrews University is a great learning curve for me, I love playing football and St. Andrews allowed me to be the best player I can be, however, it came with many hardships and struggles for me. 2020 is the worst year of my life I thought, my grandmother had passed away earlier this year, I’m struggling with weight gain, a previous football coach of mine passed away, COVID is spreading rapidly, and there are many dark lonely nights as later in the year my roommate dropped out. Every day I would repeat the same task; wake up, practice, class, practice, dinner, go to sleep. Every. Single. Day. High school was repetitive as well, yet, college to me was different since I’m considered an adult now. Fast-forward to early 2021, I’m going through some health issues. While overcoming these issues I also have the issue of finding out what I want to major in. After weeks of research on the best major to study in, my father's fraternity brother suggests a career in cyber security. Ever since I was a kid I loved computers yet I didn’t think about ever pursuing a career in them. Unfortunately, there are no computer science-related majors at my previous institution, so I decided to transfer. After careful consideration of schools with cybersecurity as a major, I went to Old Dominion University as their cyber program is emerging to become one of the best in the country if not the world. Transferring schools is though but I know it is the best decision for me and my further education career. My name is Bobby Booker and I am a Cybersecurity major at Old Dominion University.

Discovering My Passion: When I was around eight years old I was on my computer all the time. Whether it was playing games, watching tv, or trying to find a way to hack games, I loved using my computer and technology in general. One particular day I was on my computer and I can’t remember exactly what I did, nevertheless, I managed to aggravate our cable company COX, by infiltrating their network. That day, some of their agents came to our door and asked for my name. My mother talked them down and I also got told to not do that again. I believe since I was so young they thought I couldn’t have known any better, accordingly, they let me go. Hacking or finding workarounds in situations has always been a part of me and consequently, my nature. Also, I have an understanding of networking with other people, teamwork, collaboration, along with communication are all skills that cyber security professionals need. Throughout my life, I have portrayed these skills very well and this is part of the reason why I believe I deserve this scholarship. Another passion of mine that would qualify me for this scholarship is my desire to work for any executive branch. Something I would love to do is become a special agent because of the fulfillment in working for the FBI. I think that working for an agency would have a positive impact on my life and well-being. My auntie, who is a detective for the city of Chicago, solves many crimes. I've seen her work and how she operates and there is certain energy or fulfillment she gets when solving crimes or discovering what’s wrong. Working for any department of the government would be amazing to me. Although the federal agency I would love to work for the most is NASA, I would love to work for NASA because I love anything to do with space exploration, astronomy, or even astrology. It is all so interesting to me, almost as much as cyber security or computer science is. I hope that there are some opportunities for me when it comes to cyber security and NASA. 

Experiences and Opportunities: My experiences through the past couple of years have built me for dedication for a scholarship such as this one. 2020 was perhaps the hardest year of my life. My grandmother passed, I was struggling with weight gain, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in my life. The beginning of this year was also hard because I was suffering through health issues in late January, while at my former university. I had to stay in unfamiliar dorms on campus for about two weeks, and it gave me a lot of time to think about things going on in my life. Such as what I wanted to do, skills I would need, and what is the real reason for me going to college. Football wasn’t my biggest concern at St. Andrews, I was mainly focused on my academics as I was ready to transfer. Some of the classes helped me into what I think could be integrated into cybersecurity. For example, I had a “Game Art” class that I attained a B in. We mainly used the computer program “Unity” to create our worlds and we used a unity builder to create our items such as soda cans or bowls. These items are simple yet when they take many problem-solving skills. They require this because an individual could be working on building items outside of class but they could forget how the program works. Solutions can be found by testing and using the results toward building items or the world created with Unity. Also in my Business 101 class, I had many collaborations with other students. These collaborations helped me with my team-building skills and being better at communicating with others. Communication is also key when it comes to cybersecurity. I am becoming better as a communicator throughout these years, and then the proceeding years will help me prepare for any job in cybersecurity. If I were not to work for a federal agency then I would love to work in cybercrime in addition to becoming a cybercrime analyst. The protection of networks, as well as data, is important so that’s part of the reason why I would want to work in cybercrime if the federal government doesn’t work out. 

Goals, Commitment, and Reasons: The most important thing for me, moreover others, is that those who receive this scholarship should know that the work is not finished. Even if I were to receive this scholarship it will only get harder from here. This means my commitment, dedication, as well as a promise on working for federal agencies for any branch. I have a few ideas after working 2-3 years in a federal branch. My ideas are to continue working for the government, work for NASA if I am not already, work in the NBA or NFL as they need Cybersecurity/IT experts as well. I think any of these fields would be amazing for me and the opportunities are endless. I am interested in this scholarship not for the money but for the opportunity that comes with this award. I think when it comes to this scholarship most people are in it for the money if we are being honest. Money is important as college is expensive therefore, sometimes hard to pay for, however, I know not as many people applying for this scholarship are as dedicated furthermore, many are not as ready as I am. I’ve been through a tough past couple of years plus I know that I can get through the hard times. My next year's learning in cybersecurity will prepare me for this job in the coming future. Even if I don’t get this scholarship I will remain humble then proceed to apply the next year. Reminding myself that I will still need to work as hard as I can to become the best cybersecurity major I can be.

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