About Me

Aspiring network security professional | Lifelong learner harnessing modern technology to benefit my education | Early IT professional with a proven background in sales and customer service.

Past Career

I spent over a decade as a service advisor in the automotive industry. At some point I realized that I just did not want to do that for the rest of my life, and that if I wanted a career change, now was the time.

I have been fascinated with computers and technology since a young age. My father was a network engineer for the better part of his career, who has since pivoted to API security, so I always had access to computers growing up. Later, in my professional life, I became the go-to person for any and all IT related issues – solving problems ranging from printers not working to server issues affecting day to day operations.

The more I thought about working in cybersecurity, the more it made sense. The challenge excited me, and so did the material. So I decided to embark on a pathway to gain the education and skills needed to one day work as a cybersecurity professional. The areas that currently interest me most are penetration testing and risk assessment, but I also want to remain open to opportunities that come along the way.

I have already passed my CCST and am currently preparing for the CCNA, with Security+ planned shortly after.

The Lab

I started this homelab so that I could practice cybersecurity skills in a live environment, learning to work with real tools and real network traffic. I wanted to build a network completely isolated from my home network – both to avoid introducing any safety risks, and to give myself a space where I can break things freely. Snapshots save known working points along the way, so if something gets too messy I can always roll back and start fresh. That freedom to experiment without consequence is the whole point.

AI Use-Case

Building this lab has been one of the most hands-on learning experiences I’ve had, and AI has been a big part my approach. I figured I could kind of kill two birds with one stone not only by learning valuable homelab skills by training the AI agent as my cybersecurity teacher and mentor but also by learning to leverage AI in a complex environment.

The goal has never been to skip the work. Every command I run, I want to understand before I run it. AI helps me get there faster, and it helps me connect concepts that might otherwise take weeks to click. I’m also genuinely interested in where AI and cybersecurity intersect as a discipline – detection engineering, AI-assisted threat hunting, and tools like Wazuh are already moving in that direction. That’s a space I’m paying close attention to as I build toward the career I want.

Looking Ahead

• CCST Cybersecurity – passed ✅
• CCNA – in progress (exam scheduled December 5, 2026)
• Security+ – planned
• CySA+ – planned
• eJPT – planned
• OSCP – planned