Introduced to Cybersecurity with Kenneth Ellington (1/2)

Welcome to episode 239 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_) – two technology professionals with backgrounds in IT Operations and Sales Engineering on a mission to help others accelerate career progression and increase job satisfaction by bringing listeners the advice we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we share part 1 of a discussion with Kenneth Ellington, detailing how he got into cybersecurity, what prompted him to become an instructor, some of the gaps in professional networking skills for college students and what can be done about it, and how Kenneth encourages people to invest in themselves as a business owner of Ellington Cyber Academy. Original Recording Date: 07-03-2023 Topics – Meet Kenneth Ellington, A Step into Cybersecurity, Tell People What You Want, Internships and Community Involvement, Building Courses and Learning to Network, The Life of an Instructor, Overcoming Objections to Self-Investment, A Mindset Coach 2:43 – Meet Kenneth Ellington By day, Kenneth Ellington is a Senior Cybersecurity Consultant specializing in SIEM and SOAR technologies such as Splunk, QRadar, Microsoft Sentinel, or other solutions in the blue team realm. Kenneth designs solutions for various clients based on their needs. When he was younger, Kenneth had no interest in technology. He enjoyed cooking during his high school years. Kenneth’s father has been a software engineer for many years and pushed Kenneth and his brother to get into technology as a career. Kenneth’s father made him do a code academy course over the summer during his middle school years, and Kenneth didn’t like it at all. Kenneth knew at that time that software engineering was NOT something he wanted to do. After graduating high school, Kenneth began college coursework focused in business administration which later became business management at the University of South Florida (USF). Around the time of his junior year, Kenneth focused on IT (information technology) for greater job prospects after some advice from his father. 4:31 – A Step into Cybersecurity Kenneth worked in the deli at Publix Supermarket throughout his time at USF. Today, Kenneth tells his students at Ellington Cyber Academy (more on how he got there later) to “make sure people know what you want to do so they’re able to speak on your behalf when you’re not inside the room.” Kenneth told all of his managers at Publix that he wanted to focus on IT as a career. In one particular instance, the Publix store manager asked Kenneth if he wanted to meet the director of cybersecurity for Publix as part of this director’s visit to the store. Kenneth said yes! Kenneth got to have a 1-1 meeting with Rick (the cybersecurity director who visited). Before this meeting Kenneth had no idea what cybersecurity was or that Publix even did it. During this meeting, Rick encouraged Kenneth to apply for an internship in cybersecurity the following year. Rick also gave Kenneth a list of things to study to give him the best chan