Experience and Education

In this article I am going to go a little into my background regarding my experience and education. I'll try not to bore you too much but I think it is a good to put this out there so others can see where I have come from.

Career Experience
I started in the IT field out of college back in 2000. My first job was for a small company and I handled the desktop and server duties there for about 50 users and 2 locations. It is actually hard to believe how much I didn't know when I started there....I still remember learning what exactly TCP/IP was during my first week there. The guy that was in that position before me was moved into a programming position working on an internal application. He had implemented quite a few systems using Linux and that is where I got exposed to Linux for the first time. I learned quite a lot from him and when he left the company I took over the Linux stuff. We had deployed Samba file servers, DNS server, site-to-site VPNs, a remote access VPN, Internet access gateway, and a few other services using Linux. I learned a ton in the first year there and am grateful they gave me the opportunity to start my career. During this time I was interested in the security side of IT but never really acted on it. After about 2.5 years there I moved on.

My next job was a desktop tech for a hospital, it was a much larger environment and had growth potential. I eventually moved into a Systems Administrator role which has morphed into the position I am in now. This role was mainly Windows systems administration managing servers and services like Active Directory, DNS, SAN, Exchange, etc. The environment was about 100 servers and maybe a thousand desktops. This is also the time when I learned VBScript enough to do quite a bit of automation. I still remember using Group Policy and VB to shut down a virus or two when we had an outbreak.

The hospital was eventually bought by a larger healthcare organization and that is where I am now. I moved from doing all types of server administration to now mainly concentrating on the messaging side. I manage our Exchange, Enterprise Vault, and OCS/Lync environement for about 25,000 users. This position has allowed me to grow alot in my knowledge of how things work together and I am learning more each day. I have also moved on from VBScript and I use Powershell now for any automation needs.

Education
I attended Western Carolina University and earned a Business degree concentrating in Computer Information Systems. Looking back I really wish I had gone the Computer Science route but hindsight is 20/20. I actually wanted to get a minor in Computer Science at one point and I enrolled in a C++ class. Too bad I was horribly lazy and decided I didn't need the minor so I dropped the C++ class and never considered it again. After graduating and getting my first job I attended a MCSE training track and eventually took all of the tests to earn the MCSE certification. The classes were OK but some of the instructors were clueless. After finishing that I decided I wanted to go back to school to earn a Masters degree.

I enrolled at UNC-Charlotte and since my undergrad was in Business I had to take a lot of prerequisites before I could apply for the Masters program. I took Java, C Programming, Algorithms, Data Structures, Calculus and a few other courses before I eventually quit school just short of being able to apply to the program. I had a good excuse though, I had met an amazing girl and after getting married I decided me being gone 3-4 nights a week in school was not good for the beginning of a marriage. We now have 2 wonderful kids and a 3rd on the way!!

Getting a Masters degree has still been something that I've wanted to accomplish. Last spring I was talking to a co-worker and we were talking about school and that prompted me to do some searching on distance education degrees. I found that North Carolina State has an Engineering Online program that offers a Distance Education Masters in Computer Science. I was horribly conflicted because I am a huge NC-Chapel Hill Tarheels fan and I would be ridiculed by all of my NC State-loving family members if I enrolled at State. I swallowed my pride and applied to school as a non-degree seeking student and was accepted. Of course my family laughed and it seems every other gift I receive now is a NC State shirt. I happily wear the shirts now but I haven't given up my allegiance to the Tarheels.

I am currently enrolled at NC State and still working on prerequisites to apply to the Masters program. Feels like I've been working on this FOREVER....I may have a party just to celebrate being done with the prerequisites if I ever get there. I have had to take Calculus II and Calculus III (thank God that is over) along with Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming so far. I throughly enjoyed the Assembly class and have plans to keep messing with it if I get time. I think that knowledge will help if I ever get into Malware Analysis which is something I have an interest in. Currently I am taking a C Programming class (yes again...) and I am enjoying it also. I didn't have to take that course but I've decided to get a Graduate Certificate in Computer Programming before starting my Masters which unfortunately requires me to take C programming and data structures again. I could only transfer a certain amount of hours from UNC-Charlotte to complete the requirements and I believe a good refresher in C and data structures can only help me. I also did not want to start my Masters at the same time the new baby was coming so the year delay will be ok.

The only thing I have struggled with regarding the NC State degree is they don't offer much regarding information security though distance education. I considered returning to UNC-Charlotte where they have a Masters of Info Systems that concentrates in Information Security but the cost is higher and I would have to make the hour drive one or two nights a week again. Right now I will be sticking with NC State and take as many courses as possible that deal with security and any projects I have to do will hopefully have a security angle on them.

Well....now that I have blasted you with a wall of text about me I hope that future posts will be more productive. See you next time.......