Where I Have Worked
My work history is not glamorous, but it is honest. During college I worked in McDonalds for 2 and a half years part time. I had to deal with customer complaints for the most part as I was front of house. It was the furthest thing from my dream job but it did motivate me and show me where I would stay if I didn't work hard in college. Even though this was not my first job, it was my first time regularly getting issues with difficult customers. and I had to learn how to deal with them in a professional way. This was also where I could put my team work skills to use for the first time in a professional environment. I quickly learnt that a lack of team work will only leave a negative impact.
I also do some labouring work over the weekends, which is where the picture on the homepage is from. I work on my parents new house after work in week days and work over the weekends. even though I do not get paid to do the work. I am happy to help my family. This leaves me with little free time, to do university work, as well as little time to do the things I enjoy, but sometimes helping my family is far more rewarding and can be worth the stress. It also teaches me that discomfort is only temporary, and that most of the time you can achieve far more than you believe you are capable of.
Skills from Work
The soft skills I picked up in these jobs are ones I think a lot of people underestimate on a CV. Being reliable, being able to communicate clearly under pressure, knowing how to take criticism without getting offended. These things matter in any professional environment. I have them, and I know where they came from.
- Customer service and communication - from 2 years as a waiter 14-16 yrs
- Time management - Working at McDonalds as front of house staff 2 years 16-18 yrs
- Physical resilience - from labouring and consistent gym training
- Teamwork - both in waitering and front of house in McDonalds
Technical Skills
I am still building my technical skills however, My passion for computers began when I was 15, I had been saving up from my job for a year to buy a gaming PC. It was not the best PC in the world, but it came from my hardwork. It was too expensive to buy outright, so I had to purchase the parts and assemble it myself. My Cybersecurity degree is also giving me a proper foundation in areas I had only touched on before. I am most comfortable with the hardware sides of things at the moment with HTML and CSS being where I believe I fall short the most. This website is an effort to build on that. I am developing skills in Python and SQL through my course modules.
Outside of formal study, I still use online resources because they are free and accessible to me. If there is something I want to understand that is not covered in a lecture, I will find a tutorial or a documentation page and work through it myself. That habit of self-directed learning stems from true passion and is a skill I intend to keep.
What Kind of Work I Want to Do
My interest is in Cybersecurity. I like the idea of the competition between the hackers(attackers) and the Cybersecurity officers (defenders) it is a rapidly changing environment and I feel like it is quite exciting and competitive, which is where I thrive.
In the long term I am open to where things go. The tech industry is large and I am only at the beginning of understanding it. However as it stands I want to pursue Cybersecurity as I currently have a passion for it. Having a strong focus on what I want to do has been my method and my approach to most things so far in life.