Cybersecurity didn't start behind a keyboard for me. Before learning to code scripts and brew automation, I manned a service bay as a Car Service Technician. Diagnostics and schematics were my blood and transmission fluid. Where others saw cars, I recognized systems. And where others saw bolts and hoses, I saw attack surfaces.
Repairing vehicles under pressure to ensure safety gave me a unique perspective. There's an anomaly you can't feel, but you know it's there. You hear it in the subtle vibration. You see it in the intermittent error code. You feel it when the system can't handle the load. Your job is to isolate and correct the failure before it causes a safety incident.
Cars these days are computers on wheels. The methodologies and philosophies I picked up in the shop are how we protect our digital organizations. Whether it's viewing problems from a systems standpoint, analyzing attack surfaces, working in layers, or never trusting any screws to be tightened enough, these are the fundamentals of infosec.
With cybersecurity, I'm still working with systems to keep people safe. My strengths in hands-on technology and methodologies translate into I.T. through my undergraduate studies and group efforts such as the SNOWBE Online Security Plan. I don't just know how systems work; I know how they break. I know how people exploit them. I know how we can harden them against attack.
That's the skill set I'm bringing from the service bay to the SOC.