Jam's Blog

Written December 31st, 10:49 MT

I'm looking back over the decade (and change!) since I graduated from college. And while I am a completely different person than I was at 22, I feel like I'm coming circle of where I wanted to be back then, and also how I felt back then too.

Back then, I was really trying to figure out what my path in Tech was going to be. I was lucky enough to get a head start by having had an internship at Google, which at the time was one of the coolest places (and a reason I was able to find jobs in a recession year that made graduates synonymous with unemployed). I had a Security degree, which at the time wasn't a massive degree given out by major schools. Social media was still finding its foothold beyond my generation, so, I also didn't have the connections that I did. There was this level of excitement, and also fear, because, growing up poor, I knew I had to make it or I'd fall to the wayside.

10 years later, you could say that I did, as a combination of luck and hard work. I'm currently a security operations engineer who has run the gamut of jobs and has done the rounds in Silicon Valley. I've seen the worst downtimes and the highest highs from software releases and new things done by companies I had a part in. I've presented what Security should be on an infrastructure level and how if you collaborate, Security can get done. I've become more aware also of the struggles of being a queer (including non-binary) black engineer trying to thrive in an industry that honestly either doesn't want us to, or frankly doesn't care to learn how. And I've fought back against that by advocating when needed (and having the space to), and mentoring those so that they don't get stuck.

And, 10 years later, despite doing all this and more, I'm back to where I began. Just as I was back in December of 2009, gainfully employed and working my butt off, I'm wondering what is next.

To that end, I'm making this blog to document that, as well as other things I've been meaning to express on the interwebs. Note, that it may not all be tech based because if anything, I want folks to learn that tech is not just a one-dimensional or homogenous place. Hopefully, that will help it change as much it'll help me make the right next steps.