About Max

    My name is Max, and in 2020 I decided I wanted to get into Information Technology. I wasn't always interested in computers. In fact, I thought I was technologically impaired before starting in IT. I was lucky to have experiences and people in my life that helped push me towards success.

    When I was in college, pursuing my bachelor's degree, I remember sitting in one of my classes and the professor was talking about how the school had just come out with a cybersecurity degree. At the time I was pursuing a degree in criminal justice, but I thought to myself "Cybersecurity? That sounds pretty cool." But another voice came on in my head and said "You don't know anything about computers, you can't do that. Besides you are already too far into your degree." And I listened to that voice. I continued with my criminal justice degree, graduated, and joined the United States Marine Corps.

    As a young Lieutenant in the Marines, you have to compete for the job you want. I wanted to be an infantry officer more than anything else. I was lucky to get the job I wanted and made it through the grueling Infantry Officer Course. I was sent to my unit and took over a platoon of about thirty Marines. Again I was lucky to have an excellent platoon sergeant (a platoon sergeant is like your second in command) and eventually three awesome squad leaders. We deployed to Europe together and built and pretty good team. However, our time in Europe opened my eyes to a lot of things about the Marine Corps. First of all, as conventional Marine infantry, we never did anything of greater significance. I saw mission after mission where all we would do is get ready, then sit around doing nothing. Second, being an officer in the conventional Marine force is more about being a politician than anything else. I decided during that deployment that I never wanted to be irrelevant again and I wasn't much of a politician. I decided I would try out for Marine Special Operations (MARSOC) and took steps to go to assessment and selection.

    Once I returned from Europe, I only had two months to prepare for assessment and selection. I have never been a great swimmer, in fact I could barely swim at all, so I spent most days in the pool. When I finally started selection, I struggled every day in the pool. At the end of selection, I'm positive that I was the worst person left in the pool. I was thrilled to be selected, but I found out that my wife was pregnant with out first child. We made the decision that I would not continue with MARSOC, and if I wasn't going to do MARSOC I couldn't stay in the Marine Corps. We decided I would get out and join the National Guard instead so I could be at home more.

    I was in a dilemma after deciding to get out of the Marines. Being infantry doesn't give you too many marketable skills outside of the military. During Christmas leave I remembered my professor telling us about the cybersecurity degree, and I still thought that it would be cool to pursue. The voice in my head returned and said "You can't do that, you don't know computers at all." I was about to listen again when I had the thought "I learned how so swim and I passed selection, why couldn't I learn how to be good at computers." I decided I would choose a job in the National Guard that had to do with technology. I spent my last year in the Marines researching how to get into IT and how computers work. I now have an IT related military occupational specialty (MOS) that relates to computers giving me a lot of hands of experience, and the CompTIA trifecta. I now enjoy learning about IT and am always looking for ways to grow. This blog is for me to track and document labs and projects I do or post about certificates that I obtain. Maybe someone else will learn from my blog.