-: Okay, so let's talk about my favorite subject.
Me. No, I'm kidding.
I really don't like talking about myself.
But given the fact
that this is a very special course that deals
with career advice, career guidance, I think it's necessary
that I tell you my own background
and how I got into cybersecurity.
So I'm just gonna give you a very
very quick history of my life.
A few things about me.
First of all, I am a cyber security professional.
I'm also a web developer.
I love building websites
especially websites with WordPress.
I am Russian Nigerian.
I had a Russian mother and an Nigerian father.
They're both late, but it's okay.
It's happened many, many years ago.
I was actually born in Nigeria
but I also grew up in Russia as well.
I do speak English, Russian, Yoruba, and French.
If I wonder what Yoruba is
it's one of the big three languages in Nigeria.
Nigeria has plenty of languages
but the big three are, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.
And I happen to speak Yoruba.
I currently live in Thailand. I love traveling.
And I'm currently living
in the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand.
And regarding certifications, I do have the Comcast security
plus the CCNA, CCNA security.
And I also on took the training
for the CEH and the CISSP
I don't have the CEH or CISSP training
certifications, but that's because
by the time I was ready to take the certifications
I had decided to become an online instructor.
And at that point
I really did not need those two certifications.
Okay, now you're looking at this next slide
and you're wondering, what the hell is this?
Like, is this a mistake?
You're looking at three people.
If you're into movies, you probably recognize who they are.
We have the incredibly gorgeous Halle Berry
whom I used to have a very big crush
on for many, many years, John Travolta and Hugh Jackman.
And if you still don't get what this picture is
it's actually the poster for a movie
called Swordfish that was released back in 2001.
Now, why am I talking about Swordfish?
Well, it's this movie that actually got me
into cyber security. It's the very first movie
that I watched where I got intrigued
by the whole concept of hacking and cyber security.
And I don't know if I would be here talking
talking to you today if I did not see this movie
because prior to me watching this movie
I was bent on becoming a network specialist
or something along IT, but not cybersecurity.
But this movie really got me thinking about cybersecurity.
And I owe this movie. It might be cliche to say
but this movie kind of changed my life.
So just thought I'd mention that.
All right education real quick, I got my first degree
in comp science in public university in Nigeria.
And then I got my master's degree
in cyber security from the University of Maryland
Baltimore County. Work Experience.
I started work as an IT administrator back
in 2008 in Alliance Francoise French institution in Nigeria.
Then three years later, I upgraded
to IT support slash security analyst
in British American Tobacco.
This was a major change for me
because as in the IT administrator at Alliance Francoise
I was in charge of just about 10 computers.
I was the only IT staff in the institution, but B A T
British American Tobacco for the first time.
I actually had other analysts working with me
but were quite a big, I think there was
like 12 of us in the IT department.
So I had a manager, my manager had another manager
and that other manager had his own manager as well.
So that was my introduction to copy bureaucracy
and things like that, you know
And it's also in British America tobacco
where I actually began to really learn a lot
about security and specifically pen testing.
Why pen testing?
Well, that's because British America Tobacco
we hired Ernst and Young to come
and do some pen testing on our site.
So they sent this pen tester all the way from Kenya.
He came over to site and he did some pen testing
and I was put in charge of like assisting him.
So I learned a lot from him.
And speaking of Ernst and Young, I know plenty of employees
at Ernst and Young are taking my cyber security courses.
If you're one of them, shout out to you.
So after I left my role as a security analyst
at B A T I then went to the US and I worked
as a web developer slash web security for Fox wood Media
a web development company
in Baltimore where I was building websites for clients.
Unfortunately, I was let go in late 2016.
I was told they could not
they could no longer pay my salary.
We were not making that much money anyway
so I was let go, but luckily
Luckily for me, I was able to find work
as a security freelance slash consultant.
And how this happened was because back in Baltimore
in those days, every month we used to have this kind
of like a meetup with like, you know, IT companies
and staff from all over Baltimore would come together.
Also, startups as well that had like new products
and new services will come discuss what these
products were like, you know, make advertisements,
and it was basically like
like one of these networking events, right?
So in one of these events
I met a very, very famous YouTuber.
He's no longer on YouTube anymore
but I don't wanna mention who he is.
And at the time he had over half a million subscribers
and he was well known in Baltimore as this IT guru person.
So I made friends with him and when I was let go
from Fox Media, he was able to get me a few gigs.
So what I would typically do is
that this company is this small to medium size companies.
They will call me and say, Hey Alex, you know
we have $10,000 to spend on cyber security.
You know, what would you recommend
that we spend the money on?
So my job basically was to go in there
inspect what they currently had, the kinds of malware
anti malware software that they had
if they an Excel firewalls, encryption
if they had any security policies, things like that.
So my job was basically to recommend to them ways
to either or completely overhaul the security system
or just to simply upgrade their security features.
So that was kind of like my role.
I was a consultant and my
my job was to make sure that they spend their money wisely
on improving their security infrastructure.
And in 2018, I became an online instructor
first of all on Udemy.
And right now in the Air 2022
I am now a full-time cyber security instructor.
You can find my courses on Lab cyber, on Udemy, ESC
council packed YouTube, and a few other places as well.
So I just love instructing, I love teaching.
It's my real passion.
And honestly, I never believed I would become a teacher
because growing up I never really liked any of my teachers.
But yeah, it's, it's it's life.
You know, life, life can be very, very funny at times.
So that's what I am right now.
I'm currently a full time cyber security instructor
and I am loving every minute of it.
Okay? A few interests of mine.
I love traveling around the world.
I've been to 25 countries thus far.
I'm into sports.
I love tennis, I play chess.
I also love football, like European football, soccer
if you're in America, movies
I love watching movies quite a lot.
And then gaming, I'm, I'm a huge nerd.
I love playing video games.
I've got my PlayStation four right down there.
You can't say I've got my PlayStation three
and also do lots of gaming on my PC as well.
Okay, last slide.
I'm not in any way a motivational speaker
and I don't pretend to be one cause I'm not.
But I wanna leave you with this very, very powerful quote
or statement that really has changed my life, really.
And then so Wayne Gretsky, I dunno
if it's the first person to ever say this
but he's often credited
as the person who said this, Wise words.
He said, You miss a hundred percent of the shots.
You don't take.
The point being here is that
if you don't try to do something, you would never know
whether or not you would've succeeded or fail.
And the thing is, if you don't know
you would always have it at the back of a mind, Huh?
Maybe if I tried, maybe I might have become successful.
And then you start regretting
that you never took any action.
You watching this video right now
you are already taking action just by watching this video.
A lot of people often talk about how oh
they wanna make their lives better
and they wanna change careers
they want to move to something more interesting.
Most of them are exciting, something with better prospects
but they never actually take necessary steps to do so.
So you watching this video right now
you are hoping to launch a career in cybersecurity.
That's the first step.
Already. You're doing far more than most people ever will.
I'm not saying this just to make you feel good
about yourself, it's just a fact, alright?
A lot of people often talk but they never actually do.
So I wanna congratulate you and I wanna encourage you to
keep on going.
I'm pretty sure that you will become successful
in your pursuit of a career in cybersecurity.
Don't give up, get into cyber security can be difficult
but the rewards are there.
If it was so easy to get into cyber security
everybody would be into in cyber security, but it's not.
So I just wanna encourage you to keep on going.
And this isn't even just
about launching your career in cyber security.
It could be other aspects in your life.
If there is something you wanna try, maybe as as, as a man
maybe there's a particular lady you're interested in
make the move and ask her out.
Okay? Because if you don't
you never know what she would say.
She might say yes, she might say no, but even
if she says no, at least you know that okay, you've tried.
She said no.
You would have that peace of mind.
Okay? Same thing goes with like projects as well.
It's okay even if you tried and you failed
Cause even if you fail
you would know that, okay, I tried, I didn't succeed.
It's much better than thinking, Oh, what?
What might have been if I had tried?
Having that regret is one of the worst things.
Okay, So one more time.
You miss a hundred percent of the shots
you don't take whatever it is you're trying to accomplish
take the steps
okay? Try, take action.
If you feel, that's fine, but more often than not
I believe that you will be successful
in whatever you're trying to do, especially
if you're trying to launch a career in cyber security.
And hopefully this course will help you.
All right, that's it. Ill see you in my next video