How I Doubled My Pay After I Became a Certified Ethical Hacker
Country: USA
The story of Robert Janeway from Trinity Valley Community College is nothing short of remarkable. Robert started off as a level tech worker, earning a modest salary. But he had bigger dreams and decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree and that’s where he discovered the Certified Ethical Hacker program. After completing hisdegree and earning the C|EH certification, he landed a new job at Trinity Valley Community College, with double the pay he previously earned. Read the inspiring story of how education and certification can open doors to better-paying and more fulfilling careers.
I started using computers when they came out with Windows 95. I was 16 then and always interested in working on viruses and figuring out how they work.
As I got better, I eventually got to a bigger business camp where I was working. And that’s when the WannaCry and the Crypto Locker started to hit.
That spurred me to focus on cybersecurity because this Crypto Locker stuff was just not a good option for the school districts. I didn’t have enough staff, and they didn’t have enough security. So, it’s what spurred me to join WGU.
That’s where I got exposed to C|EH and the real in-depth certification side of Certified Ethical Hacking. So currently, I’m working at Trinity Valley Community College, and I am being pivoted from a system administrator role into an information security analysis position.
The C|EH program was very in-depth and handled lots of information. I gained a lot of knowledge I wouldn’t have had if I had tried to find it on my own. Everything was in a nice package, and the lab tools I got exposed to broadened my cybersecurity horizons. It was very beneficial to me.
Currently, it’s benefiting me because the
and I’m building out the full security office.
So, I’m going to be relying on those skills very heavily as I build out this program at our college and as I continue to advance in my career. There’s always something to learn in the Certified Ethical Hacking area and cybersecurity in general. So, C|EH continues to enable me to be a better security officer.
So, in my industry, education has been taking a big step forward. I’ve been teaching some classes for the Certified Ethical Hacking program myself.
I’m learning just as much going through it as an instructor and helping the students with it as I did when I went through it myself to get my certification. We’ve got several C|EH classes to test out that we’ve started teaching, and I’m excited for all these new up-and-coming security professionals to gain those skills and help keep our computers secure.
Yes. This goes back to when I first started working at Camp ISD. I was just a level tech there and wasn’t making a lot. That’s when I started working on my bachelor’s degree with WGU. WGU is where I got exposed to the Certified Ethical Hacker program.
After completing my bachelor’s degree and getting some certificates, such as the C|EH, under my belt. I was able to get my new job here at Trinity Valley Community College, making double the pay that I had. After that, the system administrator recognized my potential and decided to take me from the PC tech side of the college year and move me into the system administration role, where I dealt with the servers, configured the firewalls, and hardened our security.
Then our VP of IT left for a little while, and we have something called Texas Administrative Code that has spun up. So, the Texas Administrative Code demands many schools to have an Isilon thing and a security plan. All the C|EH learning is helping push my career forward because those are the skills they need for this information security to keep our compliance and our insurance Low.
The testing method in the C|EH is so in-depth and broad it’s really hard to encompass all,
but there’s so much information in there, and it’s so valuable. It’s hard to put a metric on how much information is given with your C|EH program. Even after I go through it with my students, I continuously learn something new and think of ways to do it differently every time I go through it.
So, I think that’s a testament to the C|EH program that even though you have gone through it once, you won’t get all of it. You’re always able to get more benefits out of that same program, even if you go through it once or twice.
I do some computer repair on the side, and I try to volunteer my time at food banks and some of the small businesses around here to help them secure their infrastructure. There’s a lot of need for that in this small area of East Texas where I live. It is not a big tech community here.
So, it’s nice to reach out to them and help them with the tools they need to keep their places secure because security is often an afterthought for many places. They don’t see the need and the return on the investment for those security functions.
So, it is good to help them, especially with how easy it is to get a Crypto Locker or some ransomware attack on their computers, and then they would lose everything. Being able to help my students here at the college with their own certified ethical hacking journey is a great benefit to the students and me.
It had to be the labs
For the demos, you had password crackers, forensic tools, and image viewers; there was so much in there that I wanted to try to steal and download them into my computer if it wasn’t in that virtual environment.
I started writing them down as many as I could so that I could google, find, and download them myself to get access to all that in-depth information you had in the labs and simulations. It was very helpful to see how the tools work because you can read about how they work all day long until you get in there and use them. It’s hard to put the same context of how this helps you in your journey.
As I said, I wish I was in a position where I could afford more of their certifications at this time that they are beneficial. As they’re spinning me up into new positions, I’m learning so much. I don’t have time to take as many certifications as I could use.
But when I get a chance, they will certainly impact me better. I want to thank all the EC-Council people who make the course exams and do all this research to help new cybersecurity professionals get the tools and skills they need to keep their industries secure.
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Certified Ethical Hacker
WE DON’T JUST TEACH ETHICAL
HACKING WE BUILD CYBER CAREERS