Where to get started…?

As a 32-year-old, I find myself asking that question a lot. You have a house, what projects to prioritize first? How do I begin or even find the stepping stones to work in a field in IT? Should I work in networking, should I work in cyber-security, should I work in cloud engineering? What do I discuss on my first blog on my new shiny website that I just built in a docker container?

Well, I know I’m not alone in this journey we call life. Everyone is looking for that one job that allows you the chance to provide for yourself and your family, do something you have a passion for and enjoy doing every day, something that will enable you autonomy in what you do without the micromanaging environment that screams a toxic workplace. In a perfect world, we would all have that job. As far as I’m concerned, if I even have one of those options I wouldn’t mind waking up and going to work as much on a 40-hour schedule.

From tearing apart my parents’ digital alarm clock when I was 9 years old to see how it works, to deploying my first docker container in dock-compose at the age of 32. I have always been a bit of a nerd when it comes to tech, always fascinated by how everything works from the hardware to the software. Constantly being told that I have a gift in computers by family members to friends, I always find myself always wanting to learn more, and thinking I never know enough to take on the title of ” The Computer Guy ” in my social circles. Especially when I hang out with so many people who are far more gifted in the Tech industry than I find myself. As some may know, I am now a father of a beautiful baby girl. After holding her in my arms for the first time, it was like a rush, like I now knew what I needed to do with my life. I’m no longer here to get by, I’m here to guide and share a life with this little creature. I needed to get my life, my goals, and my interest all in line.

With that being said, I started studying more heavily towards getting CompTIA certifications, and I stopped going out and wasting my time playing video games in my free time. Every chance I had, all I wanted to do was study. At first, I found myself studying and geared more towards cyber-security roles, but then the strangest thing happened. Between my newfound passion for learning networking and sharing what I’ve learned with one of my closest friends, “who by the way IS a computer genius, maybe even a god” he started to show me some of his projects and expressed what I could do with cloud computing and docker containers…. and like that, it was off to the races.

I find myself wanting to self-host everything now, wanting to learn everything about cloud engineering, how to manage and build docker images, containers, swarm, kubernetes, etc… I may be a shy nerd, but I’m a passionate one. I also want to share what I’m working on from here on out, with you, and whoever else wishes to stumble across this blog. From the projects I’m working on, to what I’m doing to get my certifications, to building a community around the same passions. Join me on this journey and thank you for reading my first ever post. And maybe we can all get the dream jobs we all want in tech / IT together.