But... what happened to Adobe?
I was clutching my Adobe contract to my chest figuratively last Thursday when I posted on Facebook what I was going to be: Application Security Analyst for Adobe. I had not sent out my resume to any other places, and had no other prospects and decided to drop the news early as I was waiting for the electronic contract to appear for me to sign and solidify an internship for this summer.
I wasn't planning on having an internship ever. The odds of me getting one, let alone getting one I liked was was so far from my brain, that I felt very silly handing over my resume to Julia at the career fair.
Even when I called my dad hours after they verbally offered it to me, I was met with "And they just *GAVE* it to you? "
Thanks Dad, thanks.
I've been told that if you ask anyone back in July when I was planning on going back to school, that if they could bet that I would be right where I am today, that they would have bet against it. I have a failure record in school, I can't finish projects to save my life without a little handholding, and I _was_ financially irresponsible.
Now I'm an apprentice on the BYU Red Team (team of hackers), friends with the Cybersecurity professors who take me to compete in CyberDefense competitions in Colorado and Idaho, and to present papers in Florida. (I have another 2 in Tennessee and Florida this year as well.) and I received money from BYU for a research idea.
And now Adobe saw this potential, liked my interviews, and offered me a paid internship of more than I've ever made before in my life, even when I was at Symantec. Like.. double.
So what happened?
Thursday afternoon I wandered around with Tanner, in prep for a Networking Lab we needed to finish and being harassed by my Professor to come to the ITSec club meeting in which some very prestigious penpesters were speaking. For those who don't know, Pentesters, or Penetration Testers have a much more common name of White Hat Hackers. These are people hired by big companies to hack into, steal data, and even sometimes, break into the buildings, trying to find security holes.
During this presentation, I answered several questions which I considered super simple, not explanatory of my knowledge by any means, (which is silly, because that's really all I knew on the subject) and after answering the 3rd question, the Co Founder of the company stood up and asked for my resume in front of everyone else, and all I had the thought to say while I was in shock was ".....ok."
An interview was set up, I interviewed with 2 people and by the end of the interview, which focused more on my personality than anything else, I was asked: "What do I need to give you in order to have you say no to Adobe."
Not only was Adobe, A company that I had been working very hard to get into for YEARS, seeking me, but now, I was being asked personally, "What can we give you, that Adobe hasn't, so that you will intern with us." They were giving me picks of their office location. I ultimately ended up with a relocation stipend, and they matched Adobe, which from my understanding is higher than average for their interns normally.
To the question of "which office should I choose" I received this in an email:
This all led to the single most difficult decision of my life.
On one hand, I had Adobe, which was a safe, high paying job that wouldn't have any travel costs. On the other hand, I had access to a dream job I had always wanted, and it was BEING HANDED TO ME ON A SILVER PLATTER, with a team who could very well be my best est friends in another life, IN ANOTHER STATE.
And it terrified the crap out of me.
For several days, I couldn't let Adobe go. And the decision sat on my head super heavily to the point where things suffered. School, sleep schedule, I got physically sick. I've lost 10 pounds in the last week alone.
And I tried to turn things over to God, to help me decide because this was my future. My very future laid out here. Having Adobe on my resume in cyber defense would be fantastic but so would having these other guys on my resume.
At some point, I just gave up trying to decide and waited for my dad to get back from chaperoning my sister at Disneyland with her choir group.
And I asked for a blessing:
"You will go to sleep and when you wake up, you'll know which one to choose."
As I pondered it that night, I came to the realization that I REALLY don't do well in corporate groups, and I was at peace with my sudden decision to move to San Francisco. (at least until the housing search started.)
As of next month, I'm going to moving out of the state for 4 months, an entire semester, ALL ALONE, and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I guess I'm grateful that I still receive answers to prayers even though I feel undeserving. Sometimes I just don't... I don't know. Could this be my reprieve for the last couple years? Is this the start of everything new?
I wasn't planning on having an internship ever. The odds of me getting one, let alone getting one I liked was was so far from my brain, that I felt very silly handing over my resume to Julia at the career fair.
Even when I called my dad hours after they verbally offered it to me, I was met with "And they just *GAVE* it to you? "
Thanks Dad, thanks.
I've been told that if you ask anyone back in July when I was planning on going back to school, that if they could bet that I would be right where I am today, that they would have bet against it. I have a failure record in school, I can't finish projects to save my life without a little handholding, and I _was_ financially irresponsible.
Now I'm an apprentice on the BYU Red Team (team of hackers), friends with the Cybersecurity professors who take me to compete in CyberDefense competitions in Colorado and Idaho, and to present papers in Florida. (I have another 2 in Tennessee and Florida this year as well.) and I received money from BYU for a research idea.
And now Adobe saw this potential, liked my interviews, and offered me a paid internship of more than I've ever made before in my life, even when I was at Symantec. Like.. double.
So what happened?
Thursday afternoon I wandered around with Tanner, in prep for a Networking Lab we needed to finish and being harassed by my Professor to come to the ITSec club meeting in which some very prestigious penpesters were speaking. For those who don't know, Pentesters, or Penetration Testers have a much more common name of White Hat Hackers. These are people hired by big companies to hack into, steal data, and even sometimes, break into the buildings, trying to find security holes.
During this presentation, I answered several questions which I considered super simple, not explanatory of my knowledge by any means, (which is silly, because that's really all I knew on the subject) and after answering the 3rd question, the Co Founder of the company stood up and asked for my resume in front of everyone else, and all I had the thought to say while I was in shock was ".....ok."
An interview was set up, I interviewed with 2 people and by the end of the interview, which focused more on my personality than anything else, I was asked: "What do I need to give you in order to have you say no to Adobe."
Not only was Adobe, A company that I had been working very hard to get into for YEARS, seeking me, but now, I was being asked personally, "What can we give you, that Adobe hasn't, so that you will intern with us." They were giving me picks of their office location. I ultimately ended up with a relocation stipend, and they matched Adobe, which from my understanding is higher than average for their interns normally.
To the question of "which office should I choose" I received this in an email:
This all led to the single most difficult decision of my life.
On one hand, I had Adobe, which was a safe, high paying job that wouldn't have any travel costs. On the other hand, I had access to a dream job I had always wanted, and it was BEING HANDED TO ME ON A SILVER PLATTER, with a team who could very well be my best est friends in another life, IN ANOTHER STATE.
And it terrified the crap out of me.
For several days, I couldn't let Adobe go. And the decision sat on my head super heavily to the point where things suffered. School, sleep schedule, I got physically sick. I've lost 10 pounds in the last week alone.
And I tried to turn things over to God, to help me decide because this was my future. My very future laid out here. Having Adobe on my resume in cyber defense would be fantastic but so would having these other guys on my resume.
At some point, I just gave up trying to decide and waited for my dad to get back from chaperoning my sister at Disneyland with her choir group.
And I asked for a blessing:
"You will go to sleep and when you wake up, you'll know which one to choose."
As I pondered it that night, I came to the realization that I REALLY don't do well in corporate groups, and I was at peace with my sudden decision to move to San Francisco. (at least until the housing search started.)
As of next month, I'm going to moving out of the state for 4 months, an entire semester, ALL ALONE, and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I guess I'm grateful that I still receive answers to prayers even though I feel undeserving. Sometimes I just don't... I don't know. Could this be my reprieve for the last couple years? Is this the start of everything new?
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