Retailer to hacker, this is what I tell people when they ask me about my working background. Let me expand on the story.

I have always had a keen interest in the IT world, as far back as high school. I remember getting an A at GCSEs for Information Technology, I went on to study Microsoft courses around 2002. I then decided to go into retailing, something my family had done since the 80s. I enjoyed every minute of running my own businesses and learned so much about the business world. 

However, I always wanted to get back in I.T, I wasnt sure what I wanted to do , so I started off with Cisco CCENT course (self taught) and moved onto the CCNA (again self taught) and that was until I came across Cyber Security (an ad from Google would you believe it) and that piqued my interest, and off I went down the rabbit hole.

I joined a well known university as a mature student to study Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security, to develop my knowledge further since September 2020 I have actively been involved in further self learning using platforms such as Hack The Box Academy, Try Hack Me, ITproTV, Pentester Academy and participating in CTF challenges. I have also invested time in creating my own scripts and tools for use during CTFs, which can be viewed on my github page.

From 2022 September until 2023 September, I have studied for the OSCP and OSWE, gained OSWP certification aswell as gaining badges for the Offensive Security 100 series covering WEB, PEN and SOC. In addition I have gained the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification and the ICS² Certified in Cyber certification.

Tools such as Hack The Box Academy has enabled me to study for interesting career paths such as SOC analyst roles by participating and completing challenges, HTB Academy provide both theory and practical based exercises. The same goes for Try Hack Me which also provides completion certifications for career learning paths.

I have listed below my successes since starting out in cyber security field:

- Achieved top 400 with Try Hack Me.

- Achieved Top 50 UK Wall of Fame for UK.

- Gained OSWP certification.

- Studied for the OSCP, OSWA OSWE including practical exercises - and still actively learning.

- Gained Offensive Security PEN-100 badge after a 6 hour assessment.

- Gained Offensive Security WEB-100 badge after a 6 hour assessment.

- Gained Offensive Security SOC-100 badge after a 6 hour assessment.

- Gained AWS Cloud Practitioner certification.

- Gained ICS² Ceritifed in Cyber certification.

- Created various projects on Github in my spare time, such as the Doozy Enumeration.

- Actively learning on Hack the Box academy to further develop my knowledge

- Created own Youtube channel as a way to help newcomers to cyber security

- Regularly write articles on Medium.com to help others in the field of cyber security

- Training and studying for further certifications in the fields that interest me, this includes one of my firm favourites Digital Forenics.

- Regularly participate in CTF challenges