In His Own Words

Navy Vet Looks Back 11 Years after Graduation

I attended ECPI University in Virginia Beach and earned a Networking and Security Management degree during my last tour of duty before retiring from the Navy in 2008. I graduated in 2009. One thing that I noticed at my first IT job after my Navy retirement was that my training at ECPI helped me to advance faster than my coworkers who graduated from state universities, due to all of the hands-on training I received.

My manager could assign me any task and I could hit the ground running. Most of my coworkers with state university degrees had a lot of theoretical knowledge but very little hands-on experience. I quickly advanced from Network Technician to Systems Engineer while working for Kaufman & Canoles, a large law firm with multiple offices and data centers across Virginia. Over the years, I’ve had coworkers who graduated from ECPI and when talking about our experience, we’ve all agreed that our ECPI education has helped us to advance our careers.

At some point in my career, I realized that I liked hacking and wanted to be a Penetration Tester. I heard about Offensive Security’s OSCP certification and knew that was my next step. The OSCP certification and my knowledge and experience from ECPI and on-the-job training led to multiple job offers in penetration testing, including my first consulting job as a penetration tester at Rapid7. Today I am a Senior Security Consultant at Securicon on the Critical Infrastructure Services Team. I do penetration tests and security assessments for electric and gas utilities across the country, as well as banking and financial institutions.

I love the freedom of working from home and the variety of travelling to client sites. My experience has allowed me to earn a great salary while living and working anywhere I want. All I need is an Internet connection and an airport within a reasonable distance. This freedom to work from anywhere allowed us to finally realize our dream of moving to the country and living on a lake. I enjoy my view of the lake and forest while hacking from my home office.

I have some great memories of my time at ECPI and my instructors who taught me so much.

Thank you ECPI!

Steven Campbell, Senior Security Consultant. Securicon, LLC