Presenter:
Transcript:
Today we have Kenneth Diaz, and he is. Oh. Excuse me. He's an intern with EY. He is a junior studying computer information systems at the University of Houston, passionate about cybersecurity, and he holds his CompTIA Security Plus certificate and is working towards his cyber analysis certification while interning there. So everybody give him a hand.
All right. Can anyone hear me? Fine. All right. So first, I just want to say thank you for all, for coming in today and being willing to hear my presentation. And thank you to Hugh second, for providing a platform to meet so many great people such as yourselves. And I'm just excited to share my story on why I shouldn't be speaking today.
And one of the reasons is the Houston traffic. It was so hard to get here today. I was stuck in traffic for 40 minutes, but we made it happen and this is that right into it. So the agenda and I'll be going over a little bit, a little bit about who I am, my family background growing up, my transition from high school to college, this or discovering in community college and then going to the University of Houston and starting to seize opportunities.
And where I am at now. And then we'll do a comparison on who I was versus who I am. And lastly, I'll leave some final tips and takeaways for interns, students, and give a little bit of tips for people who are already in the career and how they can provide assistance to students and teachers who are just starting out their career.
And then we'll say 5 to 10 minutes for questions.
So who am I? So I'm a student at the University of Houston. I am studying computer information systems, and I do have the I think Brenda was sharing my, certifications and I just recently got my comp to CSA plus. So I was very happy about that. And just being able to do that during my internship was, something I'm very proud of.
And I was also a semiprofessional soccer player for a team in Houston. And my favorite team is Barcelona. So if you do have any interest in soccer, whether it's a Champions League, Premier League, feel free to talk to me after. And I'm always happy. But let's see what's let's say Madrid. We, we're we're gonna have some sort of conflict right now.
But yeah. No, Madrid. They're doing major right now. Barcelona. Not as much. But, I also love to spend time with my family and friends. And I do have a husky. His name is Max. He's. I love him to death. And lastly, I was a previous technology consulting intern at E was Manhattan office. So great experience.
But also the purpose of my presentation are for students and answers. Give you some tips and this will be online. So all the friends that I made at the UI Manhattan office, hopefully they get to see this and learn a little more about it. And then for professionals, how you can better prepare us for, the next generation.
So my family background, I'm going to go over, it's a little bit of my background, some context of who I am and how I began, break it through cybersecurity. So I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. So shout out to the Astros and Rockets. But my parents were born in San Salvador, El Salvador, and that is the capital of Salvador.
And they were faced with many challenges. So if you're, unfamiliar with the country and their history, they did have a civil war in the 1980s and the 1990s. And shortly after they went through a bit of gang violence. And it was a very dangerous country at the time.
So a bit of statistics about Salvador, just to provide some context.
El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world at this moment of time. But the reason I brought this up is because just imagine all these numbers before are all the criminals that weren't incarcerated at the time. And this was the case during the, the 2000 where all these criminals were just out in the suburbs and roaming around.
Number two, El Salvador became safer than the US in 2023. And I provided a peek of how it was. And I was born in 2002, and I just provided this just to add some context on the living situation that I would have been in if I was still if I was, if I had been born in El Salvador.
So my parents experiences, my mom, she would while I was gathering information on, her experiences, she had told me this one. This was this had stood out to me the most. Was that for 12 years, you would always hear gunfire in the middle of the night. And that is not good. And for my dad's anecdote, during the Civil War, they would try to recruit, young men to join the war.
And sometimes they would not give them a choice, and they would just take them away from their families, move them far away to another city. And fortunately, my dad wasn't wasn't one of those young men. And he was able to convince, the government or the guerrillas to let him out of the war.
So my transition into the U.S or my family's transition. So with the baby girl on the way, my sister now is Kimberly. So shout out to her. And my parents decided they needed to provide their children with a better future. So they knew that El Salvador, like the opportunity and the safety to provide us a better future. So they decided that with only a set of clothes, a dream and a few dollars, that they would come to the United States and provide us with a better opportunity.
And when they first got here, my dad was a maintenance worker at an apartment, and my mom worked at a grocery store while being pregnant with my sister. So just to show the dedication that they had to even put me on the spot right now. And lastly, they had me and my brother and the youngest one, and they, we all lived in a small apartment, and we spent the next few years trying to make the most of what we had.
And I know we're about to get into lunch, so I know we're starting to get hungry with these food pictures, but my parents embedded the importance of being Salvadoran nonetheless. And even though we had so many challenges, just just as just being Salvadoran, we understood, the values of being hard working and honest people to be family oriented, to have a sense of community with the people who are like us and to do what's right and join our national this the producers and the top, corner over there that's on top.
So if you're ever interested, just come out to the family barbecue and we have a close and tight family. We have the best kind of us too. So just Hispanic barbecue. And this is me growing up, and this is the challenges that I had to face in my community. So I attended George Bush High School and if you're not familiar with George Bush, they are located in Richmond, Texas.
And I gathered all these statistics from the U.S. News. So George Bush has a 96% minority enrollment. So most of the the people attend, George Bush are minorities. And I did like that. It was very diverse. And you had so many different cultures coming together and just learning from each other.
But 70% of the students are economically disadvantaged, so they like the funds and the opportunity to really push themselves to the next level and to pursue a higher education. And it was a challenge to, to go through that. And this shocked me. I think this is an insane statistic. We had a rating of 46 out of 100.
That's an F. That's not even a C, that's not a B, that's not a. We weren't even close. But with that said, it shows in the proficiency levels and like the skills that the, students had in the school. So only one fourth of students are proficient in math, half are proficient in reading and half are proficient in science.
And I didn't expect these these numbers to come out. But it is what it is. And oh, can we go back?
And the reason, this is from what I've noticed from my own personal perspective, is that, it's the culture. And a lot of students in these environments don't value education, and they don't value where it could take you and the possibilities, of where you could be if you just took advantage of what was in front of you and you make most of what you had.
So I had to be unique, and I had to make sure that I didn't let my environment dictate who I'll be.
And this was an interesting experience, the one I'm about to share. A lot of people in my community would face this challenge.
Get rich quick schemes that included forex pyramid schemes and crypto programs. And the reason we are a target for that is because we tend to be in a low income community, desperate for more money just to provide a better future for ourselves and our family. So whenever someone raises a dollar, I'm looking at it. But, we were at target, and my personal experience with that was that a pyramid scheme recruiter came to speak at my school, and I remember it was in my government class and I could have now now looking back, I couldn't believe that.
So one of those one of those people, slipped through the cracks and was was trying to convince us and discourage us from attending, University college, a better education. And they were trying to recruit us for their program, which, if you ever hear anything about gold, platinum, diamond, sapphire, runaway.
So my transition from high school to college, how did that look like? So first I did decide to take a gap year. And there are a few reasons for that. Plus you I like the money to pay for college. My parents were going to pay for it and my parents are great, but we just weren't in the financial.
We didn't have the financial ability to do so.
I pursued a real estate license and I eventually decided it's not exactly what I wanted to do. It wasn't my passion, and I just needed one more exam. But it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I did work multiple jobs. So maybe you've seen me at Chipotle and at the bank cakes, Whole Foods. I've been all around and I did play semiprofessional soccer.
Like I mentioned before, go Barcelona.
And Covid 19 happened and it was just not the right time for me at the time.
But my introduction to cybersecurity, how did that look like? So after experiencing those manipulation tactics from those people that, that came to speak to my school, I started becoming curious on those tactics that they used in social media near me, try to convince me to do something I didn't want to do, and I became interested in that.
And I came across a community on YouTube where they expose scammers, gurus and recruiters and that really got me thinking on the possibility of what I could do with my life.
This led me to wonder what I can do to defend people from these malicious tactics. I became a little more passionate about it as time grew on, so community college. So in community college, I decided to enroll in college, and after making that realization that I could be a positive influence or use my experiences to share to others of how to avoid those tactics.
But what can I do? And I reflect on those, those experiences. But the first one that I reflected on was my mom's fishing experience, and I remember a couple of years ago, my mom got a phishing email, and she's not. And I hear so many stories that, a lot of cybersecurity professionals, parents don't know much about cyber.
So you hear these stories of them just clicking links because it looks shiny, they click on it and eventually credentials are swept away. And I just remember my mom being nervous, anxious and scared. So I was try to make use what use that experience to turn that around.
I also reflected on being a target of malicious and social engineering tactics, and I wanted to learn more about defending people from these malicious tactics. So that led me to cybersecurity.
So how did I do that? From my financial perspective, I didn't have the money, but I knew I wanted to be there, but I had to first financially support myself through college. So I began serving and like I mentioned previously, just to pay for community college and to save for the University of Houston. And although it wasn't the ideal circumstance, I still had to make most of what I had.
And with this experience, I learned how to communicate more effectively and just be team oriented and start looking out for others and be more involved in people's lives. And this is where I had the opportunity to meet celebrities. So if you look up there, I met Dusty Baker a couple of couple of years ago and he is very tall.
I look very short there, so we'll just glance right over that. I met Simone Biles awesome at For Apricot, and I also met Lance McCullers and many more. But these are just a few people that I met, and they really reinforced the idea of just working hard and just being around them and asking for advice after I, do have some time to talk to them. It really helped. And I did work 36 hours a week, and for nearly two years. Walton is going to make this dream a reality.
And I also join Alpha. And from a professional perspective, I began thinking, what could I do to become a cybersecurity consultant? And I joined Alpha in May of 2023. And if you're not familiar with Alpha, they are a organization that represent, Latinos and they're open for any other kind of members and anyone that's interested in just networking.
So they do have a lot of networking events. And I began thinking that this would be a great place to start going. The, as a professional. A month later, I joined Alpha Houston as a technology committee chair, and that has been such a great experience. I gained leadership qualities and communication skills, and I also began helping others.
And, while I was helping myself as well, I began gathering job opportunities for other Latinos in the Houston area, and I began setting up. So seizing opportunities.
So I attended the Alpha 2023 convention. And if you look at those pictures, the first one is of Damien Ribera. He's the Alpha president, and he is such a moving speaker. I aspire to be like him because he just has a very great way with words and the middle. It's me and my friends. We we all attended, so it was just a great experience just to also grow with them as a professional and just trying to make it.
And lastly over there, it is a picture of the little idea I had over there.
And I met so many inspiring professionals who were once in my shoes. And I want to emphasize that point, because at the end of the day, no matter where you are in your in your life, if you're like if you have years of experience as a professional, once you were just started out.
So I listened to the alpha president of Damien Rivera, and he was just a wonderful person. And I learned more about companies such as Deloitte, e y, BWC and Google. And I participated in three days worth of workshops which improve my resume and their personal and professional skills.
And after this, I met a recruiter at the convention through a cyber secure consultant who gave me a chance, and after speaking with him and I guess he saw something in me and we both made that connection. He led me to a recruiter, and the recruiter opened the door for two interviews for the technology consultant internship anyway, and I was fortunate enough to get the position and special shout out to Alex and Carrie for providing that facilitation through that process.
And you see all that merch over there, I do, I have my backpack somewhere over there. Bay, I love it.
And in my acceptance to the University of Houston and after years of waiting, I was so grateful to get this acceptance letter because it was one of my goals for years. And I had been, accepted to the University of Houston when I first graduated high school. But like I mentioned before, I just couldn't afford it. So I decided that I was going away and I was going to put my head down.
And it's just work.
Why is this accomplishment spent two years working to make this achievable, and it was just the next step to obtain a quality education, to become the professional that I wanted to be.
So where am I, where I am now? And this is my current position, the experience that I've gone through right now at the University of Houston over there is the technology consulting, case competition that we had with the Miso and VCO team. So 46 people and I'll talk about it right now, is that the last year, two University of Houston, I am studying computer information systems.
I maintain a 4.0 GPA, and I am on the Dean's list. And the second we got second place. So out of 46 people we were able to get second place. So that was an amazing experience. And it's the first time we, all of us did a competition. So we were just basically working essentially more on our team team skills and just being team oriented and being willing to use our strengths with one another because we were not the, the most talented individuals, but we made most of what we had.
And this inspired me to just continue participating in future hackathons, cloud times, and just case competitions, getting that experience and being more hands on scholarships. So I got the Hispanic Alumni Scholarship last semester, and this has been a great way of just continuing, my education. And I really do appreciate their assistance with just ensuring I can pay for college.
And it's really helped a lot this semester. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar. So they haven't decided or they haven't given out scholarships just yet. They do that around the end of the semester, but just being a part of it, they provide resources for, Hispanics that enable you for, your resume, for your, mentorships, for workshops, everything in that nature.
And lastly, Alpha, the organization that I'm in, they have been such a great resource, and they are a very big, organization. And they love to just spread the love around.
So my technology consultant internship, I went this last summer and actually went to New York. It was such a great experience. But I'm glad I'm back in Texas. Texas is my city all right? My my stay. Houston's my city. I love it here. But it was just a great experience just to go through. And over there in the top corner you'll see Bryce, Muhammad, Derek, Sabrina and all of us taking a picture on a little boat.
So that was great. And we did two rotations and I did two rotations in TSD, which was technology strategy and transformation. So the technology aspects of M&A. And then I did one in cybersecurity. So the lessons learned. And I think these lessons can be applied to any student or intern and would be very valuable if you take this into heart was number one.
Figure it out. And for students and interns, a lot of times I hear a lot of professors, from the undergrad, from the grad graduate programs say that they get a lot of questions where if a student just put their mind into it, they would be able to figure it out and find a good answer. And if you can't find an answer, ask effective questions.
Ask questions that are going to lead to solutions, not more problems. And just be more, proactive with your questions and just have a positive attitude. I had many coffee chats with many professionals at their, at the Manhattan office. And one of the main things they said was when people are starting out and your work and the people that are working for them, the main thing they want is people who have good attitude and are willing to work and are willing to put in the time and effort to solve their problems.
So my experiences, like I said, I met many talented individuals and had so many coffee chats that I think that's the most value that I got from the internship. Just really getting a chance to talk to people who are already in the field and who have already done the work. I created deliverables for my teams, and they were able to use that for their projects.
And just to add on to that, and I had client facing experiences, and the one that stood out to me the most was whenever any invite or my team had invited me to join a call with a client from Brazil. So it was very interesting to see the the possibility of consulting and where it could take you. And that's a lot of my interest in just cyber secure consulting and absolutely love this experience and be returning as a cyber consultant intern at their Dallas office next year.
So I'm very excited about that. So if you're in Dallas, send me a message on LinkedIn. Certifications so early this, this, year, I got my security plus and this laid down the foundation and solidified my interest in cybersecurity. And just to continue learning, I became obsessed with learning, and I spent I spent a lot of my time just just learning as much as I can.
During, the summer, this past summer, I got my psych A+ and this test of my knowledge and ability to detect and analyze the cybersecurity incidents. And this was such a great experience because it was something new just to be able to, perform log analysis and really get those hands on, experiences that I really wanted to get and gain.
And according to Conti, I think they can stack these certifications and label me as a certified security analytics professional. And I'm currently working on my AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. So just really trying to get as much experience as I can get leadership roles. My first one is Alpha as a technology committee chair, and this is my favorite role so far, just because I've been able to provide job opportunities for Latinos in the Houston area.
And I'm always happy to, because I always share the love. And I'm also a member of FTP at the University of Houston, and they provide workshops, seminars and events like hackathons. And I believe they have a cloud plan next semester, so I'll be participating. Not possibly. And now we're going to do a comparison versus who I was and who I am.
And first we'll start with who I was. So first I was a low income student. I attended a low performing high school. I lacked opportunities, and I worked multiple jobs just to obtain an education.
For who I am, I began earning certifications. I got a 4.0 GPA at the University of Houston and got on the Dean's list, second place in the Technology Keys competition, and I started earning scholarships. So the reason I add this is just to think, as this person on the left as one entity and this other one on the right as their own, and in my eyes, this person on the left shouldn't have been this person.
And when people aren't coming out to speak to you as a professional, just to take a chance on them and to really understand that this could be them, but this is also a potential version of them that they could possibly be with your guidance and with your mentorship. And if you provide an opportunity for them. And also technology consulting, internships and the lessons learned.
And these are going to be mainly for the students. And I believe it could be for anyone actually. And the number one is to be independent and don't let your environment dictate who you will be. And especially coming from the high school that I had went to and the culture that was around it, I ensured that I was going to value my education and I was going to put myself in a good spot.
Don't leave your success up to chance, so increase as much as you can, work hard, put your head down, and just minimize the odds of you not making it and being proactive with your goals and setting attainable steps for yourself. And this applies for professionals. I'm sure you have your to do list, your task list on, outlook.
And I think that's amazing because that's what you should be doing to make sure you reach where you want to be at. My aspirations is to become the best cybersecurity consultant that I can be.
To become the Alpha Human Technology committee chair or director and learn through experiences and certifications and the AWS solutions Architect is what I'm working on right now. And just to become a mentor and leader in my community, once I gain enough experience just to just give back to other students and enders who are my spot right now. And now I'm going to go over some final tips and takeaways for students or, professionals.
But first I'll be going over the students and interns, and I'll be sending this over to the people I worked with last, summer is what can you do as students? And number one, it's just the real estate of being a professional network. Network and network. And if you're here, you're doing the right thing. But just networking is what I have found to be the most essential and the biggest tool that I have, because it's not about, well, you know, it's about who you know.
And if you could combine the two with what you know and who you know, then you'll be in a great spot. Number two is to study a lot aside from school. And when I say this, I mean pursue certifications or just learn skills on your own time. And this could be setting up a lab on your home or just pursue a certification.
I know it can be expensive, but I know they provide, discounts for students for, certifications. And I know CompTIA is the big one of them is one of as one of those, paying big providers. They do a 50% discount on the, certifications just near 30th and joining a leadership position or a club.
This helps you build up those necessary skills and tools to be a leader, and just to have those communication skills to share your ideas as you want. Lastly is to participate in competitions such as case studies, hackathon classes, getting those hands on experience. I'm a huge believer in just being hands on with what you're learning, and that's where you learn the most.
And lastly is to find internships. And that could be attending college fairs or even reaching out to recruiters and being proactive. That's what I did when I didn't get, email back from my, my initial recruiter. And I sent a follow up, and then eventually it started rolling over and it worked out. So all of these, I firmly believe if you follow it religiously as a student or intern, it will take you to great places and it will work wonders.
But for professionals, what can you do to to help the next generation of cyber care professionals? Number one mentoring. And this could be bringing someone under your wing and just being willing to share your experiences and what you've learned with years of experience to students who are just starting out their career. And I want to emphasize the point.
This whole conference has been sort of a mentorship. I remember the first, the first, event that we had, that I had gone to was with four panelists who have so much experience, and they kept talking about how they have decades of experience. And I thought that was wonderful just to hear that and being, guided the right direction and just hearing more about what they were doing.
I was just taking a back seat this whole conference, just listening and just really learn. Second, it's just a set up or accept a short chat and I'll bring this, idea of or bring this example of someone I met yesterday, and he was a director, and he was telling me about his experiences of working with a, a client.
And they had compromised users. And a there was a nation state attacker and their systems, and it's different from reading it from a book than hearing it from a professional. It was very interesting. And I became more, eager to learn about it and started asking questions. So that's the value of setting up a chat. It's just to being able to share your knowledge.
Be speaking at universities, school organizations. Love to listen to what you have gone through. And this could be a college. It can be high school. And if high school, I'm I'm more likely than not going to go back to my high school and try to share my ideologies and what I've learned to other students who are interested or could be interested in.
And for organizations at a university, they love to listen, and they are always eyes and ears for your, to listen to your experiences. And lastly, just joining a leadership role within your community. And this allows you to have a greater scope of influence. So whether it's alpha or whether it's a, an internal organization, within your community, then that would be great.
But these are the four tips I have for all the professionals. And if you do this, you'll be setting up, the next generation of cyber professionals in the right direction. And this is the final note I want to leave you on is to look back when you first started and your cybersecurity journey, and be the person you need to.
When you were younger, because at the end of the day, you were once in your in their shoes. And to have that guidance and that mentorship would mean a lot to the next generation and prepare us in the in the best way possible.
The question to ask if you didn't hear was what was the biggest takeaway from, one of those coffee shots? And I want to say that the biggest takeaway that I've had from one of those coffee shots with was with someone who was, I'm not gonna bring up his name, but he he was within the, cyber threat management program with anyone.
And that just solidified my interest in that and that route, because they have seven different services within cyber. And just being able to share that or being able to have those chats really solidifies what I want to do with my life. And.
Just how do I do that? How do I make that happen? So that's probably the, the biggest, value I've had from one of those coffee chats. It's just solidified my interest. And what I want to do with any of.
Anyone else. And we'll just end it right there and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. And I promise is not a malicious code is not on those QR scans. So just feel free to scan it if you are interested in connecting on LinkedIn. My name is Kenneth is and thank you for your attention.
