Hi folks,

This is my first post on this website. I want to start this journey by telling you all who I am and how my career has been so far.

I am Ranjan, an ECE graduate from BMS College of Engineering in 2017. I am a CyberSecurity analyst and a software developer, who’s always in search of new things to learn and experiment.

Chapter 1:

I started my professional career in Wipro in 2017. I moved to Kolkata for this and was trained in .Net and SQL training for 2.5 months. I worked as a Project Engineer for almost 2 years after returning to Bangalore. I got a very good exposure to incident response and CyberSecurity L1 roles here. I worked in multiple support and developent roles which helped me acquire debugging, analytical & collaborative skills while working in a geographically distributed team. I quit Wipro for personal reasons in August 2019.

Chapter 2:

In what was supposed to be a 3 month sabbatical, I learnt so much in Python. I took up courses, worked on projects and collaborated with Puneeth - my mentor and a good friend. I collaborated with him and learnt Web Dev in Django and Flask. With little to no experience in this field before quitting Wipro, I became aware of web dev and other concepts, all thanks to his mentoring.

I started applying to companies in mid-November. It took me 3 months more to get it right and get through the final rounds of any interview. Alas! The world had different plans.. A pandemic!! How unlucky can someone get? I didn’t hear from any companies that I cleared the interviews with. The world was struck with a hiring freeze and massive lay offs!

Chapter 3:

With no job in hand, I started working more on my skills, while applying parallelly. I finally secured a Python Developer opportunity in October 2020 in Racetrack.ai, a start up that specialised in AI chatbots. I handled the entire backend codebase for multiple clients in Real estate and insurance domains. I worked on Python, RASA, NLU, web servers, API frameworks(Falcon), docker, etc.. I got a bit of exposure to Data Science too. All was well, until the company was affected by COVID and fell short of funds. They weren’t able to pay the employees and we had to depart. Another unlucky chapter in my life! Ughhh! They say - everything happens for a reason. Is that right?!

Chapter 4:

The next chapter is a major step in my career. I interviewed with Mindtree in mid-April and secured an offer as a CyberSecurity Analyst. The growth curve has been exponential since then. I started working on Microsoft Security Suite - Azure Sentinel, Defender(EDR) and ATP tools as a L2. I was quick to pick up on the things and got appreciations for my initial work. The debugging and the web dev skills came handy in the investigation/analysis. It just felt natural. I am glad I took that break after Wipro! The confidence boost was immense. I needed that after a streak of bad luck. The awards and recognition from my managers and seniors did wonders too - I managed to get 2 awards within 6 months of joining the project. It feels good to be trusted upon and to be recognised for the work you do, on a daily basis. The learning never stopped - everyday felt like an opportunity to learn something new. I am glad it happened at the right time in my life.

I am in love with the CyberSecurity now and I don’t miss a chance to learn something about it everyday. I learn as much as I can, from whatever sources I can learn from. Recently I started listening to podcasts and I have been loving it. It humbles me and makes me feel how little I am in this big world of CyberSecurity.

I want to use my multi-domain skills to make a difference in this world, one day at a time.

To all the big risks I took in my career before the age of 25, I am grateful for you. To all the upcoming challenges, I am ready for you!

Welcome to my website!

– Ranjan