Yeah, pretty much was chasing a high salary first few years, I was working, getting certs and getting my degree all at the same time, which combined with my military and clearance fast tracked my career to a pretty high salary in a very short amount of time. I was learning some linux at home already and got a linux cert as well. And I was doing a bunch of other stuff. Now I’m in a cool position where I can stay after hours at work and build out real environments and get some guidance and training from the security engineer and stuff while still getting to do my current job. Plus I’ll get some trail by fire training when the security engineer leaves and everyone starts looking at me for his deliverables. I actually love just how much I get to get into at my current job. Salary-wise I’m pretty much set for the most part. So it’s more just me having fun and trying to learn stuff I like now while still working within the management track.

Oh and I’ll probably get my masters in a couple years, just want to focus on technical skills rather then more paper certs and degree right now. Iv been doing so much book studying I haven’t had much time to really dive into the technical stuff