My name is Tyler Sell. I would like to pursue a rich career in information technology, particularly in the world of cybersecurity engineering. Since that term, and that field, are so broad, I will labor to specify my fitness for the role with the following three spheres of focus: Personal Passion, Diversity of Experience, and Credentials.
Concerning my personal passion for all things technology, I cannot say enough. The last 5 years of my personal life have been marked by the establishment, maintenence, and improvement of a sprawling Home-Lab environment. As such, learning about computing and systems has become much more than a profession, but a deep and abiding personal hobby. As of the drafting of this letter, I host and expose numerous home services via a self-built server. I do this both to provide useful applications to my family, such as media streaming, file storage, backup management, and printer / scanner SMB shares, as well as to sharpen and hone my skills in a variety of highly applicable areas of subject matter expertise. This enterprise has caused me to come into contact with new technologies early and often, dramatically improving my rate of knowledge acquisition and retention. In specific, to name just a few, containerization via Docker and LXC were introduced into my personal toolkit when I was still professionally manning the Help Desk. Long before I was granted administrative access to any corporate virtualization environments, I was managing a personal hypervisor, editing kernel flags for LXC containers, learning about the Linux namespaces, and pulling Docker images to experiment with interesting new open source projects. Naturally, this granted me a distinct learning advantage as I climbed up the technology stack and gained new responsibilities at work.
On the job, I also regularly press myself to dive into new experiences. When processes exist that require manual intervention, I automate them. When my organization is POC-ing new technologies for acquisition, I volunteer. All of this is more work, of course, but it has allowed me to gain the maximum possible understanding from each position that I occupy. Most importantly, though, my experience has been greatly magnified due to the incredible and talented engineers, technicians, and administrators that I have had the privilege of working with thus far in my career. The most critical way that my professional experience has grown in scope and depth has been by the simple fact that I do all that I can to shadow, and attach myself to, senior developers, engineers, and staff whenever I can; When I was manning the Help Desk I was asking to go to site visits with our Network Engineer to plan wireless deployments. Likewise, I do my level best to practice reciperocal learning as well. Now that I occupy a more senior role at my current organization, it is edifying and enriching to coach and mentor others as they seek to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the tech-field. By always learning from the experience of others, and openly sharing my own, I have managed to land professional roles in both private and public sector systems and network administration, spanning everything from medical, education, and small business, to even state government.
My credentials have always been a complement to my experience and personal drive, not a replacement or stand-in. They speak to a well-rounded, technically rich, and properly structured rise through various fields. Starting with my CompTIA Tech+ and A+ certifications, I have a strong foundation in the management and troubleshooting of operating systems, computers of varying ages, classifications, and designs, and in the delivery of sound customer service. Moving to my CompTIA Network+ and Security+, I have a proficient understanding of network architecture, the TCP/IP model, and how to maintain security in an interconnected ecosystem of devices. Capping off with my ZDTA certification, I have recognized expertise in the administration of Zero Trust Network Architecture and design. When taken in combination with my A.A.S in Computer Engineering, which covered everything from fundamental C++ and Java programming to Data Structures and Algorithms, my sphere of knowledge is wider than meets the eye, while not falling victim to the shallow depth that is so often easy to get trapped in when growing your subject matter knowledge. Now, as this letter is being drafted, I am working towards the completion of my B.S Network Engineering & Security from Western Governors University, an impressive credential which will only serve to solidify my place as an outstanding candidate for your IT DevSecOps Team.
I love technology, and I always have. I am equally happy writing automations pipelines, running structured cabling with a team,
designing a network, developing a website, and even working end-user-support with a desktop administration department. There is
opportunity to grow, learn, and optimize wherever I find myself! I can't wait to bring that mindset to all of my future endeavors.
Thank you for considering me,
Tyler Sell