WEBVTT - Secure The Bits 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.959 Welcome to On the Job. This season, we're focusing on 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.440 how people and businesses are getting back to work. Let's 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.200 call it a great transformation, a change in the way 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.239 workers are thinking. Employers need people to work more than ever, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.680 putting laborers in a sort of position of power. We'll 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.680 be hearing from people navigating this new normal for themselves 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.160 as they find their life's work. COVID forced a lot 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:33.960 of people to face their demons in a way they 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.000 might not have expected. The loss of work took away 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.680 daily purpose for many and left a lot of us 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.840 trying to fill that void with whatever we could well. Today, 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.479 we talked to Spencer, who lost his job when COVID 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.360 hit and found new work in cybersecurity, a rapidly growing 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.640 field that's desperately needed as hackers get better and better 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:54.800 at what they do, and it's a job that gave 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.480 him the opportunity to help others as he dealt with 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.680 addiction struggles that many people faced in the isolation of 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:07.639 the pandemic. After many remote interviews to make this season, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:09.600 I had the fortune of meeting up with a friend 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.160 of mine in person for this episode. My name is 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.160 Spencer Landing. I am an information security analyst for the 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.560 State of Vermont. Spencer's fifty two years old, got a 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.440 clean shaven head, glasses, a mustache, address shirt, and the 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:25.679 background in chemistry. This is that kind of why you've 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.240 got to Walter White look going on. Yes, I I 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.840 do math on the side, That's what this is really 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:37.760 about you. I'm trying to sell it on the on 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.920 the on the state level, we'll never know for sure. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.320 Security analyst is a pretty good front well in that job. 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.680 Working for the state, Spencer's primary job is risk assessment, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.920 So we have to look at everything that we do 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:56.240 because we do use personal like infallible information such as 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.320 people SoC security number, their names or addresses, all of 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.240 that kind of stuff. If you do your job poorly, 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:09.080 what happens. Well, If if I do my job poorly, 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.639 then we have the possibility of having a security leak 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.720 that can harm potentially tens of thousands of people. So 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.800 he spends every day working to improve that security so 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.800 Vermonters don't have to worry about their information being stolen. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.440 And he says that at his core, that's all I 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.680 t workers and cybersecurity people want to do. They want 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:30.600 to help and they want to make your life easier, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:37.280 better and safer, or to protect you from yourself, because 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.200 there's an awful lot you don't think about when you 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.200 do things, and uh, it's my job to think about 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.359 all the things you possibly could do that could make 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:56.160 your life really bad, really bad, really bad, because when 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.240 a hacker has your information, they can sell it and 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.640 that can really mess with your life. You can get 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.560 your identity stolen, you can have your credit cards maxed out. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.560 You've heard all the stories. Well, Spencer, make sure that 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.120 the people who work for the state are being safe 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.400 online and not opening sketchy emails because if they got compromised, 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.040 hackers could have a backdoor to the state databases. There 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.120 are safeguards in there in between, but um, it is uh, 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.160 you know, it's how this sort of thing happens. That is, 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.280 nine of the attacks happen through email, and all it 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.960 is is just you click a link and poof there. 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.720 It is Vermont of small state, so they might not 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.280 see as much action as other states as far as 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.920 fending off hackers goes. However, the threat is constant and 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.120 a breach has pretty dire consequences. So the only real 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.520 things that people would probably glean from it is the 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.280 ability for them to them to actually go through the 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:59.400 state government to infect federal government. By law, state governments 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.640 are required by the I r S and other federal 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.160 agencies to have a certain level of security, a number 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.920 they have to hit to pass regulation. As he's in 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.560 risk management, Spencer and his team use software that assigns 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.200 risk numbers to everything, like the software, employees are using, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.279 the equipment, they're using, lots of other factors. So we 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.840 add all of those things up and give the agency 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.320 basically a number that says, this is what your risk is. Now. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.280 The I r S wants this number. So how are 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.560 we going to get from this very large number to 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.200 this very small number? How are we going to mitigate 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:39.920 this risk? Do you always want to do something like 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.920 this not security? I'd always I've always been a nerd 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.120 from the ton nozzle small and fell in love with 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.240 computers and and science. Those are the two Those are 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.760 the two things math, science and computers. Those were my 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.640 those were my strengths. Spencer grew up in West Texas, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.840 real small town near Lubbock. It was very rural. There 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.200 wasn't a lot to do, so Spencer got lost in 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.479 other worlds as early as five when he got his 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.600 first library card, which the library didn't normally do that, 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.680 but I would go and check out five books and 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.159 then read them all in a day or two at most, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.480 and then go back note five books. When he was 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.680 in sixth grade, his school brought a couple of the 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.120 first Apple two computers into their library, and the librarian 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.080 to old Spencer to check them out. So I went 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:28.560 in there and played with them, and I was like, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:30.680 this is actually really cool, and then started checking out 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.000 books and starting to learn how to program, and you know, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:35.280 I can do this, and I can do this, and 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.279 I can do this, and so it was just a 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.720 natural love for things like you went out of your 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.279 way as a kid to learn how to do all that, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.640 like original rudimentary coding for the old computers. Yes I did. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:53.640 I spent my lunch periods in the library on those computers. 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.960 I must You must have stood out, Yeah, like a 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:02.200 sore nerd thumb. Spencer was definitely different. He didn't fit 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.279 into the normal crowd the way some other kids might. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.599 So the books, the coding, they were a refuge. Yeah, 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.240 it was. It was. It was definitely escape. You know, 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:16.640 didn't have a happy childhood. Perhaps we'll say that anyway. UM. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.159 And so that wasn't It was sort of an escape, UM. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:24.039 And it was something that I could control, you know, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.920 you can control everything that the computer does. And uh, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.039 I liked that. That was that was you know, it 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.160 was one of those moments of I can own that 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.479 he loved coding, loved it, loved it so much that 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.440 by the time he was about to go to college, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.200 he knew that he couldn't go into computer programming because 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.360 I can remember in high school when I was programming, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.560 I would lose days totally just trying to find the 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:00.400 two or three bugs that were in there that I 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.920 missed a semical in here, and I missed you know, 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.200 spacing here, and I would I would just dive into 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.880 the code and just I would lose absolute track of time. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.520 Coding was a refuge for him, but it was also 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.800 an obsession, why is this not working? Why is it's 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.800 not working? Wise it's not working, and trying to find 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.040 that one little, one little mistake somewhere that that was 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.000 causing the whole thing to not work. And you're the 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.920 kind of person you had to know, had to know, Yeah, 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.640 I couldn't just let it go. It was a mistake. 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.840 He decided instead of going down that road, he'd get 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.960 a degree in chemistry, one of his other passions. He 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.400 did that, got an internship at Dow Chemical while in college, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.880 but he didn't love it. He left school for a bit, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.280 not thinking it was right for him, but then he 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.680 got pulled right back in by his love for computers. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:54.120 Eventually wound up with a technical writing degree, actually with 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.440 a modern computer science you know, it made me a 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.280 happy person. He got a job at a nonprofit within 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.520 the university as a computer analyst. Then he jumped from 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.400 there to New York City to work at the World 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.800 Federalist Movement, another nonprofit. He was coming up with I 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.600 T plans, helping them acquire their software, helped them with development, 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:18.320 anything computer related. I became basically a system admin for them. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.200 So you were the I T guy that like, if 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.040 there was anything wrong in the company in the building there, 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:28.320 like call Spencer, yes, because there was only me I was. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:38.199 I was the I T. That was a eighteen year job. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.000 During that time, Spencer and his wife, Ava had a daughter. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.040 Ava got offered a job in Vermont, which they loved 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.320 every time they drove through it. So they decided to 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.080 move there, and Spencer kept his job at the nonprofit. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.080 I was like, I can still do my job no 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.040 matter where, as long as I have an Internet connection. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.200 Um and so I did. I did. I did that 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.640 for quite some time, right up until Spencer was doing 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.920 this remote work. But then, of course, in March COVID happened. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.520 The non property worked for was pretty much held up 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.360 by big grants which went away pretty quick, and the 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.320 staff started dropping off one by one. I was able 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.760 to hang on for a little while, and then, um 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.880 and May, the majority of the funding went away, and 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.320 so it dwindled down and dwindled down and dwindled down, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:29.320 and finally I t became not a necessary component, but 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:37.240 something that they just couldn't afford. Like many people in 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.920 early Spencer was very suddenly out of his stable job, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.440 and also, like a lot of people around that time, 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.080 was facing isolation that would become a reckoning for him, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.840 and so it wasn't in the best mental state, and 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.520 things kind of went downhill for me. Um, after I 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:04.679 lost my job. We'll be right back with Spencer's story 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:10.240 after the break. A strong work ethic takes pride in 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:15.840 a job well done. Sweats over the details. This is you. 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.000 But to get an honest day's work, you need a response, 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.520 You need a call back, You need a job. Express 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:28.600 Employment professionals can help because we understand what it takes 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.439 to get a job. 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Express Nose Jobs, 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.440 get to no Express, find your location at Express pros 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.880 dot com or on the Express Jobs app. Back to Spencer, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:10.920 he just got put out of work and like a 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:12.760 lot of people, he's having a hard time with the 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:18.040 isolation and began to have a bit of alcohol problem 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:23.040 and things kind of went downhill from me. Spencer admits 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.960 that he was a habitual drinker before COVID, but a 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.040 few years into the pandemic. Now I feel like looking back, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.680 when the world really closed down, people had to face 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.880 their habits in close quarters, and there was a real 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.559 fork in the road where some people got shaken up 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.200 and they're like, you know, I'm gonna start doing yo good, 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.040 I'm gonna get my dream job, and like basically using 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.480 the isolation to I don't know, clean themselves up or whatever. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.960 And then there was the other direction where the isolation 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.600 was just a place where you can go and self destruct. 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:02.200 It definitely I did not go into the happy let's 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.440 go do yoga and let's clean our lives up. Let's yeah, 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.440 I know, the isolation really tore at me and gave 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:16.120 me an opportunity to drink more. That was the thing 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.640 that that really kind of seem in it. It became 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:33.120 such such a daily obsession, such a daily obsession. Spencer 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.160 doesn't blame COVID for his drinking, but says it definitely 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.360 didn't help. He says he always knew their word demons 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.719 that he hadn't faced yet. But I was able to 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.760 shove that down onto a floorboard, way way down, deep 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.760 into the dark crevices of my mind and did that 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.760 for a really long time and was I guess successful 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:58.520 at it um But it eventually eventually catches up because 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:03.560 eventually you do feel up the entire basement and it 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:09.360 starts overflowing. A lot of the things that he was 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:12.360 shoving under the floorboards were from his rough childhood. He 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.040 had a lot of trauma that he hadn't dealt with, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.400 so in this new isolation where a lot of it 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.760 was coming back up, he drank more to bury it. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.760 And that overflowing basement isn't really a metaphor for Spencer. 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.920 The deciding factor for me was when my wife took 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.880 me down into the basement and showed me all of 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:37.520 the empties into it whole. Wow, it was. It was 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:42.600 one of those clarity moments, and I had tried to 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:44.480 stop and couldn't, and so I had to go get 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.560 help um and I found a group who helped me 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:53.720 out of like minded people who who gave me the 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.960 strength and the ability to dig myself out of the 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.200 hole that I was in and give me hope for 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.760 the future. Spencer is far from a loan between the 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.040 isolation and losing the purpose that comes with waking up 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.360 every day for a job. Addiction rates and substance abuse 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.720 drastically rose all over the world. I can attest to 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.520 this because I was one of those people. I had 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.480 always had demons too that I smothered with alcohol. But 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.520 COVID gave me a place to self destruct in a 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.280 way that I never really had. Took me to the 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.000 lowest moments of my life. And I know this is 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.240 weird to say, but I'm grateful it did because I 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:36.160 got desperate enough to get better. Just like Spencer. That 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.800 was a that was a good moment in my life 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.000 in a bad moment of my life. It's kind of 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:44.600 a it's sort of a bittersweet moment, but I'm so 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.880 glad that it happened because I mean, it's such a 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.120 much better place than I have ever been in before 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:57.440 in my life. Same buddy, So he decided to make 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.840 some changes. First, he had to get out of this isolation. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.480 He needed something to do every day, so for a job. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.680 I actually became the head brewer for a local brewery 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.440 while I was trying to get sober. Uh, he admits, 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.760 not the most beneficial place to be at the moment, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.280 but it was a job. It got him working. He 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.120 left that after a few months when an I T 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.760 job nearby came up, and then there was another one. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.000 There was a job that came up and it was 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.360 like asking for a information security analyst, and I was like, 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:34.800 I don't know anything about it, but I'll apply for it. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.800 But there this was the job with the State that 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.120 he has. Now he's never done cybersecurity before, but he 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.400 still had that attitude from when he was young, where 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.040 if he didn't know something, he was a dog after 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.280 a bone and he had to figure it out. And 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:53.000 that helps in the security industry, um, because you do 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.080 need to find those bugs you need you need to 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.880 find those holes you need to find and what we 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.320 need to patch and what we need to do. And 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.160 after tier interviews, I got the job and here I am, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:14.160 you know, nine months later back to present day. He 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.840 loves his job. He works every day to make sure 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.920 of Vermonter's personal information is safe and if he's doing 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.080 his job well, people probably never hear about it. No, 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.480 And I t you typically don't hear when things work, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:31.000 do you hear when they don't work? So and that's 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.680 just that's just a nature of the beast. But he 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.280 says he still gets a ton of satisfaction out of it. 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.000 It can be thankless and might be work that most 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:42.320 people don't realize exists until it goes away. Spencer is 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.520 also a volunteer firefighter on the side now and same 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.040 deal unless your house is on fire and you're not 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.840 gonna necessarily think a firefighter, but when your house is 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.080 on fire, that's the first person that you're gonna turn to. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.359 For better or worse. As technology becomes vastly more integrated 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.120 with our personal lives day by day, that means they're 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.960 just going to be more bad actors out there looking 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.119 to take our information and sell it. There's always going 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:12.880 to be somebody who's looking to make a buck off 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.119 somebody else and the easiest way possible, and not everybody 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.280 realizes that it's up to me and other people just 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.000 say you've got to think about this or make sure 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.040 you're doing this so you don't expose yourself and any 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.639 information that you might have. Spencer says that even a 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.800 decade ago, anti virus software and hiring a cybersecurity person 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.720 for your business was a good idea something you probably 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.040 should do. But now with how online all of our 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.960 lives are, it's not even a question. These are things 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.560 that you have to think about and and you have 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.919 to think about where's my information if I if I 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.399 put my credit card number in on a website. Is 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.240 that safe? If somebody asked me for my Social Security number? 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.560 Is that safe to give them? Is my health information safe? 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.240 So you know, security and and and people's personal information 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.680 has become the forefront of what computer science now has 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.120 to battle. And with that being the case, there are 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.119 tons and tons of jobs and cybersecurity right now everywhere 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.280 for big companies or corporations, startups, or if your main 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.000 drive is just helping people, there's tons of work with 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.240 nonprofits and state organizations. Whereat the pay admittedly might be less, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.639 job can be more than that. A quality of life 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.959 is important, and working for this state of Vermont is 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.919 it's about quality of life and has nothing to do 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.080 with the job. Just has to do with making you 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.840 a better human, being a better person. A job is 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:46.960 not necessarily about the paycheck. Part of what drew me 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:51.280 to working for nonprofits is that that satisfaction of knowing 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.520 that when I went to sleep at night, I knew 0:18:54.520 --> 0:19:02.720 I had done something for something more than myself. It's 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.840 kind of funny that, you know, when you first start 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.000 up coding and diving into literature and computers and stuff. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.440 Kind of the point of that was that it was isolation, 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.080 and now you do it, but you do it for 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.719 a lot of people. It is something that I do 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.720 think about and it helps me come to terms with 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.439 that I'm giving back somewhere and giving back as an 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.080 important part for my sobriety. It's also an important part 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.400 is a human being. If we all gave back more, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.480 things would go a lot smoother. Do you feel now 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:42.880 like you're recoding yourself? Yeah, I guess you could say that. Yeah, 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.679 you know, I'm fixing some of those bugs that were there. Yeah, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.320 I'm definitely fixing some of those bugs. And you know things, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.520 things are running a lot smoother than they ever have 0:19:53.680 --> 0:20:01.159 been before. COVID brought a lot of people to their knees, 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.800 myself included, and put people out of work. It's put 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.080 people in really tough living situations. It's put people in 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.320 a room with everything that they are. It's made some 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.320 of us come to terms with who we are in 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.800 a much shorter time frame than we might have liked. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.400 But as we come out of this storm with new values, 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.120 new morals, new ways of living, and new habits, we've 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.680 had the fortune of having had the time to think 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.920 about how we can help ourselves, and it turns out 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.280 as a lot of people go back to work, they've 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:33.440 realized that the best way to do that is by 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.400 helping other people, even if they only call you when 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:42.280 something's wrong. What are the next bugs you gotta fix 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:49.639 for yourself? Oh, there's always something to fix. But yeah, 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.600 learning to be more patient, learning to be more kind, 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:59.040 and you know, to know that there is hope. There 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.720 is hope always, there's always hope, and there's always a 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:06.720 chance out there makes life worth living. It's not always 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.760 it's not always a bullet chair, he's but it doesn't 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:16.080 have to always be the pits. Yeah, you saw what 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:26.400 I did there. We're ending on that for on the job. 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:33.480 I'm Otis Gray. Thanks for listening. If you or someone 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:35.960 you know is struggling with addiction, help is out there. 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.000 You can go to find treatment dot gov or call 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.359 their national hotline one eight hundred six six to help 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:47.680 for more information. That's one six six to seven. We'll 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:49.520 put this info in the description of the show.