2020

Now that it is a new year, I have set some new goals for myself. This year, I plan to prioritizing my health, wellness, and relationships ahead of everything else. In the past, I’ve been somewhat of a workaholic, and it really put a strain on some of my relationships. Don’t get me wrong, I absolute love working, and I’m still super passionate about what I do. But you work tirelessly to a point and a realization just hit you that you’re missing out on a lot on OTHER important things in life. And this year, I really want to put the people around me first and be more in service for others. Don’t worry… I still have professional goals… And I’ll still post about side projects and technical topics that I’m learning or working on… Just that breathing human beings will take first priority over everything else! ;)

Work & Education

For 2020, I’ll be focusing the first half of the year on finishing my Master degree. I have about 3 classes left, and I’m taking it all in one semester to get it over with. Full time school + full time work call for a busy schedule, so I will not be traveling as much for the first half of the year. I’ve limited myself to a maximum of 4 trips for the first 6 months (1 training, 1 work, 1 vacation AFTER I graduate, and 1 conference)!

The topic I will focus on this year is reverse engineering and exploit development. I took FOR 610 in December, so I will be taking the certification test (GREM) some time before February! After graduating, I will spend some time to study for the OSCP again.

As for trainings, I have a few on my mind that I want to take. It’ll probably be one or 2 from these options:

• SANS SEC 573 - Automating Information Security with Python
• SANS SEC 660 - Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploit Writing, and Ethical Hacking
• SpecterOps - either Adversary Tactics: Red Team Operations or Adversary Tactics: Detection

For conferences, I will be limiting myself to only 2-3 this year. Not sure of what yet. Prioritizing health & mental wellness is rough. LOL. :]

For work, I’ll have a little bit more responsibilities in rolling out 2 new initiatives. It’s a thing that I have not done before, so I’ll spend a lot of time to make sure the roll out goes smoothly. I’ll also give out more internal training on malware analysis and application security.

Anddddd the second part of my self reflection (2019) and goal planning (2020) blog post is done! I’ve learned that by writing your goals down, you’re more likely to do it. So my entire life is a tons of checklist! Thanks for reading if you did, and good luck to you and your goals for this year as well! :)