It all started with humble beginnings in Nicaragua, specifically Managua, the city nicknamed; Novia del Xolotlán, which translates to Bride of Xolotlán.
Above, you see the city of Managua, Nicaragua.
A brother to five other boys, Josh Mena, my Tio (Uncle for those who don’t speak Spanish), was the first to enter College after coming to the United States, specifically Miami Dade College. He worked there for 17 years, starting off working in Miami-Dade Community College’s Medical Center Campus.
He did work troubleshooting desktop and networking issues and installing and maintaining computers, printers, application software, and peripheral equipment on the Medical Campus.
He provided system support for 24/7 production, test, and development environments, and managed user management including user addition, deletion, and modifying user attributes in Active Directory as Network Service Manager before getting promoted to Senior Network Security Administrator.
From 2010 to 2012, he was a student at Berry University where he got his Bachelor's of Science in Network Engineering, specifically Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications. He then went to Nova Southeastern University where he then got his Master's degree in Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance, from 2012 to 2014.
Above is the logo for Assurant, which I do not own.
But around 2015, my Uncle took a job at Assurant, a company that “helps global clients protect and support the major purchases consumers make — like homes, cars, appliances, and phones — in new and thoughtful ways”, as Senior Information Security Engineer.
He worked there until November 2018, when he started anew again at TradeStation as a Senior Security Engineer. He’s been working there ever since and has also worked for multiple certificates, which include becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) in August 2018, and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) in September 2019.
He describes his job as being a “digital security guard”, he works with the stock market a lot and he says his job entails monitoring “tripwires” to detect anomalies. Of course, there is software put in place to help, but overall, it is his responsibility; in Layman’s terms, if things go south, it’s all eyes on him.
Sometimes, apparently, there are false positives that end up being nothing of concern. The days are usually easygoing and calm, except when there are anomalies.
Apparently, the pay for an I.T. in his position is between 150k to 250k a year. It all depends on the company and the negotiations the person made, certificates are also important.
This fascinating field of work is always evolving, and staying up to date with the news matters. Keeping up with corporate politics matters as well, and it’s important to know whether or not you’re going to like this job, before getting in too deep.
All in all, he told me that he was satisfied with his work and that he wouldn’t trade it in for the world.
On a scale of one to ten, he gave it a wholehearted ten, and he’d do so a thousand times again.
Josue Mena (CISSP CEH), my Uncle, my Dad’s brother, and a dedicated family man, was the first in my family to go to College in the U.S., and he’s an inspiration and a living reminder that if a scared little boy making the trek all the way from Nicaragua to the United States can go to College and obtain the American dream, so can anyone else. I guess you could say that’s the beauty of this wonderful country.
Anyway, thank you for reading and I’ll be back soon enough!
Well, thank you for reading from my Substack this week, I wish you all a Blessed and great rest of the week.
I also want to thank you for getting this far because I know some people wouldn’t.
(All rights are reserved to any and all companies mentioned above, including but not limited to, Assurant, Tradestation, etc. I do not own any of the photos above, nor do I own in any part the companies mentioned).