A Veteran Success Story with Brandi Moses

I decided to go into cybersecurity because of things I saw when I was overseas.

My name is Brandi Moses, and I'm a former active duty member of the Air Force where I served for six years, before joining the Georgia Air National Guard for four. After that, I worked on government contracts for five years as a drone mechanic.

As a jet mechanic, I have touched every part of the F15. I've been a sheet metal mechanic, a draw mechanic, and a satellite mechanic.

There are people who helped guide and mold me.

One of the engineers at my last job gave me the courage to go for Divergence. When I expressed interest in the Cybersecurity Pentesting program, he told me: "You've got to do it now. NOW, Brandi."

When VET TEC rolled out, it caught my attention.

My GI Bill had run out. Then the VA came out with the VET TEC program, and I found out that as long as you had at least one day left, they would cover your schooling. I had 31 days left.

Once I decided on Dallas, I reviewed schools and found Divergence Academy. They were one of the few schools in the States with a cybersecurity program available at that time.

Divergence showed me I could still get camaraderie after the military.

At Divergence, your cohort is made up of folks from different branches, ranks, and creeds. Because you are all veterans, there's that sense of doing this program together and helping each other out.

The instructors were cool and knowledgeable.

Logan and Shane really stood out. There were moments when the rest of the class got it and I didn't. I would call the instructors directly, and they would always find time to walk me through the material.

Career Services helped tailor my resume for the civilian sector.

Shane helped me understand the value of LinkedIn. Understanding LinkedIn allowed me to network across different groups that eventually landed me a job offer.

I'm really excited to be a part of Cisco's apprenticeship program.

I learned about Cisco's Advanced Security Initiatives Group (ASIG) apprenticeship program from a recruiter who reached out via LinkedIn. ASIG is comprised of over 65 software and hardware engineers focused on advanced penetration testing.

The training at Divergence definitely gives me a leg up heading into six months of hardcore training on topics we covered at Divergence.

For future Divergence learners: ask all the questions you want.

Do as many labs as you can. Find what you like to do. More importantly, just try. In the moments you feel you can't do something, tell yourself that you can and believe it. That's what you'll hear from your classmates, your teachers, and from everybody at Divergence.