Hello and thank you for your time. My name is Andrew Kennedy. I am currently working to finish my bachelor’s degree at the University of South Florida.
Background
I was raised in Lakeland, Florida, where I have worked as a bartender and a waiter for the same company, Outback Steakhouse, for the last four years. Before my career with Outback, my time was spent on the basketball court. I played organized basketball all over the state of Florida through high school and into my freshman year at Polk State Community College.
The reason I share these personal details is that they highlight the skills necessary to be successful outside of my college life. I am a loyal, hardworking employee; I am on time and a great communicator, as well as being extremely team-oriented. These skills have helped me immensely through my college career and will help me stand apart from my co-workers in any work environment.
Passion for Technology
I am passionate about computer work; I was raised by a computer programmer of 30 years, and computers have always been a huge part of my life. I am most interested in the cybersecurity field; however, I realize how competitive these fields can be and am willing and motivated to work my way up a company to the position I want.
Through my time here at USF, I have taken many classes that have aided in the development of a strong foundation in information science security. Some of the most notable include:
Ethical Hacking
In my Ethical Hacking class, I set up and linked two vulnerable virtual machines to an attack-oriented virtual machine. I ran multiple attacks on the two vulnerable machines from my laptop. The two machines were set up to give a rudimentary understanding of how hackers attack vulnerable Linux and Windows operating systems. This experience deepened my understanding of how to protect these systems.
Networking and Communications
In my Networking and Communications class, I downloaded and ran Wireshark on my computer. If you are unfamiliar with what Wireshark is, it is a very popular monitoring software that allows you to view all incoming and outgoing communications over a network. I linked it to the Wi-Fi at my home and attempted to access a webpage on my computer. By isolating my computer’s IP address and filtering out everything else going through the Wi-Fi, I was able to see the three-way handshake that took place to allow my computer to access the webpage.
These were some of my favorite experiences throughout this degree because they involved utilizing actual software and learning through practical experiences.
Skills Acquired
Other notable skills I’ve gained throughout my time here at USF include:
- Proficiency in coding languages such as Java, Html, and Python; I feel very comfortable working with these and am eager to learn new languages.
- Experience with multiple virtual machines; setting up and accessing files through these machines has given me a good understanding of virtual machine utilization.
- Currently enrolled in a criminal mapping software class where I am working with various types of ArcGIS software, which I am enjoying.
Conclusion
All of these experiences, in and out of college, have equipped me with the tools and lessons to build a solid foundation based on information science. I am ready and enthusiastic to take the next step in my career and utilize the information I have learned in a company setting.
Andrew Kennedy 