Born as Zachary Fontenot, I have lived along the wooded outskirts of Moss Bluff my entire life. Starting out as your typical late-90's kid, I was eventually introduced to the early world of computers and computer games; back in the days when most games existed on physical copies - like CD-ROMs for computers, or cartridges for the oldest consoles, like the SEGA Genesis. Surprisingly, while most of these games were obviously kid games (fitting for my age), it was through said games that I learned how to read, write, and even how to speak at times, as I was a very quiet kid. Unsurprisingly, this affinity for computers would eventually carry over into my grade school years, when I tried to take whatever computer classes that I could, starting with my typing classes in middle school.
Fast forward to the 2010's, after graduating from high school, I moved on to McNeese State University with one goal in mind: to get my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and eventually find a job in Cyber Security. Sadly, though... reality was bound to disappoint, even as I started to look for internships in my field. Many positions got filled before I could even get a chance; and the few that I was able to attend an interview for ended up turning me away -- particularly because they either required me to move away from home, and/or be subjected to what sounded like a kind of "boot camp" for computer specialists that would end up working me to the bone. One day, though, I actually managed to land something without needing to look too hard; as a friend from my church recommended me to one Aaron LeBato: the CEO of C-Level Analytics, who was looking for an intern for a data engineer position, as his company focused on data lakes and data processing for their clients. While it wasn't exactly the job I was looking for, I took it, anyway -- and I proved to be fairly competent at it. For the first couple of months of my internship, I was put through an online training course, teaching me about data lakes and data processing. To Aaron's surprise, I was picking up things much faster than he expected, as I was going through every video, and every resource one after another. I racked up plenty of hours of intern work during training, and got paid a fairly good sum every month. Not long after, Aaron started putting me to work, helping him and my coworkers on doing codework in Notebooks; setting up the data lake, gathering raw data, and getting it processed into human-readable format. Though, we did encounter a couple of speed bumps here and there, I wanted to think that I was making a difference; that I was at least helping the others to find ways to fix the issues in ways that even I couldn't see at first.
Unfortunately for me, this is where it stopped working out...
After about a year of employment and a couple of meetings looking at the roadmap for the company, I was eventually let go -- not because of any serious fault, but because Aaron just couldn't find any work for me to do, despite all the projects I had worked on. But, he didn't leave me high and dry after my final paycheck, as he recommended me to a Security+ course with CompTIA to at least get me certified, and give me a better chance of getting the job I was looking for. Long after our communications stopped, it took a couple of tries - but in the end, I had gotten CompTIA certified in Cyber Security.
...And, what a load of "good" that did for me, in the end.
Even after everything I did, I just couldn't find another job to take the place of what I had lost. Every "Entry level" job I searched required a certain number of years of prior experience in the related field. Years of experience which I - quite obviously - DO NOT have! In the end, after countless tries to get so much as an interview only to get passed over, I gave up trying to look. Tired and frustrated, I fell back on doing part-time work for my folks, doing whatever was asked of me; either house-sitting for my cousins, or just helping around the house where I live. After a few years of disappointment, my dad finally managed to find something at the hospital he works at: a position at the IT Help Desk. One promising interview later... I was passed over for the job. AGAIN.
My dad already saw how hopeless I felt at that point, not even trying to look anymore. So my parents, and even my aunt, urged me to go back to college -- but this time, to Sowela. Hesitant at first, it just felt like a waste of time (and money) to be going back to college after all of the hell I already went through, work-wise, in McNeese. Nevertheless, I decided to go through with it, anyway - as I needed to have SOMETHING to do, or else I'd literally die of boredom. And, that brings us to where I am today.
On a minor note: I learned that the person who took the Help Desk job was going through hell trying to fix a computer problem my sister was having at work. So, while it might be a dodged bullet, I can't help but feel sorry for them.