Dec 17, 2025 06:44 AM
(This post was last modified: Dec 17, 2025 06:59 AM by Fallenour.)
Background:
I have ~20 years of experience, a combination of Active Duty (Army), Government Contractor (GovCon), and Fortune 50, 100, 500, and Russell 2000 companies as both a Independant Contractor and a W-2 employee. I've worked at a FAANG company, taught professionally as an Instructor, Pentester, CNO Operator, and held Lead, Principal, and/or Sr. Principal Architect Roles in the areas of Cloud, Systems, DevOps, SecDevOps, Software, Storage, Security, Compliance, and AI/ML. I've spoken nationally and internationally at a variety of Open Community, University, and Corporate events, and I have more college credits than common sense should allow.
Places Ive worked for/with:
- Every US Intel Agency
- FBI
- The Pentagon
- SOCOM
- US Army, US Coast Guard, US Airforce, US Marine Corp, US Navy
- Argonne National Laboratory
- MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- Army Research Labs (Adelphi)
- WHCA
- US Courts
- Healthcare.gov
- Small Business Administration of America (SBA)
- Savannah River Site
- Amazon
- Dell, EMC, RSA
What you can Ask:
Pretty much anything career related. Sidebars on personal questions/conversations. I dont want your business on the internet.
What you can't/should Ask:
Customer specific information outside of what is public knowledge/availability.
Why Do This:
I got my start here in 2010. HF has historically had an air about it for all the things that have gone wrong, but it gets very little credit for the stories that go right. This is my way of giving back to my OG stomping grounds in a way that will have a universally positive impact.
Preemptive Q&A:
- Are you a Fed?
No, I'm not a Fed. Those are Blue Badgers, and they dont pay enough. Yes, even with the extended scale pay for cyber roles.
- Would you go into the military again, and would you recommend it?
Yes, I would, as a Warrant, or as an 0-6 special commission. No, I wouldn't recommend it to most.
- What programming Languages and OS?
Python, Django, Javascript Libraries (Highcharts, Chartsjs, 3Djs), Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS, SCSS. OS is Win10/11 (gaming, work), Linux (Ubuntu)(work)
I have ~20 years of experience, a combination of Active Duty (Army), Government Contractor (GovCon), and Fortune 50, 100, 500, and Russell 2000 companies as both a Independant Contractor and a W-2 employee. I've worked at a FAANG company, taught professionally as an Instructor, Pentester, CNO Operator, and held Lead, Principal, and/or Sr. Principal Architect Roles in the areas of Cloud, Systems, DevOps, SecDevOps, Software, Storage, Security, Compliance, and AI/ML. I've spoken nationally and internationally at a variety of Open Community, University, and Corporate events, and I have more college credits than common sense should allow.
Places Ive worked for/with:
- Every US Intel Agency
- FBI
- The Pentagon
- SOCOM
- US Army, US Coast Guard, US Airforce, US Marine Corp, US Navy
- Argonne National Laboratory
- MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- Army Research Labs (Adelphi)
- WHCA
- US Courts
- Healthcare.gov
- Small Business Administration of America (SBA)
- Savannah River Site
- Amazon
- Dell, EMC, RSA
What you can Ask:
Pretty much anything career related. Sidebars on personal questions/conversations. I dont want your business on the internet.
What you can't/should Ask:
Customer specific information outside of what is public knowledge/availability.
Why Do This:
I got my start here in 2010. HF has historically had an air about it for all the things that have gone wrong, but it gets very little credit for the stories that go right. This is my way of giving back to my OG stomping grounds in a way that will have a universally positive impact.
Preemptive Q&A:
- Are you a Fed?
No, I'm not a Fed. Those are Blue Badgers, and they dont pay enough. Yes, even with the extended scale pay for cyber roles.
- Would you go into the military again, and would you recommend it?
Yes, I would, as a Warrant, or as an 0-6 special commission. No, I wouldn't recommend it to most.
- What programming Languages and OS?
Python, Django, Javascript Libraries (Highcharts, Chartsjs, 3Djs), Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS, SCSS. OS is Win10/11 (gaming, work), Linux (Ubuntu)(work)
When hell freezes over, and the world is burning, I will be holding the flamethrower.
-Fallenour
-Fallenour