Meet the Team: Egor Semeniak, Codecademy Senior Cloud Security Engineer

Everybody’s career journey looks different — even the journeys of our own team members! That’s why we’re so excited to share stories and advice from Codecademy’s Software Engineers, Data Scientists, Product Managers, and more to show people what it’s like to work in tech.

Today we’re spotlighting Egor Semeniak , a Senior Cloud Security Engineer on Codecademy’s Security and Compliance team who’s been with us for two years.

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Tell us about yourself! How’d you end up working in tech?

“My passion for technology comes from my dad. He was always extremely knowledgeable in the IT field. I just followed his footsteps.

When I was about eight years old my dad showed me how easy it can be to exploit a badly setup website. He helped me win a TV show contest by breaking into the website and manipulating the results. To this day, I still hold the pencil case that was mailed to me as a prize for that contest. I’ve tinkered with technology ever since.

I got my degree in Computer Science and received the majority of the skills I use during my day-to-day work by learning on my own and building cool projects. I did some DoD (Department of Defense) work, research for the National Science Foundation, and many projects for the city agencies of New York City. I was always a fan of facing global challenges and solving them with technology.”

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Tell us about your role. How would you explain your job to a stranger?

“I work as a Senior Cloud Security Engineer meaning I protect internal infrastructure and our customers’ data from hackers. The most challenging part of the infosec world is staying on top of the news and cutting-edge technologies.

Cybersecurity is an ever-changing field. There are hundreds of new exploits being discovered every month. It is really important to stay on top of the news and latest discoveries because being as little as an hour late to patching a system can lead to it being easily compromised by a threat actor. I recommend the podcasts SecurityNow, Cyber Insecurity, and Surveillance Report.?

The most rewarding part of working in cybersecurity is the community. There are so many awesome groups and individuals who are willing to share their experience.”

*Wondering who to follow to stay on top of industry trends? These are a few of our favorite cybersecurity experts.

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What advice do you have for people interested in a role like yours?

“Passion for learning and technology is something that is crucial in a role like mine. You can teach almost anyone to be a good developer, but it is much harder to teach someone to be curious and adventurous. Cybersecurity is an ever-changing field and newcomers must be ready to continue learning as they progress through their careers.

In terms of technological skills, cloud, and information security skills often intersect and go side by side. I would recommend anyone who is looking to get into these fields to practice with real-world tools during their free time. For example, cloud platforms offer free trials to users and several cybersecurity tools are either open-source or have free editions.

In terms of coding languages, I would focus on Python and Bash at first.”

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What do you wish you knew before you began your career?

“If I could go back, I would tell the younger me to get engaged in the tech community earlier. There are dozens of meetups, conferences, and small community gatherings happening every day. Students often can get free access to events. Everyone interested in tech and security should join local community groups and grow their network of like-minded professionals.

I would highly recommend that people go to DEFCON. DEFCON is one of the largest hacking conventions in the world. There are also local DC groups which are often called by the area code name — like NYC has a DC212 group.

*Looking for community groups to join? You can learn more about Codecademy’s community offerings.

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What’s something you want to learn next??

“I am currently studying for a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam. Once I achieve that certification, I am planning to pursue the OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) certification.

My favorite ways to learn new technologies and skills are usually YouTube and blogs. I also learn a lot from tech meetups and conferences where my fellow infosec professionals showcase their research and cutting-edge exploits.”

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What’s your favorite Codecademy course?

“I actually learned about Codecademy when my university professor had us take the Learn SQL course as part of the curriculum. Ever since then, I’ve taken multiple courses to both learn new things and test the latest deployed security changes.

My favorite Codecademy course is Scan Systems with Nmap because it shows how easily open-source tools can be used to evaluate which ports are open on a particular endpoint.

The latest course I’ve taken a look at was our Intro to Cloud Computing course.”