My Learning Curve...

The above image pretty much sums up my learning curve ever since I have started my career in software engineering.. The rest of the article below I will only brag about a scenario that got me from Know-nothing to Knowing Something and in the process thank people that provided my opportunities to grow.

To be honest I am not a problem finder but learnt that I'm sure as hell a problem solver....?? So without having problem to solve how will you end-up learning how to solve and what??. There comes to rescue my learning mantra....

Surround yourself with people who are trying to solve interesting problems, make their problems your own and find solutions...

As simple as that worked for me to get me where I am. I had some good 10-12 such curves at various points in my career...

I truly believe, talking about my success is important as there is a remote chance of it helping a few like me (50-70% marks).. ??

Pivot of My Life:

I never knew what the full form of PKI was in 2006 until @N Sundarajan pushed me into flaming pit of a company wide security service being developed, lead by @Alan Dundas. Both of whom I can't thank enough.??

• Peak of Mount Stupid: ??Why did I jump this project?? I had no knowledge about -> How does one issue a certificate? What the hell is two-way SSL? What is a CA? What is an Intermediate CA? What is code signing..?
• Valley of Despair:??Had very little to help as everyone I knew, knew only so much (Remember no stack overflow back then..) and I was leading a team of 4/5 (2-3 years exp.) who were looking up-to me every day. I just wanted to get to rest room and never come back.
• Slope of Enlightenment: ??A full 2/3 months of digging into security books/articles on (CSR/CER/P12/JKS/PEM/PPK/CA's) with great help from Alan my security guru. What helped was I also had a very good learning partner and eventually a life long friend in Venkat.
• Plateau of Sustainability: ??After a full year of ups and downs, I was like 'Come lets talk Security!!' giving presentations to teams across the company helping them out with their security issues, working on RFP's as Security lead etc etc etc.. Came to a point where I knew how one could setup their own CA and take it forward!??

After which I have been doing the below every time I get an opportunity.

Just remember one important thing:

You are trying without knowing all, so at end there is always a learning to takeway. Success is a by product if you get it right.. but the learning never goes away.

It makes it much more easier to stand-up and do it again and again even if you don't see success all the times...