My Cythority Experience
When I began with Cythority, I had no professional cybersecurity experience, degree, industry certifications, or connections within the field. I was also in a very dark place personally, recovering from a serious car accident that nearly took my life, dealing with heartbreak, grieving the loss of my 2 dogs who meant everything to me, and having to pause my life while pivoting into an entirely new career. I was scared, I was in pain every single day, I had 0 connections, I knew nothing about IT or Cybersecurity outside of my gaming background, but I knew I needed to rebuild my life with urgency, and Cythority gave me the opportunity to apply myself toward something meaningful.
William Sims’ leadership played an important role in my development, not only as our SOC Manager, but also as a mentor and true friend being there for me at all times. He taught me to trust my judgment, confidently take ownership of my investigations, communicate clearly, and accept honest feedback. Throughout my internship, I gained hands-on experience with enterprise SIEM, EDR/XDR, and SOAR platforms, along with incident response, threat hunting, vulnerability research, detection tuning, and professional reporting within a real VSOC environment helping clients on a daily basis.
During that time, I earned my Network+ and Security+, strengthened my technical foundation, and developed the confidence to explain and defend my analysis during interviews. That experience ultimately helped me secure a fully remote Security Analyst II position with a respected cybersecurity organization.
Financially, my return on investment was 10X. I am now in a much stronger financial position than I was while working at the gym and earning approximately $48,000 annually. However, the true value extends far beyond money. Cythority helped me regain my confidence by giving me a reason to keep going every day, build a legitimate cybersecurity career, and become part of a community of like-minded, humble individuals who continuously learn from and support one another. Most importantly, it helped change the direction of my life during one of its most difficult periods.
I will always be grateful to William, the leadership team, and everyone within Cythority who believed in me and contributed to my journey. To anyone considering an opportunity with Cythority, understand that the experience will reflect the effort you are willing to put into it. If you remain hungry, coachable, consistent, and willing to trust the process, the knowledge, mentorship, and relationships you gain can genuinely change your life just as they changed mine.
28 February 2026
Unprompted review