Beginning for the search of cybersecurity jobs ended at SL7 leading my career a new start

My Journey at SecureLayer7

SecureLayer7 has always been a platform for the employees searching for cybersecurity jobs to grow and flourish along with the company. 

But as we grow, we regrettably have to bid adieu to some of our best. 

Akash Katare, one of the brightest cybersecurity engineer at SecureLayer7 is now parting. Let’s hear read about his journey… 

In my first year of Engineering, I got to know about something known as Ethical Hacking. This bred a lot of interest for me in becoming an ethical hacker and to learn about it in addition to my interests and inclinations towards the web, android app development since early time. When I came into final year me and my friends were going for campus interviews, in one of the company interviews I started speaking all about Ethical hacking and the interviewer was also asking me questions about it. I was very happy that time but at the end of my interview they said they were in need of a developer, not a hacker. I got too nervous.  Later I got placed in one of the software development companies but I was still not happy. I decided that now I will only apply for the companies having a vacancy for cybersecurity jobs for fresher and I started searching for cybersecurity jobs when one day I heard about “Securelayer7 Technologies Pvt. Ltd !” from my friend Aboli Shaiwale (https://twitter.com/abolishaiwale) and then, here my battle started to get a job in Securelayer7.

I applied for the cybersecurity jobs for freshers in securelayer7, and Kanchan Kaur Mam from Securelayer7 called me for the interview. A technical interview was conducted by Mr. Tauhid Shaikh and then after 2 days on 26 Oct 2018, I received an email from HR “Congratulations on your offer from Securelayer7 Technologies Pvt. Ltd!”  When I saw this mail I was like finally, I made it !!! So much happiness! 

Knowledge, Team in Securelayer7:

I remember that on the first day, I was very nervous. After a short introductory meeting, Kanchan Mam introduced me with Anudeep Patel, Sharan Panegav, Akshay Darekar. After some days I got introduced to my manager, Nayan Chaudhari.

I was assigned one of the projects on the very next day for performing re-testing of the application. What I saw there were around 60 vulnerabilities in a single project. My learning started from day one, I started improving myself with new vulnerabilities and concepts. First I started digging in more about web applications, API Penetration testing, then I learned about iOS, Android Penetration testing, Source code review as well. I learned all these things in a mere period of 6 months at Securelayer7.

I remember that from my first project, I was finding quality and quantity of bugs in different projects with end to end support from all the seniors and we worked collaboratively to find much of the critical vulnerabilities. 

One sentence by “Sharan Panegav and Akshay Darekar ” that kept me motivated was – to learn continuously in this entire security domain is that “Tu shiknar re sagal kahi tention nako gheus” (Akash you will learn everything by yourself don’t worry). 

While doing my job as a cybersecurity analyst in securelayer7, I got to lay my hands on a lot of projects based on different technologies which helped me a lot to improve my knowledge in Penetration Testing skills in different domains like Web, API, Android, iOS, Thick Client, AWS Penetration testing and in Source code review as well. In some of the projects, I got a chance to lead the team as well where I got a little experience to manage the team and this enhanced my team leading skills as well. I got opportunities to host talks in the office meetings and knowledge exchange sessions too where I shared my knowledge and discoveries with my colleagues. 

As a fresher cybersecurity analyst, continuously working on a bunch of projects, leading the team, was very challenging and interesting for me and I gave my complete efforts to complete those flawlessly. 

Why am I telling all this?

In Securelayer7, the managers, team leads will observe you identify your knowledge, talent, expertise and uniqueness from your working and give you a lot of opportunities that I think no one will get anywhere on the freshers’ level. 

I was also awarded “Rising Star of the year” for my work by the company which kept on giving me more motivation to keep on working. 

What makes me happy to work with securelayer7?

Every company has its pros and cons, but what really made me happy and excited to work in the cybersecurity industry and securelayer7 is that the quality of projects, freedom to exploit the vulnerabilities, working on different technologies, supportive and friendly nature from CTO Sandeep Kamble, Nayan Chaudhari, Akshay Darekar, Sharan Panegav, Vedant Wayal, Rajasekar, Hridesh etc. and of course our HR Kanchan Kaur Mam have all been nothing but supportive and encouraging.“