Time to start over…
I was laid off about three weeks ago because of a RIF. This is a reduction in force which usually takes
place after a merger and redundant roles are eliminated. I did not initially think that this is a bad
thing. I had been getting burnt out
working between 55 and 70 hours a week. Politics between groups were getting
pretty cutthroat and I was trying to keep my head down to concentrate on being
a productive member of the company. I
was expecting some of the lower performing members of the group to be let go because
I had gotten nothing but outstanding on my reviews since starting at the
company. So, after the phone call where
I was told of the severance package and other things, I decided to look on this
as an opportunity to re-invent myself, to go for those positions people told me
I should be doing.
It has now been three weeks and I have been through dozens
of phone screens and interviews. In the
past, I had many people tell me how great I was and what a workhorse I was for
them. Now, I can here the imaginary Roman
slave whispering to the masters as they came home in the victorious parade that
“All glory is fleeting”.
I realize I am not prepared for professional interviews as
this is the first time where I wasn’t going to work for someone where I hadn’t
been working with them before. My previous
three jobs after leaving Microsoft were basically a meet & greet, welcome
to the team and this is where you will be seating if you take the offer. I had the allusion that I would be hired
within a week or so and at first this looked promising. I had several recruiters calling me like I
was the newest lottery winner. My phone
is not ringing as much this week. I have
gotten to several second and third rounds of interviews but no offers have come
as of yet. Self-doubt is starting to
creep into the back of my mind. My wife is
starting to worry that I may not be getting a new job anytime soon and it is going
to put us into a financial strain. My
daughter is freaked out because she thinks we will be homeless. I didn’t realize the pressure this event has
put on my family right now.
Between interviewing and phone screens, I have started studying
for my CISM. Having a good formal knowledge
of governance should help, even if this is a refresher for some of the things I
had been practicing in the past. I have
to admit when working those long hours, I was focused on the technologies I was
charged with implementing and getting them into production, that I missed what
was going on in the world around me. I
am taking this time off to approach study like I was in college. A few hours of studying for the CISM, then I
will do a few hours of studying Azure, then I will watch some of a course on
Udemy for Splunk. I really haven’t studied
this hard since I was working on my masters.
My goal is to take the AZ-900: Microsoft
Azure Fundamentals test in the next couple of weeks. I then hope to take the Certified
Information Security Manager (CISM) test and apply for the accreditation. I had also been reviewing the North American Electric
Reliability Corporation (NERC) Cyber Security Standards because I had been
interviewing with a company that specialized in that.
Here is my resume, let me know
if you are hiring:
BRENNAN
CROWE
Farmers Branch, TX
(214) 532-5872 (M)
brennan_crowe@hotmail.com
NETWORK SECURITY MANAGER
Strategic leader and planner with
extensive experience in environments requiring consulting, technical support,
strategic planning, communications, and business development. Skilled at developing
and implementing projects to meet customer specifications. Solid business
acumen balanced by strong interpersonal, marketing, and analytical skills. Confident
communicator skilled at interacting with cross-functional teams and diverse
Fortune 1000 customers.
Expertise
includes: Client Relationships | Tradeshows | Business
Plans | Negotiation
PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
FISERV, Dallas, TX 1/2015 –9/19
Sr. Network
Security Consultant
Provided project-based new to
environment design, implementation and architecture of Check Point, Juniper and
Palo Alto Firewalls. Security
verification of new Windows/Linux builds for PCI, ISO 27002, and SOX
compliance.
·
Data
Center Optimization - responsible for consolidating network security
integration for 4 medium data center migration into 3 large data centers of
production, certification, BTAT and DR environments.
·
On-boarded
over 50 large banks as the Sr. Network Consultant for architecture, design and production
.
·
Consulted
with the migration of Check Point to Palo Alto Firewalls.
·
Network
Security lead for Disaster Recovery Exercises.
·
Designed
policies for business continuity and disaster recovery.
·
Worked
with remediating vulnerability assessments.
·
Designed
Microsoft Teams site for intra-team collaboration
·
Designed
policy rule sets with over 1200 Check Point Firewalls and over 40 Palo Alto
Clusters
DELL
SECUREWORKS, Plano, TX 4/2013- 1/2015
Network
Security Senior Advisor
Provided operational administration
of MSP Customers running Blue Coat, Websense, McAfee WebGatway, M86 proxy and
Microsoft Threat Management Gateways.
Led projects for ISO 27001 and PCI compliance for multiple clients.
Provided technical management of the content filtering team for the managed
service provider Content Filtering Team managing 25+ clients.
·
Redesigned
and optimized a large government department content filtering and web proxy
system.
·
Refined
redesigned Content Filtering and firewalls for a large hotel chain.
·
Team
lead for a global team of associates.
CHECK
POINT TECHNOLOGIES,
Irving, TX 11/2011 – 4/2013
Diamond
Services Engineer
Support, consulting and account
management for highest level Enterprise customers for Check Point Firewall and
Provider environments. IPS/IDS, Identity
Awareness, VPN/SNX, GateD, Anti-Bot and all other technology deployments on
SPLAT, GAiA, Solaris and Windows.
·
Worked
with top Fortune 50 clients headquartered in the North East US.
·
Created
client relationships where we established vendor-client support strategies for
upgrading and optimizing network security.
Brennan Crowe brennan_crowe@hotmail.com
MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Irving, TX
9/1997 – 10/2011
Security Support Escalation Engineer - CSS Security –
ISA/TMG Team
Support Professional - EPS Networking Team
Provided customer support for
premiere Microsoft international Fortune 1000 companies. • Perform (ROSS)
Reactive On-Site Support, consulting with IT groups at facilities throughout
the U.S., troubleshooting networking and/or (ISA) Internet Security and
Accelerated Servers.
·
Selected
for a 5-week special assignment with Microsoft United Kingdom to develop a
collaborative relationship with the U.K. and the U.S.
·
Designed
high-profile DNS structure for an active directory roll out
·
Delivered
technical presentations and demonstrations with Q&A sessions at trade
booths and conventions designed to maximize product marketability and generate
company leads.
·
As
a subject matter expert, developed training and taught classes in networking,
(ISA) Internet Security and Acceleration Server, Network Monitor, WINS, and
Services for UNIX.
EDUCATION
Master of
Science, Information Assurance (all but thesis)
University of Dallas, Irving, TX
MBA, Global
Business
University of Dallas, Irving, TX
B.A., Economics,
Economics
University of North Texas, Denton,
Texas
CERTIFICATIONS
MCP, MCSE, MCP + Internet, MCSE
+Security, MCSA, MCSA +Security, MCT, MCTS,
ITIL, CISSP, AccessData (ACE), Blue Coat Certified Proxy Administrator
(BCCPA), Blue Coat Certified Proxy Professional (BCCPP), CCNA, C|EH
PROFESSIONAL
MEMBERSHIPS
FBI InfraGard
ISSA
NAISG
ISACA
ISC2 Dallas Chapter
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