Carl’s Story: From Salesman to Cybersecurity

Hi! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Carl. I’m 54 years old, living in Germany for quite some time now. 

I was born in Ohio. In 1988, I came to Germany for the first time and stayed until 2004. Then my family and I returned to the States for about 11 years, until my wife and I made the move back here to Germany. My son is now 32, doing music, and my daughter’s 25, studying medicine. I’m proud of both of them, I really encourage them to think globally, not small-minded.

What do you do for a living?

My profession is in sales – I was selling from 2004 till 2024, mostly in car sales and solar. I dealt with a lot of different people and customers from all walks of life. Before that I was also in sales, but I was selling myself! I was a musician and artist, traveling around the world doing music. For me, it’s always been good to be around people.

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You were a musician! That’s something we don’t hear every day.

Yeah, I have my own rap group and I had a band. I released some albums in Japan – got to see a little bit of the world, went on tour in Africa and in Europe.

Wow! That’s very different from tech. What made you start thinking about a career in tech?

I’ve always been messing with computers, building them and playing around with them. I started getting interested in VPNs and security, and wondering about ads online – how do they know what they know about me? 

I started looking into that type of stuff, and my son-in-law actually studied cybersecurity and graduated two years ago. He told me how I actually showed him some of the stuff that he learned during his studies, and he even said, “You know? This might be a career for you, too.”  I looked into it, and I found Masterschool and it seemed like a fit for me.

And, are you?

For me, it was a bit overwhelming like, man, I got to start all over again.

I talked to the career consultant at Masterschool, Andre, I believe his name was and when I brought up my age he was just like: “Nope, that’s not an issue.” I started doing a little bit more research, and I understood there are people of all ages in this field.

When I actually started through the Orientation course with Rein – who is a great instructor, I understood it’s really just a field for people who are inquisitive.

What made you decide to register for the Orientation course?

My mindset was, I have this opportunity – what am I going to do with it?

I really wanted to see what’s a fit out there for me. Tech is the future, and I don’t want to miss out. Computers, smartphones, the internet—it’s not going away. It’s getting bigger.

What advice would you give to someone who was in your shoes – debating whether or not to take a course to explore a career in tech?

Don’t overthink it. I heard this when I was a kid: the biggest war that we always have in this world is not between people. It’s between our own two ears.

In other words, you gotta swim. I’ve taught my kids to swim. If you can’t swim yet, you still have to get in the water. You can put just your toe in first, but at some point you have to jump in and not be afraid. 

But if we don’t change our mind, then nothing’s going to change.

Can you tell me about your first impression of the Orientation course?

The first impression that I had was that we had a good teacher, a really good teacher. He broke things down and made you feel comfortable, reminding us this is a marathon, not a sprint. He taught us how to reorganize our thought patterns and how to learn. He encouraged us every day to try to change the way we see things. I also had good classmates with me.

What were your first impressions of the learning material?

As far as learning, we got introduced to a lot of things. A lot. TryHackMe rooms – which was just like, wow I can’t believe you can do that! What is HTML, CSS, how people try to manipulate websites and things like that. I think when you start at Masterschool, you shouldn’t worry about whether you’re gonna pass or fail. I take it one day at a time: just show up, and learn something that will take me to the next day and to the next day.

How do you stay motivated, learning online all day?

That’s going to be a challenge for anybody. It’s hard to stay motivated in the beginning, because you’re on your own, but I found a couple of people that I clicked with and then we would chat on our own and ask and answer each other’s questions. That really helps.

Want to get into tech? Learn more about the Orientation course here.

As you continue your journey towards a career in cybersecurity, what do you think are your challenges?

Finding the right way to stay abreast of upcoming trends and current information because it all changes so fast. Changes are happening not within days – in minutes.

Even criminals are using AI, more and more things are automated, you have to be in tune with it all. And because there’s SO much information out there, you really have to do your research and make sure to get information from a good source, from people who are actually dealing with these things on a daily basis. 

Even though you may finish a course or a program, it’s not the end of your learning. Every company you work at has different philosophies, technologies, ways of doing things.

Any other last words or advice to share?

Don’t talk yourself out of something good. 

You’ll never know what’s on the other side of the door unless you actually open that door, walk through that door and take enough steps to know what’s on the other side.

You can be 90 years old and still learn something new. I think that everyone has an opportunity with Masterschool to succeed. I think 90% of it is really up to you – it’s not a kindergarten and they’re not here to hold your hand. They give you guidance, and get you in the right direction. You should know you still have to work.