The cliché of interns making coffee runs and copies has no place in the visions and spirit of Utica College students who are looking to put their hands and minds to work in real-world scenarios and prepare for the lives and careers that await them beyond UC.
Cybersecurity major Tyler Dowsland ’19, knows all too well the opportunities for learning through not just industry experience, but global industry experience. Dowsland interned as a Security Operations Center (SOC) Associate Analyst at CipherTechs in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Dowsland’s brother works in the cyber field, and he mentioned his company was looking for a summer intern at their Ireland location. “I’ve never been outside the United States before, so that drew me in,” Dowsland says. He interviewed for the position, was selected, and made the big trip across the pond the week after classes ended for the spring semester.
In his role as analyst, Dowsland monitored the company’s clients for security breeches and investigated suspicious activity through IP addresses, browsing history, and geo-locations.
“I thought I was going to need weeks of training to comprehend the work I was doing,” he says, “but after a week of hands-on training, I was working in queues just like the other analysts were.”
Located about 80 miles south of Dublin, Kilkenny is a small city that “instantly felt welcoming.” Plus, being of Irish descent, Dowsland says traveling to the country “felt like going to the motherland.”
“My colleagues were some of the most focused individuals I’ve ever met,” Dowsland says. “But when the day was going slow, someone would make a joke and the whole office would be laughing.” Soccer balls and Frisbees made frequent appearances around the office, too. “It was like working with a bunch of professional comedians.”
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