I was lucky enough to go to an ACM meeting where Carlos Solari, former CIO of the White House, was making a presentation about computer security. He was starting his own computer security consulting company called Solari Innovations, Inc. out of Shenandoah, Virginia. He made a wonderful presentation and I decided to see if he wanted any interns for the summer. Ideally I probably should have asked him about an internship after the ACM event was over, but at the time I wasn’t thinking about an internship. A few weeks later I finally got around to thinking about the summer and where I was going to intern. I remember I wrote down Carlos’s email. So, I emailed him and told him how interested I was in his company and computer security. I then asked him if he would consider an intern for his company over the summer.

           Fortunately, he was interesting in acquiring an intern for the summer. So, we setup a time for an interview. He had a small office in a one story office building. It was indeed a small company. His office was covered with trinkets of previous jobs: A letter from Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff; A framed photo of Churchill; A model Air Force One plane. All of which was interesting when I walked in. The interview process was fairly straight forward. He told me about his company and its direction. What he was looking for in an intern and what projects I would be completing. Then he asked me to talk about myself and my qualifications. I told him about the computer security courses I was taking at JMU and how they interested me in the field of computer security. I did my best to speak clearly and sell my skills and experiences. I was dressed professionally and tried to present aura of professionalism. After the interview concluded, he told me I had the job and could start tomorrow.