From Student to Aspiring Tech Professional: Paola Mendiola on Building a Career in Cybersecurity | Ep036

Episode Information Show Notes In this episode of Career Downloads, host Manuel Martinez interviews Paola Mendiola, a promising digital forensics student at CSN who shares her journey into technology and cybersecurity. Episode SummaryPaola takes us through her tech journey, beginning with the transformative moment when her father brought home their first computer. This experience allowed her to connect with family in Mexico through video calls – a pivotal event that sparked her passion for technology. As a first-generation tech enthusiast, Paola discusses navigating educational opportunities, from her high school IT and cybersecurity program to her current studies at CSN. Throughout the conversation, Paola candidly shares her experiences with high school robotics competitions, her valuable training at Tech Impact, and how she’s building her professional network as a newcomer to the industry. She provides thoughtful insights about overcoming shyness, establishing a professional presence on LinkedIn, and the crucial importance of finding mentors who can guide your career path. What makes this episode particularly valuable is Paola’s fresh perspective as someone actively entering the field. Her story of recently speaking to young women in tech and her aspirations to become a cybersecurity educator highlight her commitment to helping others following in her footsteps. Key Moments in This Episode02:38 – How Paola’s tech journey began when her dad brought home a computer11:55 – Paola’s experience in high school robotics competitions16:24 – Getting hands-on IT experience through Tech Impact29:20 – Transitioning from shy student to LinkedIn networker44:30 – Speaking to young women about tech and coming full circle52:54 – Paola’s aspiration to become a cybersecurity teacher01:02:40 – Advice for people looking for opportunities in tech Connect with PaolaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolamend/ Resources MentionedTech Impact: Non-profit organization providing IT trainingSIM Las Vegas: Society for Information ManagementNCWIT: National Center for Women in Information Technology New episodes of Career Downloads are released every Tuesday. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform to catch all our career conversations with professionals across the tech industry! Join our community on the social platforms:Website: https://careerdownloads.comLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloadsYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloadsX/Twitter https://twitter.com/@careerdownloadsTikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloadsInstagram https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloadsFaceBook https://www.facebook.com/people/CareerDownloads/61561144531249 #CareerDownloads #Cybersecurity #TechCareers #WomenInTech #DigitalForensics Released: May 20, 2025 Transcription Manuel: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads. Where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to really learn more about their experiences and how they’re managing their career over time. With the ultimate goal to be able to uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. So I’m excited for today’s episode. I have with me, Paola Mendiola. And I’m bringing her on because this is gonna be a slightly different conversation. So most of the times I bring on different guests who are already in the industry, have been in for a while and are explaining the different things that they’ve used throughout their career. So the reason that this one’s exciting for me is I have seen a lot of the posts, a lot of the activities that Paola has been doing, you know, on LinkedIn. I reached out to her, we had a couple conversations and I thought it would be beneficial. She’s somebody that’s new and kind of entering into the field. So I think it’d be perfect time to kind of get the perspective from somebody new who’s starting in. You know, some of her background, what led her into technology. And then also eventually, you know, what are some of the activities that she’s doing and why she chose those and you know, how she feels they have either helped or hindered her along her career journey. So with that, I’ll go ahead and introduce Paola. Paola: All right, hi everyone. My name is Paola Mendiola and I’m very excited to be here. So a little bit of a background before we go into anything. I’m currently a student at CSN. So I’m doing my associate’s degree in digital forensics. So cybersecurity. So I’m really excited to be here and nervous obviously, but I’m excited. Manuel: And I appreciate you just kind of telling people what you’re doing now. So if you don’t mind, just so that we can get an idea of kind of where you started. So if you don’t, if you want to tell me, you know, where you grew up and what eventually transpired that made you get interested in technology and it sounds like it might’ve been since you’re a student, there might’ve been something that kind of led you down that path. So, you know, I’m just kind of interested in hearing a little bit more about, you know, that journey. Paola: Okay, all right. So something, sorry. I’m really excited. That’s what, but I was born and raised here in Vegas. So I was little, grew up here, went to elementary, middle, high school, going to college here. So yeah, that’s a little bit about where I’m from. But to be honest, my tech journey started, I was talking to you about this, like on our Google Meets, but my journey started really when my dad brought home a computer. So back then we didn’t really have like a lot of resources. So the moment when my dad brought home like this really cool computer, I don’t remember what it was. It was like in the, I don’t know, like 2010, 2011. It wasn’t the best computer out there, but he brought home this computer. And well, since then, I kind of fell in love with computers. You know, I was kind of curious about how they worked. Like, you know, he just plugged in stuff on a little like TV monitor thing. You know, suddenly he was able to manage the web. He was able to go on YouTube, watch like cool music videos, that sort of stuff. It was really, really impactful. Along with that, I was able to, well at that time, well, my family, most of them are in Mexico and a lot of them, well, they’re there and they can’t really travel over here because it’s kind of costly and stuff. So what my dad did is he set up like this little Zoom call. No, it wasn’t Zoom. It was like Skype at that time. It was like, oh, long time ago. Like this was before like WhatsApp, like FaceTime, all that sort of stuff. So he set up like this call. And so I was able to see my grandparents for the first time ever. Like, you know, I was usually, well, I was really young, so they couldn’t really send me to Mexico to meet my family. So seeing my abuelita, seeing my aunts, seeing everyone there, like in the video call, kind of really, that’s a moment that like sticks out to me till this day. Like this was like years ago, but being able to see their faces, you know, connect their faces to the voices that I used to hear via like just a regular phone call, really, I don’t know. It was such a like moment that, I don’t know, made me want to pursue tech. I wanted to learn about how I could, you know, make something that helps other people in a similar way. So yeah, that’s kind of a little bit about my background. Yeah, it’s a very, it was a really impactful moment. And I still think about it for this day. Manuel: And it makes sense. So I remember as a kid, you know, my first introduction to like computers was like in the classroom, but it was very basic. You were doing assignments, occasionally you got to play a game and that was it. But when my dad and his office, like they had gotten a computer and it was old. I remember we had a monitor and it was green. You know, we had to play, we got to play a couple games, but then eventually they, you know, they replaced that and we got to bring that home. And it was just like playing it and like playing around with it and, you know, at the time we didn’t have like, you know, Skype and those kinds of things, but, you know, me and my siblings just playing around and hey, this isn’t working or, you know, hey, something got disconnected. Now the keyboard is not working and like troubleshooting and trying to figure that out was just, it was something that I didn’t realize it at the time, but to your point, right, it stuck with me all those years. So then now you get this computer, you’re obviously, you know, experiencing, you know, not only technology, but what it can do, right? It’s not just like, hey, this does a thing for me. I can print out my, you know, my assignments and do things like that. So then after you get that computer, did you also start kind of using them in school? Did you use it for assignments? Was it really just to kind of play games? Like what was your continuation after that moment? Paola: To be honest, it was, like our like home computer, like during elementary school, early elementary school, from what I remember, it was just for me to play games. Like to be completely frank, my dad and I would go to the library and we’d pick out like a CD game or like, I don’t know, we’d pick out like a, I don’t know, they don’t even use them a...