STG(Security Technology Group)
Cam Chronister
Cyse 368
Fall 2022
Table of contents
Introduction to the company and what to expect… Pg 1
Easing into the worklife and duties… Pg 2
How my expectations played out in reality… PG 3
Exciting and discouraging parts of internship… Pg 4
Challenging aspects of the internship… Pg 5
This internship would be good for some who… Pg 6
Conclusion… Pg 7
Cam Chronister
CYSE 368 internship
Dr. Saltuk
12/04/22
Before being interested in doing an internship with STG(Security technology group) I’ve already heard of them doing the security system at my girlfriend’s apartment, as well as them doing the security for the gym that I work at. As well as seeing their work and knowing who they were, one of my fraternity advisors actually has a partnership with them and had mentioned my name to them about pursuing an internship with them. After finding out about STG I did some research of my own to figure out what kind of company I was getting into and found out that they were named small business of the year in 2021 as they had just started up their company in 2020. To see that amount of growth in a year especially during times like right now with covid and everything else going on, I was very impressed in what I was reading. STG seemed like a great company with great attributes while doing work I was interested in.
The three things I was hoping to get out of this internship was more knowledge in the cyber world as well as understanding more about networks and communications. Most importantly though, I was hoping to gain discipline and a better understanding of what to expect when being put into the real work life situation. When choosing to be a cybersecurity major I envisioned myself doing work for the government or some kind of contracting company. Finding out that STG was based more on commercial and residential security I was kind of weary, but it was an opportunity that presented itself at the right time. I figured that no it’s not what I envisioned myself doing, but I can make the most of it and still learn things that I can take away and use those skills for other opportunities.
My first day there I was given a tour of the facilities and seeing where I would be working, I found out that I would be working more on the network side of things and working with the guys that install the systems. The facility was very nice and well structured. There was a cafeteria in there as well which caught me off guard initially but turned out to be very useful in the future. Mostly the first day was just going over paperwork and learning about the history of the company and meeting the employees that worked in that office. Over time I gradually felt more comfortable with the environment and their workers. Also, I found out there was a lot more to do with the company other than just installing cameras and security systems. There is so much more that goes into it from the initial people who are in contact with the customer and the people who are planning the placements of the devices that will be installed with different angles and all these other cool things that you really wouldn’t think of. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the presentation and hospitality that was given to me on my introduction day.
STG is a very uniformed company and has a great head on their shoulders as far as management and ownership. The ownership part of it was really cool finding out it was a family owned business by a father and his sons. As they are family it could be easy to get off track or be distracting towards one another, from what I was seeing it didn’t seem that way between them and that they were more so on the side of holding each other accountable and not letting work problems affect there at home life, which I thought was very impressive.
Working with a company that had as many attributes as they did in such a short period of time was very intimidating at first, wondering if any of the work I would be doing would help them out or slow them down since they are teaching me so many things. A few of my duties there were your typical internship duties as running errands for the employees, working with the network department on contracts, or going into the field with the operators installing the systems.
As you know, it was more of an easing in the process of my duties, rather than throwing me into the field with no knowledge or experience in that type of work. My first few weeks there were very slow and that’s what I expected it to be quite frankly. The initial task I was given was to shadow the main person in the networking department, his name was “Lucky.” Lucky was an older gentleman who was a U.S Navy veteran who had worked on this kind of work while still active duty. After a while at STG Lucky became one of the most knowledgeable people in the office when it came to setting up networks and communications. Lucky was the one who I shadowed the most with my time at STG.
My first project working with Lucky was setting up a network within a control panel that would be able to make a phone call from a box to the customer. Basically the main focus of a control panel is for the residents of the building to be able to punch in a code and when they punch in that code, it will ring the residents phone and the resident can unlock the door from their phone. My part within that role was setting up the network so the panel would be able to make the phone call to the residents. Most of the time there are no issues with this part because it is one of the simple functions of the panel. However, this time the sim card was not activated or it was a defective card and did not work. After being on the phone with T-Mobile for what it felt like was forever, we deemed that the card they originally sent us was defective or corrupted and was unusable. All of this was solved within the next few days as T-mobile sent us a new and working sd card and all I had to do was install it and tap a few wires to make sure everything was working properly before going out into the field to install it.
As much fun as it is to work on those in the office, I found out that I had more fun working on the actual job sites installing these panels and troubleshooting whatever I needed to do to fix the problem. There were times where a DVR had run out of storage or the equipment wasn’t running properly to where I would be sent out in the field to go and replace those faulty pieces of equipment or figure out a solution to where I could fix it on the spot. My field experience wasn’t much as I was only sent out to job sites maybe 3-4 times throughout my whole time there. But, the time that I did spend in the field was fun and very informative from the technicians that I was working with.
There wasnt alot of knowledge that I could bring to this kind of work, hence one of the main reasons I was doing this internship was to learn more about the industry and this kind of work. As I didn’t have enough knowledge about cybersecurity in this kind of industry, the one thing I could bring to the table was my problem solving skills and an open mind to learn as much as possible while I was there. As much as I didnt know, there was a lot to be learned and that’s when I started learning about IP addresses more and how they worked. As simple as that sounds, there is a lot of information that goes into them and one of the most important parts when setting up a network and configuring it to specs. Another thing that I had to learn was time management.. All the way from waking up to getting there on time and getting my tasks done in a timely manner where I could move onto other things and free up some time.
The way the ODU curriculum prepared me for this experience was slim to none honestly. There would be a few things that I would already understand because of some assignments I did in school, but most of the experience was learning from the employees that already worked there. The few things that I could connect to school would be the use of binary code, understanding more about IP addresses and how they worked, and a few things here and there about networks such as IPV4 and internet access. There were a bunch of things that this internship taught me that I truly believe I wouldn’t have learned in school. The thing about school is that it can educate you on knowledge and information, but it can’t teach you how to be an adult with a 9-5 job and doing your part to survive. This internship taught me more life skills than I could have imagined.
For the most part about the objectives I talked about in my introduction, they were fulfilled to an extent. The first objective I want to cover is gaining more knowledge in the cyber world. As much as this had to do with technology, it really didn’t teach me a lot about the things I thought I was going to learn and what I was interested in. Sure, there were things here and there that could help in some instances. But, I wanted to get down to the nitty gritty of things with setting up secure connections and how to detect vulnerabilities to a network from someone trying to gain unauthorized access. Like I said though, it wasn’t a complete waste of time, it just wasn’t the things that I thought that I would be learning.
My understanding about networks and communications increased a tremendous amount from the time I got there till the time when I left. Like I had mentioned earlier working with Lucky, he had taught me a lot of things that I had no idea of what that was in the very beginning to learning it pretty thoroughly at the end. The only things I wish I would’ve learned that I didn’t learn would be making secure connections and finding out how to detect vulnerabilities within a system/network.
Lastly, out of the objectives, I can certainly say that they fulfilled the hopeness of me understanding the job life after I graduate and how to navigate with life skills. From waking up at 7am everyday to being down at the oceanfront at 8 am and doing my tasks and understanding my work all the way to getting off and sitting in that downtown rush hour traffic. It definitely opened my eyes more of if I want to work a 9-5 when I graduate or want to be my own boss and start my own pathway. If it weren’t for this internship, I’d probably be in the dark about this kind of stuff you don’t necessarily think about when doing this kind of work.
The most exciting things I liked about this internship were the customer appreciation party that they threw for their high value customers. It was definitely a good time and it showed that when you take care of your customers that they are more likely to spread a good word about you and come back for more business. It was very interesting seeing the work that was put into it. All from finding sponsors for the vent, to selling tickets and contacting those customers. For everything you see about this company, just know there is more than meets the eye. Motivating factors of the job were everyone wanting to see someone else succeed. Most places when it has to do with sales or some kind of competition there is a little mudslinging involved. But, here when someone hit a goal or succeeded in an exciting way it would be a celebration in the office and a bunch of high praise. For me seeing that shows great teamwork and the kind of bond that those employees have there. Even as the owner would drive some people to work each morning if they needed a ride because their car wasn’t working or something. It showed me that there is more to this job than just selling and installing security systems. Most importantly it showed me that they were treated as a family instead of just a regular employee.
As far as discouraging things go there was actually quite more than I was expecting. There were lots of times where I would sit there and just do homework the whole time and didn’t do anything to help them out. There was a part of me that felt bad for just sitting there, but the only times when I was supposed to do something or help someone would be when they told me. It started in the beginning and stopped for a little while and then started to pick up near the middle to end of the internship. It was very hard to lack motivation to want to wake up early and drive 30 minutes down to the office at the oceanfront knowing that I would just sit there for a few hours and drive back another 30 minutes and sit in traffic. But, as unmotivating that was, it did give me a lot of free time to catch up on homework when I wouldnt have time for other parts of the day because of classes or work.
Normally, you would expect the exact opposite reaction to if your job told you to just sit there and relax till you had something to do. Most people would be okay with that and be glad about it! Me on the other hand was bummed about it and felt as if it was almost a waste of time. My whole point of being there was to learn more about cyber things and what I wanted to know. It was very frustrating having to drive down there every morning knowing I wasn’t going to do anything to better myself more than I already have.
Like I had mentioned before, the most challenging part for me was waking up that early knowing I had to drive there just to sit there for a few hours and make my way back home. This semester easily had to be one of the busiest semesters I have had. Between work,school, running a fraternity, and doing my internship there was very little time that I could dedicate to myself. So knowing that there was precious time I was giving up to go there and do nothing was very hard on me.
There were times too that the tasks they gave me were out of my knowledge realm and it felt like I was expected to know things that I had no idea about. As much praise I was giving Lucky earlier, there were times where he would give me a task and I had no idea of what he wanted me to do with it because I didn’t understand it.
Also, the time management part was challenging to me as well. Yes, I know the point of this was to teach me about time management, but there were times where I felt very overwhelmed with what I had going on in my personal life and the deadlines I had to meet with assignments for my classes as well as dealing with fraternity things. There’s times where I would sit there and think to myself if maybe I overloaded my plate and my schedule. For a fact, I knew that I underestimated this semester with how much I was taking on at one time. But, now that we’re coming to an end, I’m glad I did it now rather than waiting at a later point in college. That meaning if I do the hard stuff now that it would only help me in the future and lighten my schedule up in future semesters.
Lastly, the most challenging thing I would say would be not learning as much as I intended or learning about the stuff I was interested in. It was very hard for me to want to do work on something I had no interest in working with security systems. But, I was grateful for the opportunity that they were giving me and also knowing that I would gain credits for this internship. There’s a saying out there about time passes by when you’re doing something you love. I loved knowing about counter terrorism and threats to national security. I wasn’t too excited about doing security systems. Sure, it is cool for a little bit or to the right person. But, my dream was not to install security systems. Understanding that if this internship had a little more to do with national security and certificates, I am positive I would be more invested in the kind of work I was doing with them.
For anyone interested in doing security systems or any home security with basic networking skills, this internship would be perfect for them. It is very important to know that you should be prepared for getting thrown into the deep end of life and learning how to operate as an adult that has a 9 to 5 job.
If I had any skills that I would have already known before coming here that would have helped me the most would be learning as much as you can about networks and how they operate thoroughly. Yes, they will teach you these skills there but its very important to do your own work and be extra prepared so you can get past the basics and learn more and excel further than just the basics.
If there was one major thing I would take away from this internship it would be to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves with no hesitation. If it weren’t for my time here at ODU and the people that I know, I probably would have no idea what the world STG was. I really want to give thanks to my advisor in Pike, “Patrick Collins.” Patrick not only has been a great role model, but he’s been there to help in any way he can when someone needs help. Nowadays it is very hard to come across those down to earth people who truly care about helping others without something benefiting them.
Not only has Patrick helped me out with school and this internship. But he has helped me out in life by giving me good life talks and giving me the opportunity to work for his security team for the Spirit of Norfolk and helping out on a congressional team for Terry Numkang. Terry actually went on to win our district where ODU is and we are looking forward to seeing what he will do for our district!
This all goes back to the people that you know and the opportunities that present themselves when they do. As much as fraternities are frowned upon here at ODU, if I never would have rushed my freshman year, I would have never met the people I know today. Never did I think joining a fraternity would impact my life so much and more importantly never thought that I would be helping out with a congressional candidates campaign. I know this has gotten a little out of sorts, but moral of the story is to be grateful for what you have and not to take it for granted when things get hard or dont go the direction you thought they were going to go
A major thing I would take away from this experience would be knowing that I do not like the 9-5 life and would much rather open my own firm or start my own business to where I am not needed around the office as much and have people work for me instead of me working for them.
Needless to say, as my time here comes to an end… It was a pleasure working with STG and understanding how a true business operates. I will forever be grateful for the experience they gave me and this will definitely be something that I will look back on in the future!