I left gaming for cybersecurity—here's how it changed my life

Stand in one spot, slice meat, and hand it to strangers. That was my life at a buffet-style restaurant as a young adult. I carved ham and turkey while day-dreaming about the next game I was going to purchase when I got my paycheck.

Fast forward to today: I’m a penetration tester, hacking systems instead of hacking my way through video game leaderboards. 

That shift didn’t happen overnight. 

How security became my new game

After my restaurant stint, I moved into industrial labor jobs—sandblasting, asbestos removal, painting oil refineries. If there was a job that made you question your life choices while wearing a hazmat suit, I probably did it.

It paid the bills and funded my hobbies, but every winter, I faced the same problem: layoffs.

College didn’t feel right for me at the time, so I took a different route: the U.S. Air Force. They trained me from the ground up, paid for my certifications, and gave me real-world experience before I ever stepped into the private sector.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the parallels to gaming. The problem-solving, the challenges, the thrill of quickly figuring out how things work—it felt familiar.

The only difference was that I could see a way to make an impact and get financial stability.
And that gave me the motivation to level up in the real world; it helped me obtain certs, knowledge, and experience that catapulted my career into a six-figure salary. 

Bringing the gamer mindset to security

Gaming already primed me for problem-solving, persistence, and (let’s be honest) an unhealthy tolerance for sitting at a screen for hours.

What happened when I applied the same traits to security, especially hacking?

My career started to feel “gamified”—but with real-world consequences, risks, and rewards.

• Instead of grinding for loot, I was grinding for certifications.

• Instead of 100% completion on games, I was competing to ace Hack The Box Seasons challenges, which made learning more fun and competitive.

• Instead of outplaying opponents in Call of Duty, I was thinking of outsmarting security systems and threat actors.

• Instead of figuring out how to get the best loot in Fallout, or get the maximum damage out of my Mortal Kombat kombos, I was learning how to ethically exploit vulnerabilities to secure real-world systems.

It turns out a refusal to give up easily coupled with the ability to problem-solve, analyze patterns, and think outside the box—core gaming skills—make you a better hacker. Many gamers already have the perfect mindset for security—they just don’t realize it yet.

So…do you have to quit gaming?

This doesn’t mean everyone should quit gaming entirely. But losing a little gaming time is a requirement for success in this field. 

Don’t worry, you can still play games in moderation to relax after long study sessions or to celebrate your wins. But, if you’re spending five hours a night in ranked matches while telling yourself you don’t have time to study for Security+, maybe it's time to free up some hours for your career.

So if you’re a gamer with an itch to solve puzzles, break things, and build a career that doesn’t involve standing in one place slicing turkey for strangers, maybe it’s time to pick up a different kind of controller.

Because let’s be real—if you’re passionate enough, cybersecurity can be the ultimate open-world game.

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