Today’s VetSec Impact Story comes directly from our member who shared this in our community. No Q+A format, just a great little success story.
I have a win to share: after a year and a half of job hunting, I finally found a stable job again! I succeeded at getting hired at John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab as a tech support intern. Not quite cyber as I originally aimed for, but considering the dismal state of the IT industry’s job market, I’m grateful I found a way to keep myself sheltered and fed. I start in June, after school lets out! And if everything goes well, once I graduate in December later this year, I’ll be able to continue here with full-time hours!
Just wanted to come back to express my thanks here. Back in December 2025 I was in an awful mental state, I don’t have words to accurately convey how depressed and worthless I felt. It was like I was a husk of a man, no spirit no feeling, just breathing and surviving day to day.
I spent the next several months working on my mental health, as many of you guys recommended, before even looking at another job application. Made good use of the mental health resources list someone shared on here, plus I scraped together just enough money to see a psychiatrist once a month. Talked my little heart out about what was eating me up on the inside during each session. Spilled a lot of ink onto paper to vent out my worries and other negative thoughts out of my head.
I started healing up well once springtime rolled around and babystepped my way back into job hunting. But this time, I doubled down on networking in-person and volunteering at conferences. One of the most random connections I had — quite literally a friend of a friend of my mother’s — is who helped me out. I had no idea she worked at APL as a admin clerk of some type, but she took my resume and put it into the hiring manager’s hands, while also vouching for me. God bless that woman, I don’t know how to repay her yet.
Anyways, I shared all that story to emphasize this point: thank you to everyone, especially those in the #mental-health and #jobs-discussion channels! You guys won’t ever know how much you helped me rise out the mental death spiral I was in, but please know I am super grateful I spoke up here, asked for help, and got it.
I’m going to do my best to pay it forward here. The only way we’ll survive these ridiculous tough economic times is if we help each other out.