My Summer Internship | Meet Cody Miller: How I Went from Intern to Information Security Analyst

My name is Cody Miller, and I was an Information Security Intern last summer at Prove. I currently reside in Denver, Colorado, but I am originally from Florida. In 2021, I completed my 430 credit hour Information Security Analyst program with Flatiron School here in Denver. After 3 months of searching for the perfect role, I landed an awesome opportunity as an intern here at Prove. In my downtime, I enjoy writing, reading, watching horror movies, hiking, and camping. I’m also an avid Dungeons and Dragons player and recently received licensing to publish an adventure that I wrote myself.

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My Internship Experience

I joined Prove last summer as our “Information Security Intern” on the InfoSec team. My day-to-day initially consisted of a lot of learning — familiarizing myself with the plethora of programs and vendors that Prove utilizes, creating and requesting account access for various tools, and introducing myself to the people I would be working with often. Prior to working in tech, I had been a cook for roughly 7 years, so almost everything about my new role was completely new to me; including the workplace culture and routines. 

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In the beginning, I did a lot of reading to familiarize myself with Prove’s security standards and tried my hardest to find places where the things I had learned could benefit Prove. I worked heavily with the Compliance department to perform reviews on potential and existing third-party vendors to assess their risk postures and be certain that Prove and its client’s data was safe and being handled according to industry standards. This included setting up meetings with representatives for clarification, working together to find a suitable middle-ground, and working with other departments to understand their concerns or help advise them on how to proceed with new integrations or partners. 

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Jason Christensen, one of the team leads on the InfoSec team, has definitely been a great mentor to me. We still meet every other week to check in, talk shop, work and life direction, and other topics like that. The entire team has been supportive from day one, and no one has ever made me feel dumb when I ask questions. Coming from the culinary world, camaraderie with my coworkers has always been important to me, and it was a relief to see that I wasn’t going to be lacking that solidarity here at Prove. 

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Discovering My Power at Prove

My main projects were performing security reviews and risk assessments of third-party contractors, vendors, and programs being requested for use by different departments within the company. I reviewed a variety of security documentation regarding policies and procedures, network configuration and architecture, certificates showing assured compliance with certain national or global security standards, etc etc. I also worked alongside the compliance team to ensure that companies and vendors that we currently partnered with are reviewed annually. This way we can ensure that they are continuing to follow the standards we require of them in order to maintain our business partnerships or use of their product. I also assisted with a few of the monthly Employee Access Reviews, making sure that former employees no longer had access to Prove infrastructure, and that their profiles within our systems were removed.

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All of these responsibilities allowed me to push my professional limits. I discovered that I am a lot more capable than I thought I was. Imposter syndrome is real! The team and culture here really fostered my growth and helped me assert myself. They made me truly believe that I was hired to do this job because someone saw something in me and that I should believe in myself and try to see that “something” in me, too. 

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Prove Culture + Me

I felt like I fit in just fine at Prove. Working from home definitely added an aspect of isolation, but the People Team at Prove really helped ease that feeling. The team I work with closely are great people, and before my first week was over we were exchanging numbers and talking about making plans outside of work. It was a really welcoming experience, to say the least.

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The culture here from the beginning was absolutely welcoming and supportive! I was even asked to help with a French fry zoom call event in the first or second week. I was offered a ton of avenues for support, and plenty of resources to help with all the aspects of work-life balance. It was a smooth experience, and Prove handled it as well as I can imagine a company can in an unprecedented situation like the pandemic. Communication was open about how Prove was going to be handling gatherings and office attendance, and safety always seemed to be at the forefront of operations. 

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What’s Next after Prove?

What’s after my internship? Well, I was recently offered a full-time position here at Prove as an Information Security Analyst. So I think my plans after my internship are to keep on doing the best I can to be continuously growing and learning; both as a professional and as a member of the Prove team. Can’t wait to see what’s next on my journey at Prove will bring!

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