01.13.10

You Do What?

Posted in Things that make me happy at 3:20 pm by PsychicDonut

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to help people and safe the world. When I was in 2nd grade I decided I wanted to be an angel, or like Jesus. I had only two concepts in my head, the concept of right, or wrong. I wanted to do the right thing. Hence, when I got older I wanted to be a cop, a judge, a detective, a doctor, a nurse and a therapist. I never wanted to be something glamorous.

This desire and theme kept repeating itself throughout my life. I think I was about 15 or 16 when I started standing up for the kids/people who got bullied and by the time I was 17 I had a 2-year apprenticeship contract with the Municipal Court as a court administrator/paralegal.

I never was able to witness pain or injustice without opening my mouth. I simply HAD to interfere, even though I was scared to death at times. Being “me” meant standing on the other side of the fence, often against the “rest of the world.” While everyone excused their bad behaviors and kept doing them, I sat by myself writing poetry and reading books on unexplained phenomena. It was really lonely over there. I didn’t fit in with any cliques or groups. I tried them all, but at the end of the day, I hated how people behaved in herds. On their own they were often decent, but put them in a group and they turned on you in a heartbeat. Of course, for the same reason I didn’t like followers either, and when everyone felt it was our duty to do drugs and drink like fish when we were in our teens and twenties, I didn’t. I was the designated driver and quickly got bored watching people make fools out of themselves and turning into sleaze balls.

I have been this way for pretty much most of my life. I used to think it sucks and I hated that I wasn’t “like them.” I searched high and low for something or some people I could connect with and thankfully, as the years went by I found a few who fit the bill. Thankfully, I was also able to continue this in my professional life.

I do fraud prevention for a living. I manage credit card fraud and for me, this is the most rewarding career I could have chosen. I get to actively contribute in shutting down the jerks who steal identities, take over accounts of unsuspecting victims and make a living by scamming the innocent. I love my job and I love the people who are in my field.

There is something that literally happens each and every time I go to a vendor meeting, conference, or talk to others within the industry, which is this immediate “bond” that gets formed based on what we do. Every single person in this business works hard (sometimes underpaid and underappreciated) to make a difference. We are sometimes not on the top priority list for our companies, because we don’t generate revenue like a sales team does. We are the ones who act as your secret service, protecting your brand, the company’s integrity and innocent users from losing their identities, and we do it behind the scenes.

I don’t go to a “stupid job” every day for the sake of benefits and a paycheck. I do what I do, because I am excited about helping and making a difference AND getting paid for it. I have met so many incredibly smart, dedicated and awesome people within this field that I could not think of any better or other place to be, besides actually studying cyber forensics at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, lead by an incredibly awesome man named Gary Warner.

Forgive me for bringing this up again, but there are so many people in sales, project management and marketing who make a boat load of money, while a lot of those guys who work their butts off to protect the innocent are underpaid and underappreciated. This is why I like being around companies who specialize in nothing but fraud, be it with a product they created, or by consulting and connecting. There are a few companies who have caught on and truly realize how important it is to have a great risk management/fraud prevention team. These are usually also the same companies who truly understand the importance of great leadership and having integrity.

I am happy and privileged to be a part of this industry, that makes all our lives a little safer and easier. I am glad that I get to lead, showing others the importance of doing the right thing, even if it is easier to do the opposite at times. I think I am one of the few who can honestly say “I LOVE my career.”

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