ESU Backup Insider

Brandon Bachman took a high school class that eventually led him to a six figure starting salary immediately after he steps off the graduation stage at East Stroudsburg University this December.

As he looks to his future with AsTech Consulting, an application security firm based in San Francisco that works with Fortune 1000 companies, Bachman laughs about what prompted him to get involved with computer security in the first place.

“Creating silly little games sparked my interest,” he said. “Programming soon became a second language to me.”

It’s not every day that students leave a class having created a game. Mr. Luciano, who taught the AP Java class at Pocono Mountain East, urged his students to major in computer science. He spoke of job opportunities that would keep their pockets full. Bachman clung to the teacher’s every word and eventually decided that computer science might be the right move for him.

He applied to ESU his senior year of high school and was accepted into the computer science and computer security dual major program on the spot during an immediate decision day.

Bachman struggled to support himself financially through his four years at the university. He worked seven days a week to fund his education — all while taking on a full course load.

“With limited free time, I faced many challenges with succeeding in school,” he said. “I don’t want to go back to living that way.”

And this summer Bachman took his first step to put that life behind him. He contacted AsTech looking for an internship opportunity. Impressed with his interview, the company offered him an internship and kept him on part-time through the fall semester, eventually offering him a full-time job upon completion of his undergraduate degree.

Bachman spent most of his days assisting clients in securing their software. The best way to learn how to fix something is to know how to break it. That’s Bachman’s mindset as he spends hours of his day in front of the computer seeking either improve the security of his clients software or develop scripts that would ultimately simplify his or the client’s life.

“Computer programmers are some of the laziest people in the world,” he said. “We work in a profession where we develop shortcuts and programs to make life easier.”

Bachman added that there are few things that a computer cannot be programmed to do for its user.

“Every time I create code, all I am doing is communicating to the computer — telling it what I want it to do,” he said.

As he goes further into his field, Bachman always finds himself going back to his high school classroom. He treats every challenge as a game because “nobody can just stare at code all day without having some fun with it.”

But Bachman faces challenges every day in a field in which he is just starting out.

“The best part of the field is that it forces you to think outside of the box,” he said. “It pushes me to critically think of how to fix the problem in front of me.”

As Bachman goes on to further his career in computer science he admits he has a second passion: astrophysics.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said. “I go home and all I do is watch videos on astrophysics.”

Bachman’s ultimate goal is to spend the first years of his career diving into computer science and then chase his second passion once he feels financially comfortable. He plans to head back to school and dreams to earn his master’s in astrophysics.

Why? Because he’s a pushover for things he cannot understand.

“I can’t wrap my mind around how astrophysics works,” he said. “The things I cannot understand are the things I want to know.”

Whatever he winds up doing, Bachman will definitely be shooting for the stars after his graduation on December 12.