Alum Ali Kaba Secures Position at Tesla
The SHU alum who almost wasn’t
Sacred Heart University alum Ali Kaba ’11, MS ’14, MS ’16, is the new senior security engineer for vulnerability management at Tesla.
Previous to beginning at Tesla in September, he spent a year-and-a-half as the infrastructure security lead at Ally, a financial services company headquartered in Detroit, MI. Before that, he moved up from technical support professional to global security vulnerability management consultant at multinational technology corporation IBM in six years.
The opportunity at Tesla was unexpected. “I loved working at Ally,” says Kaba. “It is a great company, but I was looking for more of a challenge.” When Tesla came calling, Kaba was ready to answer.
Tesla reached out to Kaba through LinkedIn. (“Make your LinkedIn profile and online image pop,” he advises.) While there are some challenges with the new position, Kaba says he has learned some new skills. “It’s a completely different industry” he said.
“The goal of vulnerability management is to manage security issues discovered on assets,” Kaba relates. “We need to be able to see all of our assets, worldwide. We need to know that every device within the company that connects to the internet is secured.”
Kaba ran his own disc jockey entertainment company, bringing campus events to life as a popular DJ. “During my time at SHU, I learned how to start and run my own business as an LLC,” he said. “Sacred Heart was my first client, and I grew my business from there.”
Kaba majored in communication technology and earned master’s degrees in computer science & information technology and cybersecurity. “My professors guided me personally and professionally. I appreciate their support to this day.”
Kaba’s Sacred Heart experience also held some life lessons, such as the value of prioritizing. He learned that lesson when he worked as a contractor for IBM while attending classes. “I tanked my first year,” he says. “My priorities were completely shifted; it was work, then school. If I received a tech call, I would just walk right out of class. I did wind up getting kicked out.” He was able to plead his case and allowed back, on probation.
“Looking back, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me,” says Kaba, although he does not recommend others follow his lead. “It forced me to reprioritize what was really important.” Kaba also became financially responsible for his own education. “Trust me, when you are the one paying the bills, you make sure that you get everything you can out of your education. I recommend every student do it for at least a semester. It changes your perspective.”
Pictured: (Top) Ali Kaba Today (Bottom) Kaba DJs at a SHU event in 2011.