Skill Acquisition History

Competency Acquisition History

A timeline of deliberate competency development. Each entry shows what was learned, how it was validated, and what it unlocked.

2026-04-08 Baseline: BoK Restructure

Migration Summary

On 2026-04-08, the competency system was restructured from a legacy 13-domain flat model to a 20-domain Body of Knowledge (BoK) model. This is the authoritative baseline for all future growth tracking.

Metric	Value
Legacy Domains	13 flat domains with artificially high self-reported coverage
New Domains	20 domains aligned to industry frameworks and job market realities
New Subdomains	118 structured subdomains
BoK Topics Established	~1,323 topics across all subdomains
Personal Skills Migrated	~148 skills from 13 legacy flat files
True Coverage at Baseline	~11% (vs. ~70% reported under legacy model)
Baseline Date	2026-04-08

Metric

Value

Legacy Domains

13 flat domains with artificially high self-reported coverage

New Domains

20 domains aligned to industry frameworks and job market realities

New Subdomains

118 structured subdomains

BoK Topics Established

~1,323 topics across all subdomains

Personal Skills Migrated

~148 skills from 13 legacy flat files

True Coverage at Baseline

~11% (vs. ~70% reported under legacy model)

Baseline Date

2026-04-08

The legacy model reported high coverage because microskills were self-selected — only areas of known competence were documented. The BoK model defines the complete universe of topics per domain first, then maps personal coverage against it. The ~11% baseline is honest; the ~70% legacy figure was a selection bias artifact.

Phase Summary

Phase	What	Result
Phase 1	Domain architecture design	20 domains defined, 118 subdomains scoped, 7 nav categories established
Phase 2	Body of Knowledge population	~1,323 BoK topics authored across all subdomains (4-column tables: Topic, Description, Relevance, Career Tracks)
Phase 3	Personal Status migration	148 personal skills migrated from 13 legacy flat files into BoK-aligned status entries
Phase 4	Analysis dashboards rebuilt	overview.adoc, gaps.adoc, history.adoc updated to reflect new structure; domain _index.adoc files populated

Phase

What

Result

Phase 1

Domain architecture design

20 domains defined, 118 subdomains scoped, 7 nav categories established

Phase 2

Body of Knowledge population

~1,323 BoK topics authored across all subdomains (4-column tables: Topic, Description, Relevance, Career Tracks)

Phase 3

Personal Status migration

148 personal skills migrated from 13 legacy flat files into BoK-aligned status entries

Phase 4

Analysis dashboards rebuilt

overview.adoc, gaps.adoc, history.adoc updated to reflect new structure; domain _index.adoc files populated

Growth Targets

Period	Target Coverage	Delta	Key Milestones
Baseline (2026-04-08)	11%	—	BoK model established; 148 personal skills mapped
Q2 2026	15%	+4%	CISSP certification; AI/ML Foundations project; LLM integration work
Q3 2026	20%	+5%	PostgreSQL production deployment; AWS SAA; Distributed Systems study
Q4 2026	25%	+5%	Terraform + cloud lab; Ansible for fleet; Prometheus/Grafana stack
Q1 2027	30%	+5%	Software Architecture depth; Go programming; Observability full stack

Period

Target Coverage

Delta

Key Milestones

Baseline (2026-04-08)

11%

—

BoK model established; 148 personal skills mapped

Q2 2026

15%

+4%

CISSP certification; AI/ML Foundations project; LLM integration work

Q3 2026

20%

+5%

PostgreSQL production deployment; AWS SAA; Distributed Systems study

Q4 2026

25%

+5%

Terraform + cloud lab; Ansible for fleet; Prometheus/Grafana stack

Q1 2027

30%

+5%

Software Architecture depth; Go programming; Observability full stack

2024 — Foundations: Cisco Certifications and Enterprise Security

Quarter	Skills Acquired	Validation	Unlocked
Q1-Q2	CCNA (200-301) — switching, routing, wireless, IP services, security fundamentals, automation concepts	Cisco CCNA certification (passed)	Foundation for enterprise networking; qualified for network engineer roles
Q2-Q3	CCNP Enterprise — ENCOR (advanced routing, wireless, SD-Access, automation) + ENARSI (BGP, OSPF, redistribution, path control)	Cisco CCNP Enterprise certification (passed)	Advanced routing and switching depth; BGP/OSPF fundamentals
Q3-Q4	CCNP Security — SCOR (network security, cloud security, content security, endpoint) + SISE (ISE deployment, 802.1X, profiling, posture, guest)	Cisco CCNP Security certification (passed)	ISE administration expertise; 802.1X deployment capability
Q3-Q4	Security+ (SY0-601) — threats, vulnerabilities, architecture, implementation, operations, incident response, governance	CompTIA Security+ certification (passed)	Vendor-neutral security foundation; DoD 8570 baseline
Ongoing	Cisco ISE production deployment at CHLA — policy sets, authorization profiles, 802.1X, iPSK, device administration	Production environment management	Real-world ISE troubleshooting; incident response experience

Quarter

Skills Acquired

Validation

Unlocked

Q1-Q2

CCNA (200-301) — switching, routing, wireless, IP services, security fundamentals, automation concepts

Cisco CCNA certification (passed)

Foundation for enterprise networking; qualified for network engineer roles

Q2-Q3

CCNP Enterprise — ENCOR (advanced routing, wireless, SD-Access, automation) + ENARSI (BGP, OSPF, redistribution, path control)

Cisco CCNP Enterprise certification (passed)

Advanced routing and switching depth; BGP/OSPF fundamentals

Q3-Q4

CCNP Security — SCOR (network security, cloud security, content security, endpoint) + SISE (ISE deployment, 802.1X, profiling, posture, guest)

Cisco CCNP Security certification (passed)

ISE administration expertise; 802.1X deployment capability

Q3-Q4

Security+ (SY0-601) — threats, vulnerabilities, architecture, implementation, operations, incident response, governance

CompTIA Security+ certification (passed)

Vendor-neutral security foundation; DoD 8570 baseline

Ongoing

Cisco ISE production deployment at CHLA — policy sets, authorization profiles, 802.1X, iPSK, device administration

Production environment management

Real-world ISE troubleshooting; incident response experience

2025 — Infrastructure: Documentation, Vault, and Home Lab

Quarter	Skills Acquired	Validation	Unlocked
Q1	AsciiDoc fundamentals — document structure, attributes, includes, tables, admonitions; began domus-captures documentation system	First 500 AsciiDoc files authored	Documentation-as-code methodology; structured knowledge capture
Q1-Q2	Antora multi-repo architecture — playbook configuration, component descriptor, spoke repos, Cloudflare Pages deployment	domus-docs hub with 3+ spoke repos deployed to docs.domusdigitalis.dev	Multi-repository documentation aggregation; CI/CD for documentation
Q2	HashiCorp Vault — PKI engine (root + intermediate CA), SSH-CA, KV v2, transit engine, policies, AppRole authentication	Vault deployment issuing certificates for 802.1X	Certificate lifecycle management; dynamic secrets; SSH key signing
Q2-Q3	Home lab infrastructure — KVM/libvirt hypervisor, VyOS routing/firewall, BIND DNS HA, NFS storage, Synology NAS	Full Lab Environment running 8+ VMs with production-like architecture	Enterprise-equivalent test environment; hands-on infrastructure experience
Q3	802.1X EAP-TLS from Linux — wpa_supplicant configuration, Vault-issued certificates, ISE policy, Catalyst switch port configuration	End-to-end EAP-TLS working from Arch Linux through Catalyst to ISE	Proved 802.1X expertise beyond GUI configuration; full-stack authentication
Q3-Q4	Documentation standards — authored 20 STD-NNN documents governing projects, change control, RCA, incidents, taxonomy, code standards	20 published standards governing all documentation	Self-imposed quality governance; repeatable processes
Q4	Secrets management ecosystem — age encryption for dotfiles, gopass for credentials, SSH config encryption workflow	Secrets Operations integrated into daily workflow	Defense-in-depth for personal infrastructure; encrypted everything
Q4	LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 — Linux system administration, networking, security, kernel, filesystems, shell scripting	Linux Professional Institute certifications (passed)	Validated Linux depth; complemented Cisco-heavy resume
Q4	Network+ (N10-008) — networking concepts, infrastructure, security, troubleshooting	CompTIA Network+ certification (passed)	Additional vendor-neutral networking validation

Quarter

Skills Acquired

Validation

Unlocked

AsciiDoc fundamentals — document structure, attributes, includes, tables, admonitions; began domus-captures documentation system

First 500 AsciiDoc files authored

Documentation-as-code methodology; structured knowledge capture

Q1-Q2

Antora multi-repo architecture — playbook configuration, component descriptor, spoke repos, Cloudflare Pages deployment

domus-docs hub with 3+ spoke repos deployed to docs.domusdigitalis.dev

Multi-repository documentation aggregation; CI/CD for documentation

HashiCorp Vault — PKI engine (root + intermediate CA), SSH-CA, KV v2, transit engine, policies, AppRole authentication

Vault deployment issuing certificates for 802.1X

Certificate lifecycle management; dynamic secrets; SSH key signing

Q2-Q3

Home lab infrastructure — KVM/libvirt hypervisor, VyOS routing/firewall, BIND DNS HA, NFS storage, Synology NAS

Full Lab Environment running 8+ VMs with production-like architecture

Enterprise-equivalent test environment; hands-on infrastructure experience

802.1X EAP-TLS from Linux — wpa_supplicant configuration, Vault-issued certificates, ISE policy, Catalyst switch port configuration

End-to-end EAP-TLS working from Arch Linux through Catalyst to ISE

Proved 802.1X expertise beyond GUI configuration; full-stack authentication

Q3-Q4

Documentation standards — authored 20 STD-NNN documents governing projects, change control, RCA, incidents, taxonomy, code standards

20 published standards governing all documentation

Self-imposed quality governance; repeatable processes

Secrets management ecosystem — age encryption for dotfiles, gopass for credentials, SSH config encryption workflow

Secrets Operations integrated into daily workflow

Defense-in-depth for personal infrastructure; encrypted everything

LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 — Linux system administration, networking, security, kernel, filesystems, shell scripting

Linux Professional Institute certifications (passed)

Validated Linux depth; complemented Cisco-heavy resume

Network+ (N10-008) — networking concepts, infrastructure, security, troubleshooting

CompTIA Network+ certification (passed)

Additional vendor-neutral networking validation

2026 Q1 — Acceleration: Terminal Mastery, Python, and API Development

Quarter	Skills Acquired	Validation	Unlocked
Jan	Terminal-first workflow — switched to Arch Linux, Neovim, tmux as primary development environment; abandoned GUI tools	3+ months sustained terminal-only workflow; instrumentum-nvim and tmux-quantum configs	CLI fluency became reflexive; awk/sed/grep replaced GUI search tools
Jan-Feb	CLI mastery — awk (field extraction, arrays, state machines), sed (in-place editing, addressing), jq (JSON transforms), grep PCRE, find/xargs, pipes, process substitution	CLI Mastery Curriculum; daily application across all projects	Data processing without Python libraries; CLI-as-primary-language
Feb	Python through building — FastAPI, Pydantic, pytest; learned by constructing domus-api rather than following courses	domus-api — 44 endpoints, 100+ tests	Proved Python capability through shipping; project-driven learning validated
Feb-Mar	domus-api development — 44-endpoint REST API exposing documentation files as JSON; dependency injection, caching, OpenAPI schema, demo/validation scripts	44/44 endpoints validated; 100+ pytest tests passing; architecture documentation complete	Documentation system became programmable; filesystem-as-database pattern proven
Mar	netapi multi-vendor CLI — ISE ERS API, Vault API, VyOS API, FMC API, Infoblox API; Typer CLI framework	netapi — multi-vendor network automation tool	Cross-platform API integration; network automation beyond single vendor
Mar	Claude Code integration — CLAUDE.md constraints, hooks, rules, agents, skills; AI-assisted development with strict behavioral boundaries	Claude Code Configuration with 8+ rules and hooks	Accelerated development while maintaining quality standards; meta-skill in AI tooling
Mar	dots-quantum — GNU Stow dotfile management, age-encrypted secrets, multi-machine deployment; zsh, tmux, nvim, git configs	dots-quantum deployed across 3 machines	Reproducible development environment; encrypted configuration management

Quarter

Skills Acquired

Validation

Unlocked

Jan

Terminal-first workflow — switched to Arch Linux, Neovim, tmux as primary development environment; abandoned GUI tools

3+ months sustained terminal-only workflow; instrumentum-nvim and tmux-quantum configs

CLI fluency became reflexive; awk/sed/grep replaced GUI search tools

Jan-Feb

CLI mastery — awk (field extraction, arrays, state machines), sed (in-place editing, addressing), jq (JSON transforms), grep PCRE, find/xargs, pipes, process substitution

CLI Mastery Curriculum; daily application across all projects

Data processing without Python libraries; CLI-as-primary-language

Feb

Python through building — FastAPI, Pydantic, pytest; learned by constructing domus-api rather than following courses

domus-api — 44 endpoints, 100+ tests

Proved Python capability through shipping; project-driven learning validated

Feb-Mar

domus-api development — 44-endpoint REST API exposing documentation files as JSON; dependency injection, caching, OpenAPI schema, demo/validation scripts

44/44 endpoints validated; 100+ pytest tests passing; architecture documentation complete

Documentation system became programmable; filesystem-as-database pattern proven

Mar

netapi multi-vendor CLI — ISE ERS API, Vault API, VyOS API, FMC API, Infoblox API; Typer CLI framework

netapi — multi-vendor network automation tool

Cross-platform API integration; network automation beyond single vendor

Mar

Claude Code integration — CLAUDE.md constraints, hooks, rules, agents, skills; AI-assisted development with strict behavioral boundaries

Claude Code Configuration with 8+ rules and hooks

Accelerated development while maintaining quality standards; meta-skill in AI tooling

Mar

dots-quantum — GNU Stow dotfile management, age-encrypted secrets, multi-machine deployment; zsh, tmux, nvim, git configs

dots-quantum deployed across 3 machines

Reproducible development environment; encrypted configuration management

2026 Q2 — Restructure and Deepening (In Progress)

Quarter	Skills Acquired	Validation	Unlocked
Apr	CISSP study — 8 domains: security governance, asset security, security architecture, communication security, IAM, assessment, operations, software security	55 days of structured study; target certification Q2 2026	Senior Security Engineer title; management-level security knowledge
Apr	association-engine — Python knowledge graph with mathematical foundations; graph theory applied to skill and knowledge management	association-engine — node/edge model with traversal	Graph theory practical application; mathematical thinking in software design
Apr	Competency system restructure (Phases 1-4) — 20-domain BoK architecture, 118 subdomains, ~1,323 topics, Phase 4 dashboards	This document — comprehensive competency inventory with honest baseline	Career planning with real data; targeted gap closure; structured learning path
Q2 (planned)	Go programming — Vault plugins, CLI tools, Kubernetes operators; systems-level language for infrastructure tooling	Target: first Go project shipped	Opens Vault plugin development; Kubernetes operator authoring; infrastructure tooling
Q2 (planned)	RHCSA preparation — Red Hat system administration, SELinux, storage, networking, containers	Target: EX200 certification	Validates enterprise Linux; complements LPIC-1/2
Q2 (planned)	SIELE C1 — advanced Spanish proficiency across reading, writing, listening, speaking	Target: C1 on all four skills	Certified bilingual professional; unique value in LA healthcare market

Quarter

Skills Acquired

Validation

Unlocked

Apr

CISSP study — 8 domains: security governance, asset security, security architecture, communication security, IAM, assessment, operations, software security

55 days of structured study; target certification Q2 2026

Senior Security Engineer title; management-level security knowledge

Apr

association-engine — Python knowledge graph with mathematical foundations; graph theory applied to skill and knowledge management

association-engine — node/edge model with traversal

Graph theory practical application; mathematical thinking in software design

Apr

Competency system restructure (Phases 1-4) — 20-domain BoK architecture, 118 subdomains, ~1,323 topics, Phase 4 dashboards

This document — comprehensive competency inventory with honest baseline

Career planning with real data; targeted gap closure; structured learning path

Q2 (planned)

Go programming — Vault plugins, CLI tools, Kubernetes operators; systems-level language for infrastructure tooling

Target: first Go project shipped

Opens Vault plugin development; Kubernetes operator authoring; infrastructure tooling

Q2 (planned)

RHCSA preparation — Red Hat system administration, SELinux, storage, networking, containers

Target: EX200 certification

Validates enterprise Linux; complements LPIC-1/2

Q2 (planned)

SIELE C1 — advanced Spanish proficiency across reading, writing, listening, speaking

Target: C1 on all four skills

Certified bilingual professional; unique value in LA healthcare market

Acquisition Patterns

Pattern	Description
Build to Learn	Python, FastAPI, graph theory — all learned by building real tools, not following courses. domus-api taught more Python than any tutorial could.
Certify to Validate	Certifications follow competence, not precede it. CCNP after production ISE work. CISSP after years of security practice. Never cert-first.
Document Everything	3,486 files exist because documentation is the learning mechanism. Writing forces understanding. The documentation system IS the learning system.
Deliberate Difficulty	Terminal-first by choice. awk instead of grep+cut. sed instead of GUI find-replace. The harder path builds durable skill.
Vertical Then Horizontal	Deep in one domain (ISE/802.1X to Expert), then expand horizontally (Python, infrastructure, documentation). Depth before breadth.
Honest Measurement	Legacy flat-domain model reported ~70% coverage through selection bias. BoK model establishes a universe of topics first, measures against it honestly. The 11% baseline is real; the 70% was not.

Pattern

Description

Build to Learn

Python, FastAPI, graph theory — all learned by building real tools, not following courses. domus-api taught more Python than any tutorial could.

Certify to Validate

Certifications follow competence, not precede it. CCNP after production ISE work. CISSP after years of security practice. Never cert-first.

Document Everything

3,486 files exist because documentation is the learning mechanism. Writing forces understanding. The documentation system IS the learning system.

Deliberate Difficulty

Terminal-first by choice. awk instead of grep+cut. sed instead of GUI find-replace. The harder path builds durable skill.

Vertical Then Horizontal

Deep in one domain (ISE/802.1X to Expert), then expand horizontally (Python, infrastructure, documentation). Depth before breadth.

Honest Measurement

Legacy flat-domain model reported ~70% coverage through selection bias. BoK model establishes a universe of topics first, measures against it honestly. The 11% baseline is real; the 70% was not.