Weekly thread for any and all career, learning and general guidance questions. Thinking of taking a training or going for a cert? Wondering how to level up your career? Wondering what NOT to do? Got other questions? This is the time and place to ask!
I’m a computer science major. I’m technically classed a sophomore because I take a lot of classes at a time, but I wont transfer to a 4 year school til spring 2025. I’m at a community college taking a degree specifically designed to transfer to a 4 year school and I’m only on my first actual computer programming class right now, it’s been all pre-reqs and gen-eds up until now so that once I transfer they’re all out of the way. When I transfer the plan is to switch to cybersecurity - the school I’m transferring to has a cybersecurity degree designed to pick up where my AS leaves off.
But I know nothing really as of right now! I’d appreciate any advice anyone in the field wants to give a very interested but very ignorant newbie who wants to learn. I come from emergency medical services so I have no experience in tech, but I’m fascinated with it.
(Disclaimer, I’m speaking from US and Canada based experience)
Be careful with CyberSecurity programs; it sounds great but there is no standard regarding what a cybersecurity degree even should be. Which means every place offering one can do whatever they want. Some programs are fine, some are lacking, regardless you have to make sure its actually preparing you for whatever part of security you’re actually interested in. It also means that on the hiring side, people won’t know exactly what its value is without looking into your specific program (which they probably won’t do). Which puts it at a lesser value than a more predictable degree. Still often acceptable at least but worth calling out.
If you’re new I’d also strongly encourage you to learn about different facets of cyber security; it is an absolutely massive field and different areas have different expectations. A lot of people have a misunderstandings about security jobs look like.
This is really good advice, thank you. Do you have any recommendations for trustworthy resources to learn more about cybersecurity, ie websites, YouTube channels, whatever? I’m so worried about misinformation.
I’m sorry, I don’t. I’m kinda locked into my niche and don’t consume much of the wider cybersecurity industry or have a handle on who would be a trusted resource outside of my particular realm in application security and vulnerability research.
For at-least some insight, I can recommend https://www.youtube.com/@cwinfosec its a pretty small channel, but he has some great “Interview with a …” content. I enjoyed his interview with Alh4zr3d on red teaming experience. Most of the interviews are more offensive security focused, but he has a few different jobs that he’s interviewed and can give some exposure to the type of work being done.
Microsoft’s Security Response Center has also started a podcast called The BlueHat Podcast I haven’t listened to a ton of it yet but they seem to have a decent variety of professionals on talking about stuff which can potentially be a source.
Thank you, this is a start!