4 answers
Iryanna
Student
Conway, South Carolina
3
Questions
Asked
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For people working in Cyber Security, what made you decide to pursue this career field, and what made you stick with it?
#technology #career #computer #computer-science #programming
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4 answers
Wayne Archibald
Cybersecurity Associate Director here to share knowledge!
210
Answers
Silver Spring, Maryland
Updated
Wayne’s Answer
Hi Iryanna,
I decided to pursue this career field because I found the field very interesting. I've always like to analyze and be creative and Cybersecurity allows me to do both. I stuck with it because the threat landscape changes which allows me to continue learning to be up-to-date with the current threats and security solutions.
If have any of these skills, a career in Cybersecurity may be right for you:
Active listening and clear communication skills
Creative and technical problem solving
Critical thinking
Ability to make split-second decisions in emergencies
Great attention to detail
Adaptability to any work team and environment
Explain technical topics in plain English
Computer science fundamentals
Try to become an expert in a subfield
Know at least one programming or scripting language
Information management and high-risk decision making
Good luck!
I decided to pursue this career field because I found the field very interesting. I've always like to analyze and be creative and Cybersecurity allows me to do both. I stuck with it because the threat landscape changes which allows me to continue learning to be up-to-date with the current threats and security solutions.
If have any of these skills, a career in Cybersecurity may be right for you:
Active listening and clear communication skills
Creative and technical problem solving
Critical thinking
Ability to make split-second decisions in emergencies
Great attention to detail
Adaptability to any work team and environment
Explain technical topics in plain English
Computer science fundamentals
Try to become an expert in a subfield
Know at least one programming or scripting language
Information management and high-risk decision making
Good luck!
Thank you!!!
Iryanna
Tony Pearson
Master Inventor
50
Answers
Tucson, Arizona
Updated
Tony’s Answer
Iryanna, many people working today in Cyber Security probably, like me, started or chose something else, and ended up here. I graduated with a Computer Engineering BS degree in 1986, and Electrical Engineer MS degree in 1990, both before the World Wide Web launched in 1991. Over the years, I have switched into different roles, as some things fade away, and other new things pop up.
When the need for Cyber Security became obvious, companies can't wait until Universities start teaching this in college, and eventually have graduates in this field four years later. They need employees now, so they look around their existing talent pool, and have people slide over.
A similar thing happened with my niece, she started doing school plays, then became an opera singer, then when that slowed down, she learned to sew to make costumes, and now is a casting director.
Generally, pick an industry that has growth potential, like IT or Healthcare, and explore all the jobs available in that industry. Once you have a job at a company, it is often easy to try a different role, an "adjacent space", if you will, without the hassle of leaving one company to go work for another.
When the need for Cyber Security became obvious, companies can't wait until Universities start teaching this in college, and eventually have graduates in this field four years later. They need employees now, so they look around their existing talent pool, and have people slide over.
A similar thing happened with my niece, she started doing school plays, then became an opera singer, then when that slowed down, she learned to sew to make costumes, and now is a casting director.
Generally, pick an industry that has growth potential, like IT or Healthcare, and explore all the jobs available in that industry. Once you have a job at a company, it is often easy to try a different role, an "adjacent space", if you will, without the hassle of leaving one company to go work for another.
Joseph Raczynski
Futurist & Technology Consultant
6
Answers
Washington, Washington
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
Great question! Cybersecurity is an amazing space! It moves very quickly and tends to be at the cutting edge of technology. The demand for people here is exploding . There are going to be more jobs in this space than the vast majority of industries from now and for many years to come. The salaries are also very high.
My personal opinion is that it helps to be a problem solver. Someone who wants to know why and how something happened so you can solve it or prevent it form happening again. Also if coding comes easier to you, that is a benefit, though not necessary. There are many different types of roles in this space from monitoring applications for suspicious activity, to penetration testing (using tools to break into systems for good), to education of how people and businesses can protect themselves.
My personal opinion is that it helps to be a problem solver. Someone who wants to know why and how something happened so you can solve it or prevent it form happening again. Also if coding comes easier to you, that is a benefit, though not necessary. There are many different types of roles in this space from monitoring applications for suspicious activity, to penetration testing (using tools to break into systems for good), to education of how people and businesses can protect themselves.
Peter Huang
Security consultant
79
Answers
Cupertino, California
Updated
Peter’s Answer
I think it is more on why would you consider cyber security work. as others have point out, some work is like putting puzzle together (lots of investigate/detecting), some work is wanting to learn a lot of things, network, infrastructure, operating system... all requires lots of time to learn, if one is a curious person, then there is plenty of opportunities to learn. those are the two traits that kept me in the space.