7 Tips for your Cybersecurity Career
You know THAT kind of advice that you wish you had heard earlier in your life? Well, if you’re starting your cybersecurity career — but you dream BIG — we’ve got something that might change (or even skyrocket) your career. Paula Januszkiewicz (a CEO of CQURE, Penetration Tester, Enterprise Security MVP) interviewed 7 renowned specialists, from IT experts to headhunters, so that YOU can get the best insights. Here are 7 pieces of advice that will help you grow from a newbie to a Cybersecurity Pro in high demand. Enjoy!
1.Bruce Schneier
Internationally renowned security technologist. Called a “security guru” by The Economist. The author of 13 books, including Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World.
“They should study with their passion. The way you have a great career in technology, is you do what you’re passionate about.There is so much demand, there so many opportunities, there is so many options. Don’t study the thing they tell you to, study what stimulates your passions. That’s where you will be the happiest, that’s how you find the best work.”
2. Jeffrey Hicks
IT veteran with over 25 years of experience, multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award in Windows PowerShell.
“I’m going to give them actually two little pieces of advice. One is: turn around and share your knowledge with the younger person, not only because that’s the right thing to do but also in the fact of trying to formulate your thoughts. “Okay, how am I going to communicate or share what I know?” You may realize, “Oh, maybe I don’t know that as well as I should. I need to go back and brush up.” You learn a bit more in trying to teach someone, you have no choice but to really learn it yourself.
That would be number one. The second is: you just have to take this idea of using it every day to the next level. You need to be the person who is creating the DSC configurations, and the PowerShell tools that you’re using to monitor servers to provide the forensic analysis if you’ve been compromised.
You’ll need to learn new things like the .NET framework. You’ll need to learn some of the advanced. You need to start thinking. Go to some of the secret hacker conferences and learn the bad ways and find ways, “Okay, how can I do that in PowerShell?” Try to be more proactive.”
3. Wally Mead
Program Manager at Cireson, Configuration Manager expert & community evangelist.
“If they’re a young, new person, then they probably got a lot of the skill set which is mobile, because they live on their mobile devices all day long and that’s the way the world’s going, so they got a great start there. But as far as the rest in Configuration Manager space, it’s spending some time with the solution. Again, whether it’s training, or whether it’s attending a training class or self-learning on the TechNet Virtual labs or Microsoft Virtual Academy sessions that they have out there.”
4. Sami Laiho
Leading Windows OS & Security expert in the world, Senior Technical Fellow, MVP, Best speaker in all TechEd’s 2014.
“First of all, you have to learn Windows Internals. Take Windows internals training. That’s the core that you will then build on by maybe getting good security training from some other companies. So there’s a good base. Build on the base, learn the basics. Remember it still takes 100 people at Microsoft to know everything about Windows, so if you believe you know everything, forget that disbelief and just learn more.”
5. Jennifer Minella
VP of Engineering & Security Consultant. Mindfulness Evangelist
“It varies so much from company to company. We were using some examples, and I’d asked specifically my organization what were some science-based things we could do to kind of vet and get the right candidates in for what we were looking for. She brought up some good points because she said, “Take the IT stuff out of it. Let’s talk about just the skill set you need.” So the conversation was really very specific to what skill set do you need for that role or that company. Because different company’s cultures are different, the job descriptions are different.”
6.Uma Gupta
Professor of Business at the State University of New York. Business and leadership consultant.
“I think the skills when you look at it, it runs across industries, right? Somehow we have made IT be something totally different from every other industry. But there’s a lot of common ground across industries. So, if I were having this conversation with a retail executive, what would they say? They would say, “Women should speak up more. Women should go after the really difficult strategic projects, not to be quiet and to sit down and wait to be asked”, right? To go out and to find the right mentor. As I said, excellence is an important thing. You have to be great at what you do. You have to be willing to reach out, you have to be willing to speak up.”
7.Bernard Layton
Stanton Chase Executive Recruiter
“I think they should get the educational background which is key and get the credential. They need to work to separate themselves from just the staff level capabilities and so ultimately good old fashioned hard work, put hours in it, and learning through experience and developing these experience.”