Blueprint & Breaking Into Any Field with a Strategic Approach ( Artificial Intelligence)
Michael Balsa
?? Information Security Analyst | Software Developer ????| Information Assurance Tech ?? | Data Analyst ?? | ?? Database Administrator | Python Developer ?? | ??? "Inspiring Others Break Into Cybersecurity Field" |
?? I was recently reading an article as part of my morning routine, and I stumbled upon this topic.
This is a major factor for anyone looking to progress in or break into Cybersecurity, and it can be useful to know as you decide to progress in the field. When I was breaking into the cybersecurity field, the one thing I didn't do was research the most significant trends in the cybersecurity field at the time.
?? Ever since I entered the cybersecurity field, I have spent a lot of time researching new trends specifically related to the field. This not only educates me and keeps me informed on daily cybersecurity trends but also educates other people planning to enter the field. This article will focus on how you would start if you picked one of these topics to focus your cybersecurity journey on per the article listed above.
Let's Say We Pick "Artificial Intelligence."
?? I have seen so much of this topic thrown around, like viruses everywhere. Everything you see about artificial intelligence, including this article and how we are moving toward AI security, is true. This is guaranteed to be the next big domain in the cybersecurity field. Everyone says that you need to learn AI, but I don't think people realize how complex Artificial Intelligence is as a field, and you can't take a few courses on AI or get a degree and call yourself a master or ready to break into the field. The field is still growing, so your knowledge will always be obsolete. So let's say you want to break into AI how are we going to do it.
Build Personal Brand - Around Artificial Intelligence
??If this were me and I wanted people to know that I was building a knowledge-based focus on artificial intelligence security, I would make my personal brand reflect that knowledge.
??When I was in the Marine Corps and started my journey by learning Cybersecurity, I chose mobile development and secure coding as part of my brand. The content and knowledge I shared were focused on mobile development and security. I won't explain how to build your personal brand, but that's where I would start. I earned a bachelor's in Cybersecurity with a focus on mobile security, and during my off time, I learned mobile development to understand the software side of mobile security. I also focused on building knowledge of cybersecurity foundations through CompTIA Security studies.
Education
?? If you are going to pick a degree in Artificial Intelligence, you would be right if you picked an information technology or cybersecurity major. But if you want to go to school and focus on artificial intelligence, I would look at majors such as Data Science and computer science, where artificial intelligence and machine learning are the primary marks of the field. During your off time, I will be learning about artificial intelligence. However, your core content and knowledge would be specific to data science, understanding how artificial intelligence works, and learning how data works.
?? Suppose we are not going to school or artificial intelligence. In that case, I want to focus my attention on getting certificates from online courses or coding boot camps that are targeted toward artificial intelligence and data science. This will allow us to have a visual certificate or education about being disciplined and learning about the field. I would also focus my time on learning Python, R, or SQL, and I would pick one of these languages and learn about programming. Become a master at one of the languages. You would want to become a master of one of these languages regardless.
Projects
?? So now you are building your personal brand; what do you do to help you build a foundation in the field? Remember that for this example, we picked artificial intelligence so I would want to find ways to build projects. So I'm not talking about complex super, crazy projects. I'm discussing easy projects first and then creating a portfolio or website to showcase your projects. This is going to be a part of your "Personal Brand." But what makes this different is your projects are going to showcase your skills being put into utilization with AI and data.
Projects Are Not Enough
?? Now, I'll be honest with you: projects are not enough nowadays> EVERYONE is doing projects and maybe working on their brand. Your step ahead if you are building a personal brand and developing traffic to your content and knowledge. However, the goal of this article is to make you stand out as much as possible if you, for example, picked "Artificial Intelligence" as your focus for your study.
??Now, you have projects and are developing traffic toward your personal brand, whether on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. If this were me, I would look at job openings and see what experience the jobs in artificial intelligence require. This is where I would start to change and maybe alter my knowledge and content.
Hackathons and Local Community Events
?? This is going to be essential and key to going to hackathons and local community events, whether that be just being very active on LinkedIn and connecting with people already in the field but showing you're going to hackathons and community events is something you can showcase on your resume and also your LinkedIn.
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SSI Score Linkedin
?? If you are trying to showcase your activity and support to the community on LinkedIn, I suggest improving your SSI score on LinkedIn. If you want your voice to be heard on the LinkedIn platform, having a good SSI score is essential if you want to branch out your content and knowledge to the community. However, going to hackathons and community events looks good when marketing yourself to break into the field.
Aim Small Shoot Large
I have already done my research on artificial intelligence. The road map is toward becoming a data scientist, but in our case; we will need to start from the bottom and work our way up with skills we might already have from working in business, human resources, technology field, or any field we will need to focus on breaking into a career field that can move up to data scientist position.
These are jobs I am going to focus my attention on applying to since I might be able to market my soft and hard skills, which I have already received from prior work experience. The projects and my brand will be enough to make me stand out against people with experience in the field. In this scenario, I'm not coming from a technology background. Remember, this is if I start from scratch with a few years of work experience in a nontechnical job. Breaking into an Analytical role will be much easier than jumping straight into a Data Scientist role. Finding an entry-level role as a Data Analyst can be a lot easier since Data scientist usually requires experience in the field. Start small, aim large, and we will use these skills we get, becoming data analysts to learn tools and technologies that work around AI and data manipulation.
Cybersecurity & AI Knowledge & Projects
?? Let's say we get our first data analyst role. We are now gaining experience with data manipulation and working a little with tools and software that work with artificial intelligence. Your energy and time will be used to obtain these skills, and at the same time, you will still be improving your data-driven skills at work and on the side. But remember, the goal is to work with AI security. Over time, you can use your experience to work your way up into a data scientist role.
??It will take us time, but when we do this, it will allow us to understand and learn and get experience with artificial intelligence concepts and machine learning. This is where we got experience working with artificial intelligence, and now we can use this experience to break into cybersecurity positions focused on artificial intelligence. We need to start pursuing cybersecurity certificates to market our foundation knowledge of Cybersecurity now.
?? At this point, I would focus on cybersecurity content, knowledge, and certificates that can begin building our knowledge of Cybersecurity. You, at this point, understand how AI works, and now you switch your attention toward the cybersecurity field. But what makes you unique is that you already have experience as a data scientist and have worked with AI.
?? So now you possess a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence, and at the same time, you have background knowledge of Cybersecurity professionals based on your certificates, projects, and studies. You can probably get your CompTIA Security + and change your projects and content to cybersecurity-related material and AI.
1: Article Content
2: Blog Content
3: Video Content
4: Projects
5: Video Content
6: Newsletter
7: Groups
This Is Not The Only Way
?? Remember, you can do this the other way around. You can break into Cybersecurity first and focus your brand on artificial intelligence without breaking into the data science career field. But in this scenario, I want to learn AI at a very in-depth level, so breaking into data science makes sense to me first. But again, there are many ways to skin the cat.
?? However, in this scenario, we obtain experience working in the data science field. We learn everything about data science and how the engine of artificial intelligence works, and we get the experience by moving up the data field. We switch our focus on learning Cybersecurity & AI. We already have a foundation of artificial intelligence, and all we are doing at this point is collating our knowledge with an understanding of how it works on the cybersecurity side.
?? This sounds easy to do, but it takes time, and you have to be willing to sacrifice for something bigger than yourself. If I were to break into the cybersecurity field all over again, I would follow the same structure. I followed this same structure to break into the cybersecurity field. Since I am in the field, I still plan on moving toward becoming an application security engineer. And learning about mobile security on a deeper level! I hope this helps you and gives you an idea of how I think!