Careers are built after 6pm

^ I say this a lot. Call it my tagline

Ask any of my mentees, the very first step we take together is to block off 2-3 nights a week that they will forego “normal” to focus on their infosec goals. PS it's wild to have mentees but I had awesome mentors over the years and want to pay their goodness forward.

Your 9-5 is where you get in your “reps”, and frankly it will be necessary to pay for the certifications, workshops, grad school, or networking events that you want to attend. You also may need to make lifestyle modifications that requires investment - check what kinds of personal development funding you have available through work. The hidden perks may surprise you!!

I should not need to spell out why you’re re-allocating time to your career. Here is how:

You don’t watch TV

You neither Tik, nor do you Tok

You are less generous with your social life

Please calculate the number of hours spent idling (tv), commuting, cooking, or caring for family/children/friends. In my 20’s I gave up a social life at least 1 weekend day (so that I could stay in the library as late as necessary, with no excuse to fall back on) and 3 week nights at the peak of night school. You then fill in those hours with study time.

Commute: Listen to Professor Messier on Youtube as you study for your Network+, eg

Cooking: Meal prep on Sunday (maybe in a crockpot) so that you A) save money to buy more Lab Courses, B) don’t think about where/what to eat

Chores/Exercise: Swap music for education.

• Listen to podcasts - my latest favorites unabashedly aligned to my 9-5 job… Cloud Sec Podcast, Mandiant Defenders Adv., and the usual suspects All-In or Huberman. Download
• Audiobooks: check out Libby, free digital rentals from your local library. In writing this post, I figured out a good litmus test for transitioning careers from non-cyber: start with these 3 “super fun” books - Nicole Perlroth, the Cuckoos Egg, and the Surveillance State. Once done, which of these solicited the loudest emotional response? That’s where you’re going to laser-focus your next step towards a Cyber Career.

(Key: Perlroth = offense, Cuckoo = DFIR, Surveillance = policy & defence)

Step 2 is to sign up for an exam (or class, or conference) anywhere from 3-6 months out. Do it today. Put it on your calendar. Have a goal in sight.. constantly.

Realise that it’s not one-exam and done, if you truly want to be a lifelong learner as soon as you pass your X, you qualify to go get your Y… so sign up to take Y.

I LOVED the viewpoint of co-panelists recently, s/o Ren Fellows and Julia Odden !! Who said that Certifications help you figure out what you want to do, and get the job. Your on-the-job experience matters more. That is so true!

I will add that certs won’t keep you in the job. My Splunk Power User cert? Irrelevant. As of 2020 everyone should be on Chronicle (now Google SecOps) PLUS the job I had immediately after required building an ELK stack. Be flexible my friends. For laughs, in addition to Splunk other passé vendor certs I racked up over the years include Nexpose, Bit9, “Metasploit Pro”, 1st edition Brinqa, Encase, FTK, SLK Sleuthkit/Autopsy - hey Brian Carrier , you champion of free & open trainings. At the end of the day the only skill that’s carried over through all these vendors is get comfortable on Linux.

That' wraps this first article, and I'll close with two success stories:

The Diplomat

This mentee signed up for technical certs to start. She tried some offensive web vuln fuzzing then passed a netsec industry cert. Well… years later she’s at Oxford now and likely going to write the next iteration of GDPR. I’ve got nothing to do with her success, she did it all herself!

The Undecided

Another mentee works for a restaurant group and wants to pivot. He is taking advantage of an AWESOME program that blends graduate education with certifications and skills training. I am ALL about trade school. One of my most brilliant offsec friends never did college… but he certainly drilled for his OSCP (and coached me, thank you!) Google search for subsidised programs you might qualify for!