My Journey Into Cyber Security (part 2)

It's time for my follow-up to the first article I wrote on June 7th. In this article, I'll get to talk a little bit more about my college situation, my personal projects, and certifications.

This has been me occasionally within the past few months between switching colleges from Southern New Hampshire University to Western Governors University. I was finishing up some assignments and had to worry about the college transfer process, a new degree plan, financial aid, finding a new job, doing home projects to gain experience, and studying for certifications. I was stressed out and suffering from burnout. So I took two weeks off from my personal studies and enjoyed spending some time with friends, not having to think about anything educational for a little bit. This helped put my mind back on track to begin at a new college, revamp my GitHub, get back to working on projects, and cleared my mind to continue studying for certifications.

I switched to WGU due to two factors: the first is that I felt the classes in my degree program at SNHU did not align with my goals that would help me transition into a career in the cyber security field. The second reason is because of the competency-based education that lets me accelerate my learning, rather than having nothing to work towards every week. My first and only term at SNHU had me somewhat busy throughout the 8 week term, however I felt that after completing assignments for the first week, I was unable to progress any faster and submit assignments earlier. This really held me back and I felt like I had too much down time and wasn't actively engaged in learning throughout the weeks. At WGU, you are able to take as little or as much time as you need with a class before submitting either a paper or sitting for an exam. I started with WGU on August 1st and have already completed one course and achieved my ITIL Foundation certification, and I am planning on having my second paper finished and my second course completed by this weekend. With this new structure, I am actively engaged in my learning with very little downtime.

Speaking of certifications, I earned my CompTIA Network+ certification in July just prior to starting my term at WGU. I have been studying the Network+ concepts for about a few months and I really wanted to make sure I understood the networking foundations needed in this field. Although many people in different Discord channels have told me that the CCNA would have been better, I'm content with the Network+ certification and have even used some supplemental studies from Cisco's CCNA to help reinforce and build upon my networking knowledge. I also saw that (ISC)2 came out with a new entry-level certification, Certified in Cybersecurity. I ended up taking that pilot exam and am expecting my results within the next 8-12 weeks, so look out for that post. I felt that my foundational level course with SNHU prepared me very well to sit and take this exam.

In between June and August, I've also still been engaged with TryHackMe and LetsDefend more. Although I lost my streak on TryHackMe, I'm slowly building it back up and retaining knowledge of the learning paths that I've completed. The path that I'm currently pursuing is related to web application pentesting, which is a concept that I feel I still need more practice with. Along with this, TCM Security has been hosting live streams of free training every Wednesday and Friday, and I'm actively engaged on Twitch to learn the skills necessary to sit for the PNPT exam. Supplementing my offensive training, LetsDefend gives me a platform to perform investigations of SIEM alerts to identify malicious email traffic, malware, and web-based attacks. At the time of this writing, I have over 90% accuracy on my case resolution through the simulated training.

I have also started to do some write-ups of my personal projects, including my Nmap/Wireshark analysis and my Active Directory setup for my lab environment. I've created a GitHub page with my portfolio that links to these projects and will eventually contain more projects as I go about setting them up and keeping notes. You can also see that I've been busy watching courses on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning still, trying to keep up and continue my education on my own time.

I still have not had any luck breaking into the IT or cyber security fields yet, despite going through some revisions of my resume and talking with many others in the field. But that's okay - good things come to those who wait and who are persistent. I've expanded my LinkedIn network and been on the giving and receiving ends of some solid advice and mentorship for others. My aim is to highlight my own achievements and determination to break into this field, along with giving others motivation to do the same as me. If you are just like me, looking to get into the field and wanting to stand out, write an article on your journey and highlight it. Create a GitHub portfolio and talk about your projects that you're working on at home. You never know - your dream company might have it show on their feed!

See TCM Security: https://academy.tcm-sec.com/courses

LetsDefend: https://letsdefend.io

Create a GitHub Portfolio (Josh Madakor): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgqfWLHNKLk&list=PL2gEYmNE5Nzn0TTxiRRYM4x9jyr_EZ-X6&index=26