When it comes to Cybersecurity, Infosec, or even IT in general, you usually hear “pick a path”. This isn’t far off from career advice in any other area to be honest. Most will tell you to pick something you want to do, then reverse engineer what you need to accomplish to get to where you want to be.
I’m not saying this isn’t great advice, but sometimes you just have to try things out! Personally, I’m someone that likes to try new things, to be challenged in new areas, to build new paths, to learn new skills….even if they aren’t always related.
This is one of the reasons I started my own business years ago. Though it may not be an IT or infosec specific business, I still get to use those skills in managing my business. Once I decided to step back into the enterprise side of IT, I soon realized that cybersecurity is still a strong passion of mine.
I started studying for the SSCP back in early 2020, but switched to studying for the Cisco CyberOps Associate this year. The two actually overlap quite a bit… but I’ll save that story for another day. The point is, I like studying for certifications like these because they cover various areas of cybersecurity.
I like the idea of learning how threat actors attack systems, but is that something I personally want to do daily? I actually find myself more drawn to the investigative side of things technically. The process of finding the artifacts, hunting for clues, and making sure the assets are protected definitely peak my interest.
I really dig digital forensics, as well as privacy, identity/access management, and even policy compliance. Oh and how could I forget about cloud computing, something I’ve used in my own business for years? The truth is I have a strong interest in multiple areas of Infosec! Most importantly, I love the knowledge you can gain when studying each discipline.
My current position is not specifically cybersecurity, though I’m still doing security tasks. As I look to move onto an Infosec specific team, I see all the predefined paths and none of them seem to fit. SOC Analyst, Security Engineer, Infosec Officer, DFIR, Threat Hunter, IAM…there are things I like about each path. This is how my mind works LOL!
I’m sure there are opportunities out there for someone like me, I’ll just have to find them….or create them.
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