Well...How Did I Get Here?

Cybersecurity as a field contains a lot of different careers. There is security, systems administration, and penetration testing; cloud security, incident response, and identity and access management; oh yeah, and artificial intelligence (AI). Technology, information systems, engineering, and forensics -- and more -- are all part of the cybersecurity field.

When we're asked about career guidance for cybersecurity personnel, we like to gauge the 'why' each person brings. For example, were you the type of person who liked to take things apart to see how they worked? For example, when you were a little tyke you took apart a radio because you didn't know how the sound could come out of it? Maybe you like to watch videos to learn skills because, well, you like to figure things out? Maybe you like training people and you enjoy seeing them learning something new. Maybe you get a kick out of attacking systems, or in defeating attacks. Maybe you like to see what AI can do beyond writing emails or coming up with dinner party menus.

The downside of a field such as cybersecurity is that you can get diverted into mastering different parts and pieces without putting together the puzzle. The right answer to this is: whatever your answer is. In other words, there is everything right about mastering your career path, just as there is everything right about going into leadership. It has to work for you, not for anyone else. And in cybersecurity you will not lack for work once you master an area within the field.

Each path has off-ramps. Things happen: children, aging parents, ill partners, geographic moves and relocations, business disruptions. But then there are reentry ramps. 

You need to decide for yourself, at this point in time, what your goals are. We suggest that the only nonnegotiable is mastery, and beyond that you bring the 'how' for the 'why'. For example if you want to go into leadership, how do you plan on getting there? By the way "get more certificates!" isn't the answer to that 'how'. How do you add value to the organization? How do you enhance the performance of other teams within cybersecurity? How have you grown as a contributor? How have you grown as a teammate?

Everyone starts on a career journey, and then the career map goes out of date. Technology is in a constant state of disruption. What will you do then?

Cybersecurity leaders bear some accountability for your career also. A primary goal of leaders is to build teams, both teams that report to the leader and teams that do the work. Remember that the accountability they bear is kind of remote, though, and ultimately you as a cybersecurity professional are responsible and accountable for your own career.

Here is some free career advice. Treat your career like that radio you took apart. That is, examine your career forensically and with extreme curiosity to determine how it started and what it's doing for you now, and then work through some options to put it back together. Maybe you'll get a better radio! And at the same time don't lose you rage-to-master edge.

Ask us how you can find your way through the cybersecurity career maze.