“I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance”
At 40 years of age, here I am changing careers with a family to look after, having left a comfortable job managing a team in customer services.
That’s pretty scary thinking about it. But I had the opportunity, and I knew that if I didn’t take it now, I probably would never leave my job. So with quotes about regrets ringing in my ears, I took the leap…
Welcome to my blog! I have decided to chronicle my journey, successes, obstacles, and methods, while studying and beginning a new career in cybersecurity.
My reasons for doing this are fourfold:
1. To keep track of the things I have learnt and cement it in my big old brain
2. To keep track of my progress as a motivational aid
3. Perhaps in the future to help others following a similar path
4. To help me get a job by showcasing to employers what I have learnt
Why cybersecurity? I’ve made another list – who doesn’t love lists right?
1. “Cybersecurity Analyst” sounds cool
2. I’ve always had a passion for IT
3. I’ve always wanted a “career” as opposed to a job
4. The huge number of unfulfilled positions sounded like a great opportunity*
5. I loved the film WarGames with Matthew Broderick as a kid
6. I love solving problems
7. The potentially great rewards sounded appealing
8. It offered me a career that I could become “qualified” for relatively quickly
9. I could enter the profession at an “entry level” position without too much of a pay cut
10. We are under attack from hostile nation state actors
What are your reasons? I’d love to hear them.
So what’s happened so far?
A brief summary is that after leaving my previous employment, I took a few months out to spend time with my family. Then from January this year I started studying full-time, learning with an online education provider and I’m on a learning path that will gain me the following CompTIA certs: A+, Network+, Security+, Pentest+ and CySA+
In a bit more detail, I wanted to take some time out just to be with my family because in the blink of an eye, my babies were 5 and 3 years old and there we were in the middle of a pandemic with all the uncertainty that came with that. It felt like an ideal opportunity, with lockdowns and home schooling, to spend some time just being a husband and a dad.
I’d made a decision that after Christmas I would start to really engage with cybersecurity and by the end of 2020 I couldn’t wait to get started.
Since then I have passed some exams and earnt my A+ and Network+ certs; begun networking on LinkedIn; learnt a lot about the profession and the industry from youtube videos and webinars, twitch, messaging cybersecurity professionals, discord, and other online resources; started to learn Python; set up a homelab to practice the things I’ve learnt; experiment with the many free and paid for resources that are available; started this website using WordPress.
I will have separate pages about most of these things, but for now the plan is to continue studying and gain the CompTIA Security+ certification.
*what is it they say about things that sound too good to be true?
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Securing the Cyber World 