So You Want A Career In Cyber
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Where are the #$*&@!% jobs though?
“Having a good network can be invaluable. It opens doors for you and allows you to enter into opportunities that are beneficial to your business. In this sense, ‘who you know’ is undoubtedly important, but to me ‘what you know’ is more important because once an opportunity shows itself, it is up to you to make the most of it, and this is down to your knowledge and skill.” Richard Branson
Background
Where it all began
In 1980/81 I was fortunate enough to live in a rural part of Maryland USA, about 90 minutes from both Washington DC and Baltimore. I was 16 at the time and unbeknown to me at the time it is where I started my journey on understanding the benefits of ‘networking’.
I was living at the time with a family who knew a Maryland State Trooper and arranged for me to go on a ride-along on one of his shifts. It was an amazing experience and when I returned to Australia we all kept in touch.
As the years went, on I had returned to Australia, and at the completion of my Criminal Justice degree, I joined the Australian Federal Police, completed a Post Graduate Criminology Diploma at the University of Melbourne and commenced a law degree.
Move forward a few years and as a requirement of the law degree, I needed to complete a practical placement for one of my units. I have always been an outside the box thinker, I reached out to the State Trooper as I believed he was friends with the Maryland States Attorney (Prosecutor), for Frederick County.
Before I knew it, I had a placement within the Maryland States Attorney’s Office White Collar Crime and Arson Divison. Securing such placement from Australia demonstrates the power of effective networking and maintaining contact.
I can not emphasise enough, how important networking and expanding your connections in cyber is the most effective way to gain an inroad into a career in cyber.
However, it is just not good networking that will help you secure a career in cyber, you need to work out a strategy that also includes professional development and upskilling in a range of fields and a way to get your name out there.
