Cybersecurity Courses

[IrateRedKite]

Has anyone here completed/been on/had experience with any courses to reskill from one industry into cybersecurity? I'm currently 8 weeks into a 16-week crash course that promises to make me very employable in entry-level cybersecurity roles and while it does seem to be delivering on that, the only perspectives we've had on it have been from groups and people associated with the course in some way or other (Including, to be fair, a number of hiring managers).

My impression so far as been fairly positive but it's hard to be certain as I don't really have any experience or other perspectives! Does anyone have any insight as to how courses like this are perceived in the wider industry?

[ChickenKing]

Personally I don't buy into the whole "take this course and you'll have a job" pitches. I think it's very misleading. This isn't to say these courses can't teach you good info, but they will not prepare you for a cybersecurity job in my opinion. I'm of the belief that you really need some kind of hands on experience to be hirable for an entry level role. Companies just want experience, and whether or not we like it that is the current reality. I had a 4 year degree, 2 internships, and multiple hands on labs / projects and it still took me over 100+ applications to land my first job. 

This isn't to say you won't be a successful security professional. It just speaks to the criteria that the industry as a whole looks for. I would like to see the barriers to entry be lowered, as I think we're keeping some people out who could be valuable once trained and given some time. 

[v0ltage]

I've literally just hired someone who is in the process of a career change.  She was a teacher previously.  Just from speaking to her there's clearly skills from that career she can bring into Cyber Security and I think it's possibly similar coming from other professions.

Like @ChickenKing said, i take with a pinch of salt "do this course and ..." type advertisements.  When I employed her, she stood out to me because of her mindset, she was keen to learn, a good communicator, had an eye for detail but was also able to grasp tech concepts from a high level.  But that's just our situation here and we are happy to enable people to get experience where we can.  She also fits in really well with the team and the general culture.  Other hiring managers will have different objectives to the type of candidate they need for their team and different opinions of course, but I find this worked for me and gets the team I need to meet our goals.

There's also literally zero people going into cyber from schools where I live, mainly into finance (trusts) because that's what they're conditioned to do from public schools who don't know or explain the paths if the kids show an interest (again thats where I live not necessarily a general consensus).

[ChickenKing]

2 minutes ago, v0ltage said:

I've literally just hired someone who is in the process of a career change.  She was a teacher previously.  Just from speaking to her there's clearly skills from that career she can bring into Cyber Security and I think it's possibly similar coming from other professions.

 When I employed her, she stood out to me because of her mindset, she was keen to learn, a good communicator, had an eye for detail but was also able to grasp tech concepts from a high level.  But that's just our situation here and we are happy to enable people to get experience where we can.  She also fits in really well with the team and the general culture.  Other hiring managers will have different objectives to the type of candidate they need for their team and different opinions of course, but I find this worked for me and gets the team I need to meet our goals.
 

Yeah, this is what we need more of. Companies expect new hires to hit the ground running and just be a natural fit on a technical level. You need to train people, period. When I joined my first job I had never used splunk, but I was trained and afforded opportunities to learn and now I'm in a highly technical position at the same company doing detection engineering mainly with splunk (and others, of course). Security is no new it's foolish to expect people to know everything from day 1. Companies need to stop being cheap and start training people

[gilmx]

15 hours ago, v0ltage said:

I've literally just hired someone who is in the process of a career change.  She was a teacher previously.  Just from speaking to her there's clearly skills from that career she can bring into Cyber Security and I think it's possibly similar coming from other professions.

It is SO .... uplifting to see a comment like this from @v0ltage.  To see that there are companies and hiring managers out there who are capable of looking beyond the check box and understanding the value that can be brought in by people from varied backgrounds.  💯