Non-Technical guy here working in Cybersecurity
Looking for advise as I don’t know what the next step in my career should be. Long story short I was in the emergency medical services field but 5 years ago left that world and got hired as a training specialist for a startup company. After 2 years there I transferred to a role as an IT a business Systems Analyst working in compliance for an energy company where I’ve been for about 2 years. I have no formalized training in Cybersecurity, IT or really any technical training at all. I’ve just kind of been winging it I guess. I don’t have the discipline/focus to be a coder/developer/engineer etc. I’m a socializer and work best with people and teams. I’m currently taking the Google Project Management Professional certificate course through coursera. I know that many don’t respect that school but I figured it was an inexpensive way for me to immerse myself in the field and eventually sit for the PMP exam. I feel very lost especially since I’m in a unique situation and can’t really find a mentor with a similar background who’s done what I’m doing. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing and feel I’m in over my head. My question is where should I go from here? Do I go the PM path? Is there somewhere else where someone like me fits in the Cybersecurity / Technology world? #projectmanager #cybersecurity #technology #careeradvise
Get formal training. I would never trust a non-technical person to consult me on cyber security. So much of hacking is deep in the weeds of technicalities.
Formal training in what?
Cybersecurity
Don’t listen to the people here who thinks you need formal training or certs in cyber. It’s all about the mindset and your ability to adapt / learn new concepts quickly. I started in finance and digital marketing and now I do application security. This is without a uni degree and being self-taught. There are plenty of people in your shoes working in cyber, in plenty of roles that are non-technical. If you understand basics of security, it should be enough to work as a PM thats focused on security if that’s your goal. I would say stick to your strengths and be a good project and people manager. There are too many technical people in security who lack people skills, so I think you have an advantage in that area.
Thank you for the kind words. I agree with you in that I should stick to my strengths. It was definitely a culture shock moving to this industry. Specifically seeing the difficulty in getting people/teams to work with each other. This is purely anecdotal and my opinion but what I learned in this field is that everyone thinks they’re the smartest person in the room. The reality is that most are highly specialized in one area and struggle when tasked with work outside of that specialization. It’s interesting hear from others working in this industry who came from “outside”. Thank you for your response.
How about getting a technical cert in IT, cyber, or an IT platform like AWS, G cloud, Salesforce, Atlassian etc? Or moving out of cyber and into more generic project management?
What do you mean by a technical cert? Like a fundamentals course in IT, Cyber etc? I should probably read up on it but when I think of PM outside of IT I think event planners and whatnot and unfortunately while that interests me the pay is better in Cyber.
CISSP or Ethical Hacker would be good ones