A couple of days ago, I was considering why I would want a job in Cybersecurity. I had begun researching ways I could use my coding skills in a Cybersecurity career and realized that I had not written down my reasons for looking into the field. I knew I had reasons but I had yet to concretely pin them down. After sitting down and making a mind map, I came up with my reasons for this stage of my life. In this article, I will discuss why a career in Cybersecurity is worthwhile due to the (1) growing need, (2) coding aspect, (3) ability to learn to hack legally, (4) pride, and (5) challenge.
(1) Need
One of the first things someone hears when they look into a Cybersecurity job is how much need there is in those fields. A quick Google search on this results in articles predicting a vast shortage in the industry in the coming years.
The budget that companies allot to Cybersecurity grows each year as there are more sophisticated, numerous, and costly hacks that can occur. After a company grows a certain amount, it’s almost expected they have a set budget for ransomware attacks. The practical reason I’ve thought this occurs is due in part that technology is outpacing the security sector. New things get created that we begin to use before we have a defense against all the ways to hack it. Therefore, the need is always growing for people to step up and learn how to defend data and people. This speaks to me because I enjoy helping and making a difference for others. This could be the millennial in me speaking but it feels good knowing you are improving and protecting people from harm’s way. There are always going to be careers that people can feel needed in, but there’s an added challenge with Cybersecurity that makes the bar for starting higher than other jobs. When something has a higher bar to start and be successful in, I interpret that to mean fewer people will fill the gap and so it’s more important to step up and help if you have the ability and motivation to do so.
(2) Coding
Another thing that comes up often, if you watch videos on Cybersecurity, is coding. Many of the videos agree that knowing how to code will make any career in Cybersecurity easier. I’m looking forward to putting the skills I’ve already acquired through my current career at Collins to use in the realm of Cybersecurity. I find coding enjoyable for many reasons. Whenever I code, it feels like I am building something from scratch. With just words on a screen in a specific order, something new is created. There’s a feeling, that other developers will recognize, from finishing a project or fixing a pesky bug. Aside from some relief that often comes (especially from eradicating that bug!), there is a feeling of accomplishment mixed with excitement from bringing something new to life.
The projects I’ve most enjoyed completing are the ones that I know a customer or user will benefit greatly from. This doesn’t always occur, and sometimes you have to take pleasure in the work and the beauty of creating, but the moments that a customer thanks you and appreciates a job well done can’t be replaced.
Within the field of Cybersecurity, I would imagine that this gets taken to another level, in some degree. If your code is secure and protects the user and company, you will never know it. I can imagine spending hours re-factoring or figuring out a more secure way to write a piece of code and never knowing if the time put in was worth it or not. With a web project, a developer can get direct feedback when something is successful in the production environment. However, for code that is built to be secure, outside of normal testing, there may not be a confirmation that it worked. It’s not as if a hacker will congratulate you on successfully keeping them out of your system! That’d be pretty funny to imagine though. In any case, even without confirmation, the knowledge that your code works to keep others safe is powerful and motivating.
(3) Hacking
Another reason for my interest in Cybersecurity may be a bit cliche. I haven’t done the research but it could be that when someone brings up Cybersecurity, one of the first images that come to mind is a hacker from a heist movie hacking into the cameras, “breaching the firewall”, and more wildly inaccurate stereotypes. I wish I had a Hollywood computer that could run and execute everything so quickly and flawlessly! In the real world, hacking is a lot different but I still find it very interesting. I’ve set up virtual labs in the past to go through Kali Linux tools, and it was fun to interact with computers from the perspective of a hacker. I’m not sure if I would want to be a penetration tester in the future, but I think it is important to at least know the tools that can be employed. There are capture-the-flag boot camps that have you work to break into vulnerable systems for points that I have participated in. Since I didn’t have a lot of knowledge at the time, I was using SQL injection to break into the virtual systems. Afterwards, tt has stuck in my head how dangerous SQL injection could be and I’ve made sure to check for that each time I write code that connects to the database. It’s cool to see how these things can work together with regard to learning about hacking and then making sure to create code that doesn’t allow that kind of hack to succeed.
(4) Pride
The next reason I am interested in Cybersecurity is related to something I touched on earlier. I would feel pride and a sense of validation from adding Cybersecurity expert to my identity. Part of who I am today is related to my work at Collins as a web developer. I take pride in my work and feel satisfaction from creating great products and completing important projects. When I think of the path that I would take as a developer throughout my career, I imagine it would be additional responsibilities with coding projects and likely some sort of management of other developers.
However, when I think about coding in the scope of a career as a Cybersecurity Specialist, knowing how to code is more of a stepping stone that is used to move the career along. In a way, I look up to those in the Cybersecurity field, who don’t only know how to program but are fluent in things such as network infrastructure, firewalls, and cloud servers to name a few. I don’t want to come across as selling programmers short or lowering the importance of coding but in my perspective, I see a career in Cybersecurity as an upgraded version of a software developer.
(5) Challenge
My final reason for my interest in Cybersecurity is knowing it will be a challenge. A quote that often comes to my mind is:
“If you don’t grow, you die.”
I heard this at a Tony Robbins conference but the original quote is:
“When you stop growing you start dying”, by William S. Burroughs.
I am by no means not growing when it comes to my career in software development, and I know that software development can be quite challenging, but I do feel that Cybersecurity is a greater challenge that would push me to grow differently and more powerfully than continuing only in software development. Part of this is due to the enormous amount of fields within Cybersecurity. I grabbed this screenshot showing how extensive each skill is and the amount of components within from a YouTube video I mention below.
While perusing YouTube to find more information on careers, one video, in particular, stuck with me. As the person from the Cyberspatial YouTube channel went through the basic steps to start working in a Cybersecurity career, he emphasized that it would take a long time and be challenging. He went on to compare mastery in Cybersecurity taking a similar amount of time as a doctor or lawyer. Why Cyber Security is Hard to Learn (Tips For Success!) The difference is that within those two fields, there is a set path to follow through the school system whereas a career in Cybersecurity is not so straightforward and may take longer due to most of your knowledge coming from on the job experience.
Conclusion
The journey to becoming an expert in a field is difficult and as you read, it’s no different within the field of Cybersecurity. With the growing need for specialists due to new technological advances, a career in this field would be and stay challenging. I believe there will be a lot of fun aspects that can offset those difficult moments through learning to hack as well as building exciting code which help you stay motivated to continue the journey. Along with those moments, I imagine that each day keeping people and their data safe will bring pride in the work. I hope that after reading this article you have learned why I find a career in Cybersecurity worthwhile.