How to start a career in IT/cyber security
Hi everyone! I need some help. I'm in my mid-thirties, and I had a growing career that, since covid, has gotten so flaky I can't properly provide for my family anymore. I have always been interested in tech, and would like to start a career but I'm not sure how to.
Can anyone in the field give me some advice? I don't have much college experience, only did 1 year 17/18 years ago. Looks like I need some sort of college degree, which I'm fine with.
I also saw some online "bootcamp" things... are they good? I would like to do something where I was helping companies be protected from hackers and work from home as much as possible. White hat hacker type of thing... if that's real!
Thank you everyone!
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Be careful about "boot camps", and I say this as someone who teaches at one on the side (coding, not security). A lot of them are kind of like degree mills - pay money, get stamp, maybe worthwhile or maybe worthless.
If you go that route, do a lot of research. The biggest thing I'd look for is that the instructors work in the field full time and teach on the side (because they love sharing info and teaching the next generation). Hire rates for grads is also a good indicator... But take close note of where those hires are at and ask if it's not published.
Any time I've come across these kind of programs where the boot camp instructors only job is teaching, the info is usually 10+ years dated and relatively useless past the absolute basics.
This 100% My experience only mattered because I was able to really involve myself and had a great relationship with my instructor, and still do, actually. There were people who failed out, so my specific program isn’t something I’d classify as a degree mill, but I 100% could’ve coasted through and retained nothing.
The relationship with the instructor is something I wanted to touch on but thought I'd maybe rambled too much already.
If it's a good program, they WANT you to succeed and they want to give you every possible advantage. You can show up to class, do the bare minimum, and maybe pass. But going the extra bit and asking good, useful, questions will get you much further.
I've never met an instructor who cares that isn't up for side discussions, private tutoring, and literally anything that helps the student squeeze as much info as possible before, during, and after the class. I have zero respect for anyone who teaches a class and refuses to do anything outside of the prescribed class hours... Makes me angry just thinking about it.
Edit: also if the instructor is working in the industry then they have a network that you can tap into... which is often more important