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You're reading from  Cybersecurity Career Master Plan

Product typeBook
Published inSep 2021
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781801073561
Edition1st Edition
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Authors (4):
Dr. Gerald Auger
Dr. Gerald Auger
author image
Dr. Gerald Auger

Dr. Gerald Auger has worked within information security since 2006 and holds a PhD in cyber operations. Gerald has helped tens of thousands of aspiring cybersecurity professionals through his "Simply Cyber" YouTube channel and is regularly interviewed for his thoughts on cybersecurity professional development. Gerald is a full-time information security practitioner, adjunct faculty at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina; chief content creator for Simply Cyber; and managing director at Coastal Information Security Group.
Read more about Dr. Gerald Auger

Jaclyn “Jax” Scott
Jaclyn “Jax” Scott
author image
Jaclyn “Jax” Scott

Jaclyn "Jax" Scott is a tenured Special Operations Warrant Officer with nearly 18 years of experience working in military cyber, electronic warfare, and intelligence operations. She is the founder and content creator of Beans and Bytes tech blog, co-host of the cybersecurity podcast Hackerz and Haecksen, and the president of Outpost Gray, a cybersecurity consulting firm. Jax is an expert in military cyber policy and has led global development operations in cyber countermeasures to mitigate near-peer attacks. She is currently pursuing her master's in Cyber Intelligence at Georgetown University.
Read more about Jaclyn “Jax” Scott

Jonathan Helmus
Jonathan Helmus
author image
Jonathan Helmus

Jonathan Helmus ("Moos1e") is a penetration tester and professor with over 10 years of experience in engineering, information security, and information technology. Jon resides in a small town right outside Seattle, Washington, where he and his family raise alpacas on their mini farm. Currently, Jon works as a freelance educator teaching topics such as pentesting, red teaming, cloud security, and vulnerability exploitation. He also works as a contract pentester and cloud security professional for clients all around the world.
Read more about Jonathan Helmus

Kim Nguyen
Kim Nguyen
author image
Kim Nguyen

Kim Nguyen is a Software Engineer, with a broad background thanks to her B.S. in business administration and M.S. in computer science. Kim's day-to-day work focuses on software engineering of cloud-based technologies, while continuing her research into cybersecurity on the side. Kim is also an instructor at the City University of Seattle, where she teaches computer science courses. She is an active technical speaker and researcher at cybersecurity and computer science conferences. Kim holds several certificates, including AWS Certified Developer and CompTIA Linux+. Kim is the founder of Passion Sets Success, a platform that helps people identify their passion, to achieve the right career for them.
Read more about Kim Nguyen

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Preface

Cybersecurity is an incredibly dynamic field that is in the news nearly daily. An eternal cat-and-mouse struggle rages between threat actors and cybersecurity practitioners as vulnerabilities are discovered and attack strategies are refined as quickly as patches are deployed and awareness is heightened.

Now is the golden age of getting into cybersecurity. Many resources you can use to develop yourself are free or reasonably priced, and the ability to engage in community discussion through social media has led to massive networking opportunities.

This book is a complete plan to help you decode the field and understand a direction to head in, the tools and supplies to take on your journey, and how to achieve your destination.

This book is broken down into nine chapters across three logical sections aligned with a career chronology. Section 1 shapes the space of cybersecurity and helps you answer the question, "Is a job in cybersecurity right for me, and if so, which?"

Section 2 takes the velocity from section 1 and throws fuel on the fire, showing you how to apply your knowledge, skills, and abilities in the field and how to showcase yourself to potential hiring managers.

Section 3 finishes strong by showing you how to level up your career once you're in the field and how to manage the process of setting actionable goals and accomplishing them.

Who this book is for

Cybersecurity careers are hyper-inclusive. You can be a recent college graduate, a transitioning service member, a mid-career professional looking for a different challenge, a stay-at-home parent who is ready to return to the workforce, a high school drop out, and many other unique situations. All of these backgrounds have the potential for a successful experience in the cybersecurity field.

This book makes no assumptions of your technical acumen, your prior work experience, or any socio-economic factors. If you are slightly curious or ferociously hungry about a career in cybersecurity, then this book is for you.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, New Career in Cyber... "Who Dis?", explores the current state of the cybersecurity industry and security frameworks, as well as the pros and cons of entering the industry.

Chapter 2, Which Career Field Is Best for You?, guides you in helping you to understand which area in the extensive field of cybersecurity is right for you.

Chapter 3, Different Strokes for Different Folks, explains how it's not just what role you want but also what industry and environment you want to work in. We explore multiple sectors, such as finance, healthcare, and energy, to highlight the pros and cons of each.

Chapter 4, Exploring Certifications and College, explores various approaches to certifications and their value in the field and examines the benefits of a college education.

Chapter 5, Getting Hands-On Experience with No Experience, covers how hands-on experience is a key differentiator for hiring managers when evaluating candidates to hire. It can be tough to get experience without the job first, and we explore precisely how to earn that experience through labs for various roles in the industry.

Chapter 6, Time to Brand Yourself – Not the Burning Type, explains how to best position yourself as a member of the cybersecurity community through engagement and contributions that will help you differentiate yourself.

Chapter 7, How to Land a Jay-Oh-Bee!, dives headfirst into how to find cybersecurity employment opportunities to get you excited. This is only half the battle, as we also explore tips to refine your résumé to stand out from the crowd and how to ace your interviews.

Chapter 8, Giving Back to Others and Yourself, covers how, given that the cybersecurity industry is constantly changing, threat actors are refining their craft, and Big Tech is constantly innovating market solutions, to stay on top of your game through knowledge-sharing and mentoring, and how to manage a mentally healthy balance between work and life.

Chapter 9, Trusting the Process, explores how to establish actionable goals and milestones as you embark on your cybersecurity career journey.

To get the most out of this book

To perform the hands-on exercise in Chapter 5, Getting Hands-On Experience with No Experience, you will need the following prerequisites:

Code in Action

The Code in Action videos for this book can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3BMDv8X.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781801073561_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "In this text field, input ip.addr==10.11.11.94 and hit Enter."

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: "You will have to use the Register new user option to begin."

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at customercare@packtpub.com and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at copyright@packt.com with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

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Authors (4)

author image
Dr. Gerald Auger

Dr. Gerald Auger has worked within information security since 2006 and holds a PhD in cyber operations. Gerald has helped tens of thousands of aspiring cybersecurity professionals through his "Simply Cyber" YouTube channel and is regularly interviewed for his thoughts on cybersecurity professional development. Gerald is a full-time information security practitioner, adjunct faculty at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina; chief content creator for Simply Cyber; and managing director at Coastal Information Security Group.
Read more about Dr. Gerald Auger

author image
Jaclyn “Jax” Scott

Jaclyn "Jax" Scott is a tenured Special Operations Warrant Officer with nearly 18 years of experience working in military cyber, electronic warfare, and intelligence operations. She is the founder and content creator of Beans and Bytes tech blog, co-host of the cybersecurity podcast Hackerz and Haecksen, and the president of Outpost Gray, a cybersecurity consulting firm. Jax is an expert in military cyber policy and has led global development operations in cyber countermeasures to mitigate near-peer attacks. She is currently pursuing her master's in Cyber Intelligence at Georgetown University.
Read more about Jaclyn “Jax” Scott

author image
Jonathan Helmus

Jonathan Helmus ("Moos1e") is a penetration tester and professor with over 10 years of experience in engineering, information security, and information technology. Jon resides in a small town right outside Seattle, Washington, where he and his family raise alpacas on their mini farm. Currently, Jon works as a freelance educator teaching topics such as pentesting, red teaming, cloud security, and vulnerability exploitation. He also works as a contract pentester and cloud security professional for clients all around the world.
Read more about Jonathan Helmus

author image
Kim Nguyen

Kim Nguyen is a Software Engineer, with a broad background thanks to her B.S. in business administration and M.S. in computer science. Kim's day-to-day work focuses on software engineering of cloud-based technologies, while continuing her research into cybersecurity on the side. Kim is also an instructor at the City University of Seattle, where she teaches computer science courses. She is an active technical speaker and researcher at cybersecurity and computer science conferences. Kim holds several certificates, including AWS Certified Developer and CompTIA Linux+. Kim is the founder of Passion Sets Success, a platform that helps people identify their passion, to achieve the right career for them.
Read more about Kim Nguyen