Certifiably Starting a Certification

I’m finally getting into the certification game. As with this website, I’ve been putting it off for quite a while now, and I think that it’s time to get started. I’ve heard that certifications and experience is the way to go in cybersecurity, so I’m going to start with something that I learnt about at the CSE conference, and work my way up from there.

At the conference, I got to meet some interesting people which included a few ISC2 members. They were talking about the world of certifications and how it’s helped them in their careers. It was especially eye-opening to hear that most of the people in the room had no formal education in cybersecurity, but they were able to get into the field by getting certifications and experience. Of course, this isn’t to say that I’m going to drop out of University, but instead it’s made me think about ways to supplement my education and pad my CV.

I’ve decided to start with the free ISC2 Certified in Cyber Security course. It’s a self-paced course that covers the basics, which I should already have a bit of a grasp on from my studies, but it certainly can’t hurt to go over it again and come out with a certification at the end! I’m hoping that this will be the first of many certifications that I’ll be able to get, as well as some experience in taking exams and studying for them.

Whilst I despise exams, I think that since it’s a self-paced course and a topic which I enjoy, I hope that it changes my mind about them. I also hope that it gives me a little bit of a confidence boost. I find that I’ve been comparing myself to others a lot recently. I know that I shouldn’t, but my class is full of brilliant minds that are flourishing when it comes to cybersecurity. Hearing about all the placements and internships that they’re getting is making me feel envious (but mostly happy for my peers 😅). I sent an application out for a placement with Boeing last month, and whilst I haven’t heard back yet, I’m hoping that this certification, and the blog posts that I’ll be writing about it, will help me to stand out from the crowd and give me the edge that I need to get a placement.

Thanks for reading, I should probably start sharing this around on LinkedIn and stuff haha. See you in the next post!