Barclays Event

On October 5, I was able to attend an event at the Barclays Headquarters in New Jersey where I could get my resume reviewed and talk to real professionals within IT.

This was possible thanks to The Knowledge House, in which I am a current fellow and taking the cybersecurity track. It is thanks to them that we were given this awesome opportunity to get to meet and share our story and expertise to people within the IT industry.

Now at the actual event, I was able to meet four people who worked there, who I regrettably did not ask for their LinkedIn or any sort of contact info which is something I will not repeat whenever another opportunity like this arises. But apart from that, I got a lot of useful insights that day that I still carry to this day. A lot of it was more towards shaping my career path but also got some tips for interviewing when the time comes.

I was advised to work on personal projects because of all the learning I will get from the classes I take, what good will that knowledge be if I can’t prove that I can execute what I was taught? It will help to create a portfolio that will showcase my range of skills and I plan to do that as part of my career path. Those projects will have to be focused on the desired field I want to take, which is something I am still figuring out as I go through this fellowship at TKH.

One other important factor was to gain some certifications to add to my technical development and to add to my resume. I researched and realized there are a lot of certs to get within the cybersecurity field, and the most common one is CompTIA A+. My fellowship is working towards getting us CompTIA Security+ as we work through our courses so that will be the first step on the long journey towards setting up my path in Cybersecurity.