Why Enter the Cyber Space?
An interview with Bret Fund, CEO of SecureSet
While working as a professor at University of Colorado Boulder, Bret Fund saw a disconnect between the entry-level qualifications that security firms look for, and the skills being taught at universities.
This realization prompted Bret to found SecureSet in 2014. The goal of the new program was twofold: to help students learn the tools necessary to begin a cybersecurity career, and to develop a talent pipeline that would keep companies safe from increasingly sophisticated hackers.
Bret has since grown SecureSet from startup to multiple campuses, as demand for cybersecurity professionals grows.
In an interview with SwitchUp, Bret talks more about his background, his predictions for the cybersecurity field, and his advice to new bootcamp students:
Your background is in business consulting, marketing, and teaching. What led you to found SecureSet?
I have been in and around the cybersecurity community for a long time, mostly on a personal level given that my professional pursuits were in business and education. Having been a professor and seeing the role of those types of educational institutions in preparing individuals for various occupations, I saw a disconnect between what many security professionals were looking for in an entry-level candidate and what many educational institutions could produce. I was also tired of seeing so many of our companies being attacked and failing to defend, largely because we didn’t have enough talent out there to help guard and defend. Naturally, I put my many years of professional education and business experience into building an institution focused on educating the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow 53% through 2018. Why is the industry seeing such rapid growth?
The industry is seeing such rapid growth due the persistent increase in active threats against our society as well as the shortage of programs that can adequately educate individuals to perform these dynamic job functions. There is also the problem that many of our products and software programs are not being designed with security in mind, which means we need more people on the backside of the process to secure things. This is not optimal, but has created a world where we will need a growing number of cybersecurity professionals to protect us from the vulnerabilities that we create for ourselves.
Where do you see cybersecurity headed over the next five years?
Over the next five years we will continue to see rapid changes in the cybersecurity industry in terms of the shifting roles of security professionals and I hope some consolidation on the products and tools being offered. On the talent side, the entry-level hurdles of today will not be enough for tomorrow. There will be more required from individuals in regard to the understanding and use of automation, analytics and/or engineering. We are already seeing trends in this direction which is why we work so closely with our employer partners to better understand what the growing gaps are for their people so that we can respond to those gaps in our educational model.
On the product side, we have a proliferation of products that address similar problems. At some point, that can’t be supported by investors and the dominant players will emerge and the sectors will experience consolidation. I expect we will start to see more of this in the next five years in the security product space.
How does SecureSet prepare students for careers in cybersecurity?
SecureSet is an immersive education company which means that we educate students by having them get their hands dirty with the problems, programs and processes that security professionals face on a day-to-day basis. We balance every hour of lecture with an hour of labs or some hands-on component. We work with employers to understand what is required of our graduates and then we develop and adapt our curriculum to meet those requirements. It means that we have to constantly be on our toes and embedded in the best practices of this field.
What are the job prospects for cybersecurity bootcamp grads? Do students need to have a technical undergraduate degree as well?
SecureSet has two programs; CORE Engineering is focused on developing engineers and pen testers whereas HUNT Analytics is focused on developing analysts.
While our CORE program doesn’t require a technical undergraduate degree, it does require some technical aptitude or experience to make the most of it. We interview every student to ensure that our students will be successful given the intense nature of the program. Usually individuals who have mathematics, network administration, system administration, web development, software programming or IT help desk experience do very well in the program regardless of whether or not they have a technical degree.
The HUNT program on the other hand does not require any technical experience or education. We do find, however, that students with backgrounds in business, stats, social sciences, English or hard sciences tend to do well in this analytical program. We can teach them enough of the technical-speak to communicate effectively with their coworkers, but the main focus of their job will be to spot trends and translate data and information to find and/or reduce security threats.
We are believers in helping our graduates beyond SecureSet and so we have established articulation agreements with several universities. This ensures that graduates who would like to continue their education can use the time they spent with us towards a 4-year degree or a masters degree. Not many bootcamps have done that, but we have because these degrees hold value in society and we understand and respect that. At the end of the day, we want to help our students find a career they love and one in which they can continue to grow and progress in. Sometimes that will mean they will need a 4-year degree or a masters to move up. We want to be a part of their long-term journey.
How can a student know if a cybersecurity career is the right fit for them?
The best way for someone to know if a cybersecurity career is right for them is to try it. We hold events every week so that people can try their hand at wireless hacking, application security, network sniffing and so on. There is only one way to find out if you like something and would be happy doing it and that is to try. We also help candidates talk to professionals in the industry to hear what it is like to see if it sounds appealing.
Check out our 6-week preparatory crash course PREP. You’ll learn the cybersecurity fundamentals (networks, systems, and python) for success in our programs. Learn more about it here.
For individuals who do not have much of a technical background, how can they prepare for a cybersecurity bootcamp?
There are so many resources available on the internet to help individuals start to play around with these concepts. The challenge with self-study, as we have all experienced, is that we create gaps in our knowledge and we don’t even know what we don’t know and so it makes it really hard to fill those gaps. That is why we created a PREP course that allows us to take individuals with little or no background in technical concepts and run them through the basics to see what their aptitude is and therefore which program might (or might not) be right for them.
Where are your grads now? Can you give me an example of a project that a SecureSet grad is working on?
We have grads working for employers across the country working on projects ranging from security consulting for Fortune 500 companies to actively hacking (penetration testing) companies to help them secure their corporate infrastructure better to working for federal agencies to help secure the nation. We help individuals find the right career and employer for them and have the network to do it.
Tell me about SecureSet’s career support. How do you help your students prepare for the job market?
Once a student shows up for the first day of class, they meet and begin working with one of our Career Service Managers (CSM). These CSM’s help prepare the students through resume revisions, mock interviewing and interview prep, classes on soft-skill development and so on. We also have built a robust Employer Partner Network who we work with to matchmake our students and their job openings. We host employer events on all of our campuses and hold at least two employer days for each cohort where our students are able to meet and interview with several of our employer partners.
What advice do you have for students who are interested in a cybersecurity bootcamp?
My advice for students interested in a cybersecurity bootcamp is to talk to anyone they know in the field about what it is like to work there, to make sure it sounds exciting to them. This is a career that is constantly challenging and so it requires individuals who love to learn and refuse to be stumped when solving problems. If they find this is interesting, they should look over the curriculum and instructors to make sure they are going to get everything they need to prepare them for their first job. This is where SwitchUp and other trusted resources can be very helpful. Once they find their opportunity, they need to commit and get ready for the ride of their life!
Check out how alumni chose SecureSet to learn cybersecurity on the SwitchUp reviews page.
