SecureSet Tampa Graduation: It Takes a Community
By Kim Nitzschke, Community Manager at SecureSet Tampa.
Congratulations to the Tampa Bay infosec community! SecureSet Academy’s Tampa campus recently graduated its first cohorts of cybersecurity professionals. The dedication, determination and perseverance of our awesome students has been paramount to the success they have achieved. They have excelled and thrived in our programs, and we are uber proud of them. Several students have already started hitting the frontlines (in their new jobs) and are securing organizations worldwide.
Our students
Our students come from various walks of life. Some are bonafide IT experts before entering our academy, while others are analysts, musicians, or programmers from unrelated fields. Every SecureSet student is unique, but they all share a passion for cybersecurity, and for working towards a more secure future. No matter how experienced our students are, prior to their first day of class, our goal is to use our 50% classroom and 50% hands-on lab approach to ensure that they graduate with the skills and mindset that they’ll need in order to succeed as cybersecurity professionals.
This cohort’s education included trips to local SOCs (Security Operation Centers) at companies where students were able to learn about local operations. Tampa Bay’s tech community is extremely active and growing, and we’re happy to have had the opportunity to send our students to local technology meetings, summits, conferences and symposiums. The Tampa Bay infosec community welcomed our first cohort with open arms, and they have played a key role in placing nearly 50% of our graduates in cyber-careers, within a month of graduation.
Our Community
The success of these students would not have been possible without the Tampa infosec community. Our community has played an integral role in the success of our students. They helped to start them off on the right foot through participation in workshops and classroom activities and then they openly welcomed them into the Tampa cyber-scene. The Tampa Bay infosec community includes cybersecurity enthusiasts and professionals from both for-profit and non-profit businesses, as well as academia, agencies and organizations. All of these organizations share a common goal; filling the infosec gap in the Tampa Bay area.
Before SecureSet Tampa opened its doors to our rookie class, it opened its doors to the Tampa Bay Community. Just over a year ago, SecureSet introduced itself to the Tampa Community with a series of meetups through its Learn Cybersecurity Tampa, and Tampa Cybersecurity meetup. In this short time, the combined membership of these two meetup groups has grown to over 1200 members. Meetups sponsored by SecureSet Academy are weekly, on-campus events that include Capture The Flag, Hacking 101, Career Conversations, and Expert Series. These free meetups are intended to pique your curiosity, in the world of cybersecurity, and would not be possible without the Tampa infosec community.
Moving Forward
So to our SecureSet Tampa graduates, we wish you all the best as you move forward in your careers. We know you’ll do great things, working hand-in-hand with our awesome cybersec community. If you’re an organization looking to hire our grads, please visit us at secureset.com/hire-a-grad.
Are you looking for a place to hold your own cybersecurity Meetup? SecureSet is happy to host the Tampa cybersec community. Please contact tampa@secureset.com for more info.
Kim Nitzschke is the Community Manager for SecureSet’s Tampa Campus. Kim is responsible for the implementation of SecureSet’s prospective student engagement and counseling strategy in Tampa for both civilian and military/Veteran communities. She brings over twenty years of experience to this high-energy role. Prior to joining the SecureSet Tampa team, Kim served Apex Data Solutions as a Project Coordinator where she managed software development for V.A. contracts. She resides in Tampa with her family.
