The Importance of Networking in IT/Cyber
Over the course of the last few months, I have been trying to make a career change from customer service and sales to the world of IT and cyber security. After spending hours on various job boards like indeed, LinkedIn, dice I started to pick up a trend, these job listings are all unrealistic! You start seeing things like “master’s degree in IT required” for help desk roles. Another popular one is Entry Level Helpdesk, “Must have 5 years prior help desk experience”. I’m not a hiring manager but I doubt they truly want someone who’s spent 5 years already in an entry level role and is looking to transition to another entry level role, that doesn’t really show the applicant cares about personal career growth. So, I started exploring this in more depth, and talking to long term professionals and this is what I’ve found.
Often, IT departments are small, cyber security departments even smaller, and resources are limited. So, it tends to fall on HR alone to make job listing for open positions with little to no oversight from the department in need of an employee. So, the HR employee trying their best to do their job is really just performing google Fu to build the necessary job listings. Also, these websites rely heavily on algorithms to get employers the best applicants but what tends to happen is solid applicants aren’t selected due to the fact they didn’t use the proper buzz words in their resume or bio. This frustrated the hell out of me. There’s all these statistics about open roles in IT, open roles in cyber, fastest growing industries worldwide, but the gate for entry is locked tight. I’m not one to give up easily so I continued to ask around, started leaving my comfort zone. See, I think a lot of us, as nerds, hackers, makers, etc. tend to hold too tightly to being introverted. It’s comfortable, it’s what we know, but the world is changing, and we need to change with it and sometimes that means coming out of your comfort zone.
For me that meant being more active, that meant getting more involved, so I asked my closest friend what should I do? He said “Man, you’ve got to truly dedicate yourself to the craft, its not enough to posses the knowledge, you also have to share it. Help others grow, and be active in the community”, so I made an Instagram dedicated to cyber security and deleted my other social media profiles. I got a second job, saved money, and bought tickets to defcon, what better way to put myself out there than to attend a cyber sec conference with 25k other hackers!?
While at defcon, I tried to learn as much as possible but also, I tried to figure out, via people I met how to break into the industry. Unanimously I was told “Networking”, and not like dynamic routing, BGP, CIDR notation but going out and meeting people. So, that’s exactly what I did, I forced myself out of my comfort zone and started talking to strangers, putting myself out there. It was hard, especially not being in the industry, I felt small at times, but it all was worthwhile. As a result, so many doors opened for me, and a large amount of people were willing to offer me advice. Several people told me to build a solid LinkedIn consisting of some skills, but mainly you guessed it, networking, adding as many connects as possible. A common suggestion was to self-host a web site from scratch such as writing the code, setting up the domain, server etc., which will be a post from me in the coming weeks. Build a project portfolio was something I was told a lot, and all this valuable information stemmed from one decision to step out of my comfort zone and start networking with new people.
While I have yet to successfully land a job in the industry, many doors have been opening from me doing a few small things that I’ll list below:
1. Make new social media profiles
This seems silly, but like everything else these days, everything runs off of an algorithm, you want to build that algorithm with your interests in tech. Start friending people, joining groups, posting your projects, if you build it, they will come. It’s a good way to meet new people and a way to visual track your progression- your hobby/profession is your content. I met so many people at defcon that I followed on socials, and it was great to be able meet these awesome people in real life.
2. Get Involved
Find a local defcon group or cyber security group. Find a school tech group. Join discords, learn new things, and help others learn as well. It is easier than you think, the hardest part is pushing yourself past your comfort zone, once your there you’ll have a blast.
3. Attend Conferences
Attending conferences is a great way to network, groups of like-minded people all getting together to enjoy a day or a weekend or a week even of learning. There are usually great talks, workshops, ctfs, parties you name it, and every second of it benefits you. Your constantly absorbing information, constantly meeting new people and doing new things.
4. Build a solid LinkedIn
It seems silly, but a lot of my little steps in the right direction have come from that platform. I joke and call it professional social media, it’s a way to meet professionals, keep track of achievements, and get jobs. Also, unlike most other sites with job boards its easier to do a little OSINT on LinkedIn and find out exactly where you application ended up, which gives you the ability to stand out a bit more with a personalized follow up.
5. Don’t give up!
This goes without saying but if you’re trying to break into a new career, its going to be hard. It’s not going to come right away. It takes a lot of work and a lot of effort, learning to get root on a vulnerable box or find a web application vulnerability isn’t enough. You need to stay focused and disciplined and never give up.
This is a post I’m going to update at least once when I’ve successfully entered the industry. If you’re currently trying to make a career change, or just starting out in cyber, don’t give up. And network, network, network this industry is largely who you know as much as what you know.
