- The cybersecurity community is very rich,
they are very open-minded,
they really are welcoming for different disciplines.
It's really enjoyable place to network,
but there are many, and you need to know how to navigate.
The recommendation is really to start
with local conferences.
Nowadays, the possibility to do things online, is quite big.
I understand that,
and you should definitely start establishing
your online footprint,
but if you have the opportunity to visit local conferences,
and mainly the ones led by Bsides.
Bsides is a very well-known conference
that was created with the intent
to really bring the local communities together,
so you're gonna have Bsides in each city
across the US.
For example, you have BsidesDFW here in Dallas,
you have Bsides Austin.
There are many chapters available.
And, it's very cheap for the most part,
so you keep the eye on their calendar,
and you can visit their conference
and start really participating more.
And why is this important?
Because honestly,
there is nothing like the face-to-face interaction.
It really creates an impression,
it really allows you to establish a better bond with people,
and really, dialogue.
So get out of your office,
and try to visit some of those chapters.
Once you feel more comfortable,
you can start expanding and go to bigger conference.
And why is it good to start small?
Well, because you build some of the networking,
you start knowing people,
and you start knowing more about
what the market is really demanding,
because during those local conference,
they share a lot of insights on that.
But the next option is, okay,
now I want to go to something big,
something that I'm gonna have to invest more money.
One of the biggest ones, conference, that is available,
is Black Hat,
because Black Hat
is really the pentacle of security conference
for a lot of professionals,
because there is technical content,
there is networking,
there is different levels of technical content available
throughout the entire conference.
Not only coming from secure researchers,
but also from the major vendors.
So it's a very good mix between pure technical,
and also emerging trends and things like that.
Now, if you are going more into a sales capability,
for example, if you think, oh, I want to work with security,
but from the sales perspective,
I want to sell security products,
the RSA is a good option.
And I categorize more on the sales perspective,
because it's very vendor oriented.
What you're gonna see in RSA,
is a very heavily vendor-oriented conference,
where many vendors will basically showcase their solution.
They will talk about security in general, of course,
don't take me wrong,
but it is a very vendor presence,
not only on the expo hall,
but also across the talks.
The Defcon is more deep, right?
The Defcon is way more hands-on,
is way more hacking mindset.
So that's a good one if you are a little bit more advanced.
I wouldn't go right off the bat to the Defcon,
because maybe there are many things
that you would not even understand.
So gradually, you could think about that
one year after you are already in the cyber world,
and you want to navigate into that,
that would be a good option.
Blue Hat is more Microsoft oriented, right?
It's a conference that is sponsored by Microsoft,
that usually happens in Redmond.
And there is one day available,
is much more days,
but there are some days that are Microsoft employees only,
and there is one or two days available for the public.
So it's a good one
if you are heavily Microsoft oriented,
it's good to understand what Microsoft is bringing,
when it comes to security.
Hacker Halted is sponsored by EC-Council.
It's a good one too.
It's vendor agnostic.
It can be technical,
for the most part,
there is a lot of technical content there.
It usually takes place in Atlanta, when it's in person.
During Covid, of course, it was online,
but now it's back to happening in person.
So it's a good one to attend as well.
You have to navigate through those options,
and you have to think about the opportunities to expand.
So I always look outward and inward.
What I mean by that is,
yes, there is a lot of things out there,
like the conferences,
like the large events that I just mentioned.
You can think about independent consultant business,
you can think about volunteer opportunities.
There's a lot of things that you can start to navigate,
but never ignore the opportunities
that you have already available in your job.
Because, even if you are not working with security,
you can still partner with security teams
inside of your organization,
because inside of your organization
you do have the IT department,
you do have the privacy and compliance department,
for the most part,
and information security.
So how can you start, you know, working with them
to learn more about what they do,
and start gaining that knowledge,
and even if it is a project, a temporary project.
So do not ignore the opportunities that are available
in your current job.
It's really important for you
to network inside of your organization.
A lot of people, they ignore that,
because they just wanna get out
and start with this new chapter in cyber,
but you are already working in an organization
that most likely already has an information security team.
Why not learn from them?
So, seek for those opportunities.