- As I mentioned before, there are plenty of opportunities,
not only outside, but inside,
assuming that you are working in an organization
that has some sort of information security department,
which is very common nowadays.
So how can you establish a connection
with the security team inside of your organization?
Because they can help you, and they need help.
Usually, those teams, they are very shorthanded,
so they are really looking for volunteers to do things.
Of course, this means that you're gonna stretch yourself.
You're gonna get out of your comfortable zone,
and you're gonna do something
that, honestly, is really not part of your job description,
but it's an investment.
That's how you need to look at it.
A lot of people, they don't do this type of work
because they come up with that idea,
"Oh, I'm not paid to do that,"
or, "My manager is not gonna recognize me for this work."
Look, it's your career. It's your investment.
There are moments in our life
that we need to do some sacrifice
to harvest the results in the future.
So working a little bit more to gain that experience
is usually priceless, because it's your knowledge.
You are gaining that knowledge
by providing some of your time.
So as it's an exchange. It's an investment.
So think about, there are ways to create connections.
For example, building a relationship
with internal information security team,
so that you can collaborate and do some work together.
You know, you can research the distribution list
in your organization.
Let's say, you have no idea
who is part of the security team.
Or go to your Outlook or whatever platform
that they use to collaborate
and look for the distribution list.
Who is part of the distribution list?
Who is part of the security team?
Reach out. Schedule a meeting.
Schedule a 30 minutes meeting to discuss,
and make yourself available.
Being passionate means going after what you want.
So you really need to break those barriers.
You need to be the one that you step forward.
You cannot wait someone to hold your hand
and show everything that is available.
You need to step up.
Really start feeling comfortable
in uncomfortable situations, because that's the way
that you're going to break through those barriers
of migrating from an area to cybersecurity.
So, the other thing that you can do also
is as you start gaining knowledge about cybersecurity,
start creating content.
Start creating content.
There's a lot of blog platforms out there.
So create blog posts.
Even if it is level 100,
there is always someone that's gonna benefit from there.
So think about giving back to the community.
That's how you create, you start creating your reputation
is by sharing your knowledge with others.
Write the blog posts.
Share on LinkedIn. Share on Twitter.
Share in which social media you want,
so that people start reading it and noticing your work.
So that's very important. Create videos.
There's a lot of opportunities to create videos nowadays.
So create videos, videos on YouTube,
videos in different platforms.
There are options available for you to gain visibility,
to gain momentum, and to start receiving feedback.
Now, keep in mind that as you expose yourself more and more
to do those things, there will always be criticism,
and people will criticize your work.
Don't take it personal,
because some people really have a good intention
of improving your work.
So take feedback as gold, because there's an opportunity
for you to do differently and do better.
There are other ways also to engage,
for example, online groups.
You can join online groups,
usually available in many platforms, including LinkedIn.
You can join the groups also on platform X,
formerly known as Twitter.
LinkedIn, as I said, there are other opportunities.
So join those groups.
Start discussing. Start reading it, right?
Sometimes you say, "Well, I have nothing to offer."
Okay, so start in read-only mode.
And then, here and there, share something.
And then when possible, reply to someone.
You don't have to go all in, 100% at once.
You gradually do this as you start gaining experience,
as you start feeling comfortable in the field.
And of course, in parallel to all that,
you're gonna be studying.
You're gonna be doing projects.
So everything is part of this plan to grow
and establish yourself in the cybersecurity fields.