- What's next?
Well, this is an important question, right?
Because now you are reaching the end of this course.
You finish the book.
What's next?
What's next in your career?
Every time you analyze where you are
and where you want to go,
you need at least to be able to answer these questions.
What do you love doing?
What do you feel you are good at?
What do you believe the world needs from you?
What can you do well and get paid for?
These questions, you always going to be
asking those questions mainly when you reach
a point in your career that you believe
you are in a good place and but there
is something that you need to continue to achieve.
If you are able to align what you're passionate
about and get paid for it, that's perfect.
And if you are able to align what you love doing,
what you can contribute to the good of the world,
in the cybersecurity field, it is a positive force
on that because companies, they need to be secure.
Hospitals, they need to operate in a secure manner.
The financial system, they need to be secure.
Every single company needs to be secure,
so that things can go well.
So, it's a huge responsibility,
but also an amazing opportunity to do
something good for the world.
The cybersecurity field brings you that joy
and if you are passionate about this
and if you can get paid for that, that's awesome.
But you need to analyze what is next for you.
You got on your first job in cybersecurity.
It's time to continue to move on,
analyzing new opportunities, considering different aspects.
When you analyze, what is your current risk appetite,
why I'm saying that?
Well, because sometimes you are in a good place,
earning a good amount of money,
but there is absolutely zero opportunities to grow.
You are stuck.
You reach a point where you really cannot grow.
Is it worth to go to a place where you're gonna
earn a little bit less in the beginning
but there is tons of opportunities to grow?
If you look two years, three years from now
you can be making not only more money
but also pushing your career to the next level.
So you need to understand your risk appetites, you know
growth opportunity is very important.
Every time that you go to a job,
one of the questions that you can answer is,
okay, what is the growth opportunity of this job,
of this role?
How can I continue to grow in this position?
Very important to ask.
Work environment.
Do you like the place that you work?
Do you like your coworkers?
Do you like the culture of the company?
Those things you need to take
into consideration before moving forward.
I've seen people stay in the same company
because they love the culture and the work environment.
The salary, it's okay, but it's when they
look at the complete package, they were like,
oh, I'm okay with this because the overall package is good.
I'm not able to give that answer to you.
You have to evaluate yourself.
That's why it's important for you to do this assessment.
And then also understand is the current job that you work
in provides you a work-life balance that you aim for.
That's when you need to evaluate everything.
You need to evaluate those main things to see,
do I move to a different company?
Do I move to a different job within the same company?
What is my, what next for me?
Right?
And where do you wanna go?
Sometimes the line between where you are
and where you want to be requires change in the strategy.
Let's say that your current role is a cyber secure admin
and you really want to be a penetration tester.
That's your main goal.
Well, it looks like it won't be possible
for you to do this jump directly
because there is no open opportunities in your desirable.
So, maybe I will go and earn new certifications.
You'll learn new things,
and maybe I'll go to a different job
where I can gain some skills
that can be applicable to my ultimate goal.
So, for example, I can move from cybersecurity admin
to instant response professional to
then go to penetration test.
There are some skills that I'm accumulating over time.
So that's how you should think about that, right?
So don't think that,
well my next job needs to be the perfect one.
Well, sometimes it doesn't work this way.
Sometimes you have to go through different
hops to get there.
Final consideration, make sure to have
short, mid and long-term goals.
Keep you engaged and accountable for your own progress.
It's very important for you to understand
what's next for you in the short term,
in your current job in the midterm,
maybe a different job and a vision for the long term.
Where do you wanna go?
Only you can answer that.
And by navigating through the industry
you might see a different opportunity.
It's like, well, I started this whole thing
thinking that penetration test will be my dream job
but I just realized that actually,
I want to work as a cybersecurity architect.
I really like to look at things in a broad way, that's fine.
You're gonna discover yourself and what you like doing
in this field as you navigate through the options.
Why is it important for you to see progress?
Sometimes you need to understand
that improvements takes time.
So don't feel like because you're not getting
promoted for example, you're not progressing.
You cannot measure career progress only based on salary.
It doesn't really work that way.
You have to analyze the entire package.
Are you growing as a person?
Are you growing as a professional?
Do you have new skills?
Do you have more influence on other people
within your organization?
Outside of organization?
All those things is,
are important, right?
It's your own brand, as I mentioned before.
So don't measure improvements solely based on promotion.
That's a mistake.
And that can really cause you to not be motivated
to continue to work, right?
So you have to look at the overall
level of happiness as well.
Am I having a good work-life balance?
Am I able to do things that in the past
I was not able to do it?
All those things are important.
So think about that.
Continue to study, continue to improve
and good luck on your cyber security career.