Cybersecurity Retraining Accountability Thread

[CyberSecMum]

I am making this the year I retrain in cybersecurity and get a job that pays my bills and works for my learning difficulties.

I followed last year's thread on retraining in cybersecurity with great interest (I wasn't the OP), bookmarked the recommended Roppers Academy and... it's taken a year (and another baby) for me to get started. I am not a maths whiz and I will be working this around looking after an SEN child and a baby.

The Roppers course is 100% free and you get a certificate at the end.

It says it's best to study it in groups of 4, presumably so that if your accountability partner drops off the face of the earth there are more people around you to help you (and you them).

Whether you're following this course or another one, it would be great to have a thread for all of us who are retraining in cybersecurity (or interested in it) so we can share tips, keep each other moving towards our goal of a new career, and more.

Anyone else doing cybersecurity right now?

Also. for anyone else who was following the other cybersecurity thread a year ago, the website URL for Roppers Academy has changed and it is now here: www.roppers.org/
There is a redirect though.

The old MN thread is here if you want a read, because it has some really cracking advice from Cybersec professionals: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4272155-To-consider-retraining-in-cyber-security-in-my-mid-thirties
I'd love to hear from the OP of that thread if you made the leap and how it's all going?

Have you started it yet? I'm doing some training with Firebrand. They do a boot camp in cyber security and it's free if you are not working or a student. It's two days a week, one day is about getting into the IT industry and the other is a long day of activity based training. I'm doing a data analyst course, not cybersecurity but I can vouch for it being thorough and effective.

Thank you for this thread, its something that interests me and I'd like to learn more.

@Mxflamingnoravera Yes I started yesterday though, so I'm not very far through it. It's self-paced distance learning. I'll look at the Firebrand one as well, as it's always worth having more than one course on a topic. I'd like to get all the basics down so I can really nail this!

@Thelnebriati You're welcome, and I hope you can get enough information to make an informed decision. Are you working currently? I'm mainly at home with the kids, cleaning biscuits out of the carpet and playing "line up the cars" with DC1.

@Mxflamingnoravera Also, this might be a silly question, but what does data analyst involve? I've heard of it a lot lately. Is it related to database management?

There is definitely a skills shortage in cybersecurity and it is an industry that is only going to get bigger.

The course on the website is not going to help secure a job, but it looks good for seeing if you are interested in the area and developing fundamental skills. It seems surprisingly detailed, well organised and fun (subjective, of course)!

However, I'd be tempted to look for a shorter course on somewhere like Coursera or edX, particularly one that will say what prior experience is recommended.

From a practical viewpoint, to secure a job in cybersecurity most people have at least one of:
~relevant accredited qualification(s)
~STEM based A-levels (or equivalent)
~a numerate degree
~adjacent experience (such as in IT or military).

There are other entry points such as joining the army or apprenticeships which can be done with no experience or qualifications. They are usually only suitable if you don't have dependents as the pay is very low.

Data Analyst is super whizzy excel to create dashboards, present data, use high level functions, pivot tables and M S azure (not started that but yet, so I'm not sure what it does!

I'm not currently working, I'm disabled and mostly stuck at home. My health has generally been bad but not too bad that I couldn't study something interesting and not too demanding. I get occasional brain fog which doesn't help.
Human behaviour interests me, its often a weak point in a security system. I really suck at maths, that's something I'd like to improve.

It might not be how you meant it but this is coming across as very patronising. You might want to examine your assumptions about other people. Most mothers have qualifications these days. For example, I have an MSc in geographical information systems.

@Mxflamingnoravera Oh wow that sounds really cool! I've heard of pivot tables (I used them once, badly, in my MSc). I'd like to play around with that side of things more but I don't really have a dataset to work on lol.
@Thelnebriati Where did you get to with maths? I did A-level but it was an uphill battle due to dyscalculia. It sounds like your interest intersects between criminology and cybersecurity.

Pivot tables are cool and not difficult. There is a course on Alison (free online training) I can suggest if you'd like to learn?
Let me know if you're interested and I'll send a link.

Hi @CyberSecMum, how did you get on with the course and where are you on your journey into cybersecurity?