97 Things Every Information Security Professional Should Know

Chapter 5. Taking Control of Your Own Journey

Antoine Middleton

Earlier in my career, I struggled in many roles because I waited for someone to guide me through the wildness of information technology. My expectation was that if I showed up willing to learn, I would be taught by others. In hindsight, this was never the case and very naive of me. In reality, I had to become proficient at doing research, improving my soft skills, learning the unpopular processes, and excelling at the fundamentals.

You may think this sounds great, but it certainly requires an enormous amount of effort, sacrifice, and persistence to be successful. So what does this look like in practice? At one organization I worked for, I intentionally asked for access to the development environments and deployed every job-related tool possible. I saw this as my playground to learn, make mistakes, and grow. I was able to learn to code in Python using this method by expanding the internal toolset capabilities. This is not an overnight change. Consistency is the key. The shift to the cloud has also leveled the playing field in IT. Each cloud platform offers a free tier to gain the necessary experience whether currently employed or looking to gain employment. Taking control of your own career journey is one of the most powerful things you can do.

“The greats are the greatest because of their excellence in the fundamentals.” ...