Navigating the Cybersecurity Career Path

Epilogue

Often, I walk away from mentoring meetings having learned something new or having been reminded of something I've long forgotten. It's always a joy and always useful for me. Ideally, it's useful for those I mentor.

Covering the questions that span a whole security career is impossible. In this book, I've tried to address the common ones — the ones that people most often ask and most often seem to struggle with. Each question area raises several follow up questions, so I hope I've addressed some of those, too.

The role of a mentor is never to give the answers; instead, it's to help the mentee to learn how to find the answers on their own. It's about helping them know how to frame the questions and how to think about the problems. It's about giving them context — why the issue exists and what factors contribute to the problem. In this book, I've attempted to do this for you, too; I've tried to give you the “why” in a general way, so you can find your own why and answer these questions for yourself.

A mentor helps others find their own answers because what worked for the mentor won't always work again. Being successful in any profession, particularly security, requires self-awareness. You need to know what motivates you to do this work and how your work environment fosters your spirit. Throughout this book, I have provided many resources to help you find the answers as you dig deeper into your particular problem. Many people in the security industry stand ready to help ...