I was laid off for the first time in my career last May. Many projects in the company had reduced funding and I was one of several people on my team who were laid off. The team I was on was the most supportive of my career so far and the project I was working on was one that interested me. Durante los meses anteriores, mi jefe me había asegurado que encontraría otro puesto en la empresa. I was lucky to know in advance that my role was in danger. I completed as many applications for internal positions as I could and interviewed for several of them. I also applied for a couple of roles outside the company, but at the time I was only focusing on internal roles. My manager had assured me on every call we had that I wasn’t sharing bad news. Weeks later, I got a call on my calendar with my manager and a Human Resources representative. I had no warning before the call about what it would be about. During the call I received my two weeks notice. My stomach dropped and I was shocked. Even though I knew I was at risk of being fired, hearing the news confirmed made me feel very different. I couldn’t believe it was really happening. My manager was very supportive and assured me that even though I would no longer be with the company, he would always be there to help and support me no matter where my career took me. I am very grateful to have had such an incredible coach.
At the time, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next in my career. Until now I had only been a software engineer with experience working in different teams using Java, Python and C++. I had grown tired of dealing with large codebases and trying to discover bugs that were heavily involved with the code. I felt like I was missing something because my teammates were able to debug the code much easier than I could. I’ve been a software engineer for a little over three and a half years and I thought that if I’m struggling even after all this experience, maybe pure software development isn’t for me.
Some of my other interests involved data science and cybersecurity. I worked on data science projects while I was at school and recently discovered cybersecurity as a potential path after discussing with a couple of colleagues and friends, as well as reading online about others’ experiences. An overwhelmingly common consensus was to obtain CompTIA Security+ certification as a starting point. The certification provides an introduction to security principles and is an entry-level certificate in this field. I started studying for the certification using Professor Messer’s free online course and O’Reilly eBooks with summaries, practice questions, and practice exams. I have access to O’Reilly included with my public library card. I purchased Security+ practice exams from Professor Messer to get more practice. It took me about two and a half months to study for the exam. The exam has a lot of content that took quite a while to digest. I took my exam on July 12 of this year and passed. Security+ gave me a comprehensive introduction to cybersecurity and I am pleased with my experience.
Solicité trabajos de ciberseguridad y, aunque el certificado Security+ marcó una casilla en la mayoría de las solicitudes, me quedé corto al no tener experiencia laboral directa en ciberseguridad o TI. I then further explored data science and took online courses on Python. I also completed projects on the platform, applying my skills. I rekindled my interest in data science. I used multiple platforms and was encouraged to apply for data science and machine learning positions, where I completely revised my resume, including personal projects and school projects.
A few days after passing the Security+ exam, I received a message from LinkedIn that took me to the r page.