Opinion about Changing to a new Industry

[anthony.deprato]

Hi all-

I've been in K-12 education for over 15 years and love what I do. But, I'm at a point where I'm looking to mix things up a bit. I've got a CISSP under my belt and have picked up many CIO skills along the way. Now, I'm thinking of jumping into a field where these skills, especially security clearance, are in demand.

I'm pretty new to this kind of shift and could use some pointers:

-Any tips on moving from education to a more security-focused role?
-How can I make my education experience look appealing for these kinds of jobs?
-Networking – who should I talk to, where should I be looking?


I'd appreciate any advice or stories you guys might have about making a similar move. Just trying to figure out the best way to approach this, and who better to ask than all of you, right?

I may cross-post this if I do not see any traction on the job board .

[rbc]

Just a couple of thoughts. You may have had some exposure to HIPAA while you were working in education, maybe think about the heath care industry as a new path. You could always try to scale up to a bigger kind of school, maybe move to the college/university side, where they may have more of a CISO organization to exercise your cyber security skills and training.

[shaneadams]

On your second bullet point, how to convert education experience into the job. If you have been teaching you have a pretty unique skill for being able to translate technical subjects and topics to non technical people. That is very much in demand. I attribute many of my successes to having been a Novell Instructor very early in my career and had to use that skill to be successful. Over the years, I've been able to leverage that in communications with anyone from executive to end users. Make sure you are taking advantage of that!

Do you know what area of cybersecurity you would like to be in? Software security, GRC, analysis, etc...