It feels nice to have a list of certifications to my name, but now that I’m winding down this phase of my initial certification process, I feel as if there’s more to do than ever….
Now that I’m having to confront the daunting tasks of:
- polishing my resume
- optimizing my LinkedIn
- exploring LinkedIn alternatives
- joining industry organizations
- networking within the industry
- relocating to a different state or city
not to mention APPLYING and INTERVIEWING for jobs……..
I can now understand and appreciate why a lot of people want to chase and collect certifications. It’s easy, in a way. I really want to keep doing it, actually.
It’s straightforward:
- Log into your learning platform of choice
- Watch videos / listen to lectures (perform graded tasks, depending on the course)
- Take practice exams
- Polish out the weak areas + review
- Take the real exam
I enjoy studying. I like learning!
The path forward, however…is less straightforward, less concrete, and certainly less comfortable.
Resume optimization is boring. Online jobs platforms are tedious to work with, and interactions tend to be transactional rather than in good faith. Also, the questions come:
How long will the job hunt take? Where will I go? What job will I get? Will it be the job I want? If I can’t find anything, do I go back to teaching? Was I sold a lie that there are so many job opportunities in this field? What’s the salary actually going to be like?
In the meantime:
- Keep reviewing previous course concepts/content
- Jump into my Active Directory course and AWS course
- Work on my Splunk project
- (I’m creating data simulating a series of cyber attacks that I will analyze and learn from)
- Keep this blog / website updated!
Lots to do! But not necessarily in a bad way.
See you tomorrow!
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