What I’ve learned when I built my previous career
Before becoming a job I dislike, my career in Information Technology Security was once my goal, my promising career.
Weeks ago, I was talking to a colleague on the ride back from work. We were chatting about his future position in his IT service company. He wanted to change but didn’t know what to do. I told him « You can do anything you want.» He smiled daringly and then asked « How did you become an IT security engineer? » That question caught me off guard. He was interested in my job, that same job that I didn’t want anymore, that I didn’t like. IT security domain is quite a niche and not many people are qualified in France. He was curious and interested to know how I made my way into this niche.
Suddenly, I realized that It was once a job that I wanted to pursue. It was my goal to become an IT security engineer.
Trust the insight and set the goal
Back in 2004, during my bachelor, I didn’t know yet what specialty I wanted to choose for my future IT career. I still have a very vivid memory of that day where the IT system and network professor once told us that in the future IT security would be an important matter and the companies will recruit a lot of engineer to secure systems. His insight really inspired me. My goal was to find a promising career where I wouldn’t worry to find a good position. I trusted his insight. My intuition told me that he was right. From that moment, I’ve set the goal to work in IT security.
Bad circumstances
It was difficult to build skills and experiences in IT security because It was a domain that didn’t exist yet. So conditions were not favorable, there were:
– No IT security class taught in the engineering schools,
– No internships to be found,
– Very few specialized company,
– No position to be found on job boards.