In my previous post, I spoke about having a strategy for beginning my career in Cybersecurity. That strategy was to accumulate as many resources for my learning journey. This would lead to many lessons learned about what NOT to do, especially when it comes to a learning process.

The learning process for everyone is different. People learn at different paces and in differing ways. Initially, my process was very sound. I was very focused on my tasks and what needed to be done. After my trip to Washington, my mindset suddenly changed. I felt the need to learn EVERYTHING immediately. Which we all know is completely unrealistic. Why did I change what I was doing? I've felt the pressure very early to learn as much as possible, so I can go into the job market with confidence and knowledge needed to work in this new industry. My insecurities about this process led to me learning the hard way in what not to do.

Besides the program I was already doing, I started watching Harvard's CS50 Computer Science course, along with that I bought all the books that I felt would help me on my journey. I signed up for free training on Cisco's platform, Splunk's free training, and many others. I can't even count at this point. My bookmarks tab is full of free courses on different aspects of cybersecurity. In the moment, I felt this was necessary because I wasn't confident in what I would know in the future. This was a major mistake.

Where did I go wrong? Having access to these resources and using them for learning isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you are already learning a lot; this can create diminishing returns. I'm already dedicating at least 20 hours a week towards the program I am in. Should I really put more on my plate with all of these extra learning resources? The answer was simply, no. Do not put more pressure on your learning process than you have to. I had a really sound process but felt the need to learn everything. Part of that came from the excitement of learning. Learning has unlocked a new portion of my mind that I didn't believe was there anymore. With that excitement, I trapped myself in a space where all I could do was fail, because no one would be able to retain all the information plus have enough time in the day to do all of this learning. If I had to go back in time, I would take less off of my plate, and continue to focus on the fundamentals of my course work and even my learning.

Fundamentals are critically important in the Cybersecurity/IT industry, and for some reason, I felt the need to do even more than what was required. Gaining a solid foundation of my fundamentals was the most critical aspect of my learning journey and I took that for granted. Strategy and Planning are completely different things. I had a strategy but had NO real plan of how to execute that strategy.

Lately, my planning has been at the forefront of my mind. As I go back through my coursework and draw closer to the end of my program, I've finally realized where I went wrong. Is all lost? Absolutely not. I'm glad that I've come to realize this and now can correct my wrongs. With a new found approach, it's taken some of the pressure of the career transition off of my shoulders. This new focus has allowed me to focus on my process and fundamentals. When the time comes that I get an opportunity in Cybersecurity, I have confidence I will be ready. Not simply because of what I know, but because I know how to learn it.

Have you guys struggled with this same thing? What is stressing you about your career transition? I look forward to hearing some replies, because I am curious whether some of my readers have struggled with this. If so, what are somethings you did to correct this?

Thank you so much for reading. Have a nice day and see you all next week.