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I'm helping a young man who is interested in cybersecurity. I advised him that a computer science degree is considered a baseline stronger degree and then he could do certifications after that focus on cybersecurity. Does anyone agree with this? This is not my subject of expertise. Again, he wants to do forensic cybersecurity. Any thoughts from those with experience would be helpful and appreciated. By the way, he's young... so no job experience and no degree yet.
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My opinion: since he's still young, if he has the aptitude and interest, a computer science degree would be the better option in the long run to build a stronger computing foundation and give him more long term flexibility. After he finishes that, like you said he can get some certifications to "specialize" more in cybersecurity. Another option is getting a cybersecurity focused master's degree afterwards like WGU's MSCSIA or Georgia Tech's OMSCybersecurity(or their OMSCS with more cybersecurity electives). While in college, the thing that will help the most is going for internships and networking which will both take assertiveness/initiative on his part.
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(01-09-2023, 05:56 AM)indigoshuffle Wrote: I'm helping a young man who is interested in cybersecurity. I advised him that a computer science degree is considered a baseline stronger degree and then he could do certifications after that focus on cybersecurity. Does anyone agree with this? This is not my subject of expertise. Again, he wants to do forensic cybersecurity. Any thoughts from those with experience would be helpful and appreciated. By the way, he's young... so no job experience and no degree yet.
I second this as well. Focus broadly first, then focus more narrowly. First gig may not be cyber-security specific, but might be more of a foot in the door. Plus things change, and in two years he might decide that AI is more interesting.
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I think there's nothing wrong with just getting a degree in Cybersecurity. I might offer the opinion that CS is "better" but it really isn't necessarily so, and if the student isn't interested in CS, can't do the math required, or doesn't want to get a master's, then you may put them off of both of these degrees entirely.
It's not always helpful to tell people "better" options when you're not certain they're better for that person. If you told me that a BSBA was just ok, but I'd be far better off with an MBA, that would have made me think "if I have to get a master's degree to do this, I am not going to get a degree at all!" That would have put me off of college entirely!
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01-09-2023, 02:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-09-2023, 02:13 PM by jsd.)
I work in the field. Depending on what they want to do within the field, the knowledge gained by a CompSci degree would generally be more beneficial. But the field is huge and there is a lot of wiggle room there. For example, if they're more interested in the risk and compliance side, I think they'd be better served with the Cybersec degree.
For forensics, I'd lean heavily towards CompSci.
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There's no point in pushing a CS degree on someone if they don't want to do CS work or don't have a strong aptitude for it. Your young friend should only do CS if they have an interest in it. Otherwise, they'd be better off going directly to CyberSec.
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FWIW-
Guild Education works with some large companies that offer tuition assistance. I think, for example, a person could work at places like Walmart and Lowes (even part-time) and qualify to have 100% of their tuition, books, etc covered for some cybersecurity programs. There's an AAS cybersecurity @ Rio Salado that's covered, and a BS cybersecurity @ University of Maryland GC and Wilmington University. Programs covered might differ between various employers so it'd take a little digging to nail down options.
You said this young person had no job experience so thought this might be worth considering.
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01-10-2023, 10:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-10-2023, 10:28 AM by FastTrackDegree.)
He might want to loook into IBMs cybersecurity apprenticeships (48 ace credits), not sure about the requirements though. There are also companies like Praxis that helps with apprenticeships that leads to jobs. Also, the military would make sense for cybersecurity.
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Thank you all. This was helpful. I'll have him read this thread and encourage him to open an account of his own.
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