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I’m a computer science major. I’m technically classed a sophomore because I take a lot of classes at a time, but I wont transfer to a 4 year school til spring 2025. I’m at a community college taking a degree specifically designed to transfer to a 4 year school and I’m only on my first actual computer programming class right now, it’s been all pre-reqs and gen-eds up until now so that once I transfer they’re all out of the way. When I transfer the plan is to switch to cybersecurity - the school I’m transferring to has a cybersecurity degree designed to pick up where my AS leaves off.
But I know nothing really as of right now! I’d appreciate any advice anyone in the field wants to give a very interested but very ignorant newbie who wants to learn. I come from emergency medical services so I have no experience in tech, but I’m fascinated with it.
(Disclaimer, I’m speaking from US and Canada based experience)
Be careful with CyberSecurity programs; it sounds great but there is no standard regarding what a cybersecurity degree even should be. Which means every place offering one can do whatever they want. Some programs are fine, some are lacking, regardless you have to make sure its actually preparing you for whatever part of security you’re actually interested in. It also means that on the hiring side, people won’t know exactly what its value is without looking into your specific program (which they probably won’t do). Which puts it at a lesser value than a more predictable degree. Still often acceptable at least but worth calling out.
If you’re new I’d also strongly encourage you to learn about different facets of cyber security; it is an absolutely massive field and different areas have different expectations. A lot of people have a misunderstandings about security jobs look like.
This is really good advice, thank you. Do you have any recommendations for trustworthy resources to learn more about cybersecurity, ie websites, YouTube channels, whatever? I’m so worried about misinformation.