Pursuing career switch into cyber. About to get security+ but should I go to grad school (2.5yrs part-time) or go certification route (AWS, GIAC, etc.)?

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Grad school not worth it. Get certs. Source. I did grad school

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What certs do you recommend?

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GIAC Certs now. Mba later (if you want to transition away from tech towards architecture and strategy)

Forget the masters in cyber....unless you are getting the sans / giac masters (which is just 8 or so courses). Every masters in cyber graduate i have spoken to has left me disappointed

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What disappointed you?

Certs OP! Done both grad and certs and I'm kicking myself for doing grad school.

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It can definitely be done. I actually did the same myself when working my way into Cyber. Did an MBA while working full time and got Sec+ and ITIL at the same time.

Certification.

smart

I say go the cert route while doing grad school in the background (if possible).

I don’t think I’d be able to handle a full-time job, studying for certifications AND grad school on top of that... only so many hours in a day

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I tried this. Unless your program has built in cert class it's not recommended

I got into security with no prior IT experience and got a grad degree. Personally don’t think I would have a job at ACN with just certs. What do you guys think?

Look I’ve done my Masters and was working on my certifications at the same time. My recommendation is to obtain certifications to better yourself. A Master’s degree just add more weight but not a lot. When it’s all said and done it’s about experience.

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OP what’s your background, what are you doing now? What degree do you currently have?

A little more info would help us guide you regarding the grad school decision.

Cool, I had a very similar background when I switched to cyber. Had graduated with a BBA in infosys, heavier on the accounting end of things and spent my first two years post-grad doing SAS70 work.

I took the sec+ and CISA to get some relevant certs and applied for B4 cyber jobs that were more assessment oriented. Tailored my resume to highlight the more Cybery things and that’s was that.

Once I got the gig I had to rebuild a network so I just took control of the narrative at that point and rebranded myself, put in a lot of personal time learning new things on the side. Today I lead a handful of service offerings that are implementation oriented.

Overall, I wouldn’t spend the money/time on grad school. Get in somewhere and use the time to grow yourself in a professional environment.

O and if you’re interested in KPMG, send me a PM.

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@op make sure you can build and talk about regular networking concepts. You don't want to look like a deer in headlights when someone starts talking about using extending active directory into the cloud using a read only dc

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