(Originally Posted on the VIA Resources Blog here.)
Advancing your career in information security, let alone getting a job in it in the first place is challenging and sometimes overwhelming at best. It can often feel like an exclusive club that is hard to break into, and the “elder statesmen” of the community distant and aloof. With these kind of barriers where do you even start to try and network and make contact with people who could not only progress your career but also start it?
The real answer at first appears flippant; if you want to be a part of a community you need to engage with it and join in. Obviously, that is harder than it seems, so here are three ways you can help yourself to getting ahead in Information Security:
1. Start attending the many free events that are held every week.
There are plenty of these around, you just have to look for them, such as (ISC)2 and ISACA events, plenty of sponsor driven events and community driven events. Europe’s largest information security event, Infosecurity Europe is a free three day event which not only gives you access to all of the vendors out there, but also an excellent education programme. Traditionally on the same week there is also BSides London, a free one days event, although this one is ticketed. Not in London? Then consider BSides Manchester, SteelCon and SecuriTay. Seek them out and you will find them. Not in the UK, then Google is your friend.
2. Attend some of the bigger, paid for conferences.
Obviously this is not always easy, especially given the price of the tickets and the whole reason you are reading this is that you need a job! All of these conferences require a huge amount of effort and willpower to get them to run smoothly on the day, and many of them require… volunteers. 44CON has one of the best volunteer crew programmes I have come across, with plenty of perks available. By volunteering for these events you are not only showing yourself to be a stand-up member of the community, willing to help out and contribute, but you will also get unprecedented access to the attendees, speakers and organisers. They are yours for the networking!
3. Contribute to the community.
This could be anything from volunteering (above), blogging, tweeting, offering to speak, writing articles for the various community news outlets, in fact anything that gets your name out there. Submit in the variety of Call for Papers (CfP) and you normally get a free ticket, and sometimes travel expenses paid too. Depending upon your grammatical and public speaking skills, this could be very tough but who said progressing your career was easy? Being able to articulate your personal opinions on the often very contentious issues in the industry is an excellent way of improving your ability to assimilate, process and form your own opinions and views for the benefit of the community. What better way of getting known in the industry?
All of the above require time dedication and effort, but since this is your career we are talking about, are these too much to ask?
I am just returning from a very full three days in west London for the annual infosec conference season. I will do my best to name as many of the wonderful people I met throughout all three days, both new and old, but if I miss a namecheck or two, forgive me, let me know, and I will rectify immediately!
Thom Langford 