Whenever I share that I’m transitioning into Cybersecurity, the most common response I get is:
"Wow, you’re so brave!"
The word brave has so many layers, to uncover a few:
- Walking away from nearly a decade of expertise in Customer Success (though I’d argue I’m not leaving those skills behind at all, more on that in another post 👀).
- Stepping out of a stable role in a very unpredictable job market.
- Balancing a full-time career while carving out time for self-study.
And, of course, the question I know future employers will ask:
“Why the change? Why Cybersecurity?”
While the saying goes change is the only constant, for me this wasn’t a sudden leap. The decision emerged through a series of questions that forced some honest self-reflection:
- Although I’m good at my current work, do I still enjoy it? → No.
- Everything involves some repetition, but is this what I want to do every day? → No.
- What emerging fields align with my skills and interests? → Too many options—cue analysis paralysis.
Here’s what I learned: sometimes the NOs are as important as the YESes.
If you’re also at that ambiguous stage of wanting to pivot but not knowing exactly where, know this: it took me almost two years of exploration before I landed on my “Yes” to Cybersecurity.
What guided me through? Curiosity.
That curiosity pushed me to experiment with different paths:
- Data → I joined visualisation challenges and even completed a bootcamp. The experience was rewarding, and those skills still help me today. Even if it didn’t become my main career, improving how I analyse and present data is invaluable. (AI may be the buzzword, but let’s be honest, Excel isn’t going anywhere.)
- Product Management → The “logical next step” for many Customer Success Managers. After all, we already live and breathe the product. But for me, it felt a little too close to what I was trying to move away from.
Which brings me to where I am today.