SOC Analyst Lance Rosengarten, CC, talks about his journey towards passing the Certified in Cybersecurity exam.
A decade ago, I started college, studying information technology and
software development. But after two years, the college went bankrupt and
became unaccredited. Riddled with student loan debt I jumped from job to
job, mainly in customer service and sales. But, keeping my passion for
Information Technology alive, I always enjoyed supporting the IT Teams in
the organizations I was with.
During the COVID pandemic, I found myself wanting to better my career and get back into IT. During my research, I found myself interested in cybersecurity, but I was not sure where to begin. I started my learning path through Hack the Box, Try Hack Me, and following different YouTube content creators. I knew that, to get my career started in cyber, I would need to get some certifications and at this point I found ISC2’s Certified in Cybersecurity course.
I found the self-paced course informative and easy to grasp; it kept my attention and made me want to continue and complete it through. After completing the course, I scheduled my exam for a few weeks out so I could continue to study and review the course material. A few days before the exam, I re-did the course’s practice tests to verify I understood the material – and passed the exam on the first try.
A couple of weeks after passing the exam, I was accepted into a three-month unpaid internship as a GRC analyst at a new company, Cyvergance.AI. After graduating, I was offered an opportunity to continue supporting the organization as a SOC Analyst Team Lead, which I accepted.
Today, I continue to gain hands on experience and continue my learning in cybersecurity. I’m studying for my Security+ exam and, once I obtain more hands-on experience, will pursue the CISSP certification. When I first started, I thought red teaming was the only thing I would enjoy. In the last few months, however, my perspective has changed: I enjoy conducting blue team exercises and hope, one day, to be part of a purple team.
Lance Rosengarten, CC, is a SOC Analyst at Cyvergance.AI who gained his first cybersecurity certification in 2023.