Apologies in advance for length but insight from anyone would be great. I am a UK student having just finished my first semester of a Bsc. Computer Science.
I have a strong desire to enter the security industry and this has been my motivation for starting this course as a mature student (25). I am interested in going into the Pen-Testing or Incident & Threat Management area. I have been going round in circles deciding whether or not to change my major to Cyber Security or stick with CS.
One thing that attracts me to changing is that the CS course contains a fair amount of enterprise development and Design Patterns, large scale software stuff really. I love programming, but I in no way want to go into coding for a living. Sounds strange I know but I really enjoy the hacking side of programming (i'm not calling myself a hacker!), but I mean just making things for my own amusement with nice languages that allow some freedom of expression (think Python > Java). Hobby programming if you will and I'd like to keep that interest.
The Security course covers all the low level stuff that the CS course does, specialised security modules, plus most of the general programming (barring large scale) & also includes the CEH. I know that CEH isn't the top cert out there but it wouldn't hurt to have.
My main concern is that if I specialise in Security it may hurt my prospects of getting a job when I graduate if I cannot get one in the direct security field. Whereas I feel that CS may open more doors for me in the long run, whilst not having all the content I want (I can take security modules where I can), but have to take modules I don't want. I also have an interest in the lower level computing but I am unsure of whether this is a path I would go down. Basically i worry that by doing a specialised degree would pigeon hole myself. Is this a realistic expectation or in all honesty does it not matter that much?!
Btw I AM going to come out with a 1st (unless something very wrong happens). This is not arrogance, but I am very committed to this and am doing well already (92% avg
). As an older student I have made enough mistakes to really take this seriously, basically 9-5. I also regardless of path will have CCNA & am aiming to pick up A+, Network+, Security+, CREST & maybe one of the GIAC certs .
This has been an absolutely sprawling post, apologies all. I may have just been getting it out! Am I putting to much focus on my major?
I have a strong desire to enter the security industry and this has been my motivation for starting this course as a mature student (25). I am interested in going into the Pen-Testing or Incident & Threat Management area. I have been going round in circles deciding whether or not to change my major to Cyber Security or stick with CS.
One thing that attracts me to changing is that the CS course contains a fair amount of enterprise development and Design Patterns, large scale software stuff really. I love programming, but I in no way want to go into coding for a living. Sounds strange I know but I really enjoy the hacking side of programming (i'm not calling myself a hacker!), but I mean just making things for my own amusement with nice languages that allow some freedom of expression (think Python > Java). Hobby programming if you will and I'd like to keep that interest.
The Security course covers all the low level stuff that the CS course does, specialised security modules, plus most of the general programming (barring large scale) & also includes the CEH. I know that CEH isn't the top cert out there but it wouldn't hurt to have.
My main concern is that if I specialise in Security it may hurt my prospects of getting a job when I graduate if I cannot get one in the direct security field. Whereas I feel that CS may open more doors for me in the long run, whilst not having all the content I want (I can take security modules where I can), but have to take modules I don't want. I also have an interest in the lower level computing but I am unsure of whether this is a path I would go down. Basically i worry that by doing a specialised degree would pigeon hole myself. Is this a realistic expectation or in all honesty does it not matter that much?!
Btw I AM going to come out with a 1st (unless something very wrong happens). This is not arrogance, but I am very committed to this and am doing well already (92% avg
). As an older student I have made enough mistakes to really take this seriously, basically 9-5. I also regardless of path will have CCNA & am aiming to pick up A+, Network+, Security+, CREST & maybe one of the GIAC certs .This has been an absolutely sprawling post, apologies all. I may have just been getting it out! Am I putting to much focus on my major?
