“How do I leave a career in healthcare to go into cybersecurity? I love what I do, but am definitely ready for a change. What kind of experience do I need to get? I already have a master’s degree so I don’t really want to go back to school for another degree.”

Remember: "The resume gets you the interview; the interview gets you the job." - Heather Monthie, PhD

https://www.youtube.com/embed/aDTAD9RdFhE

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, and welcome back to my podcast, my YouTube channel, my Instagram page, LinkedIn Facebook page, wherever it is that you are watching this video. So I am Dr. Heather Monthie. And in today's episode, what I'm going to do is answer a frequently asked question about transitioning from a career in healthcare to a career in cybersecurity. 

So I am I've been asked this question frequently, but I just saw recently posted online, somebody was asking a question about transitioning careers from healthcare to cybersecurity and some steps that he could take two to make that transition happen. So let's talk about it. So here's the question, How do I leave a career in healthcare and go into cybersecurity? I love what I do. But I'm definitely ready for a change. What kind of experience Do I need to get? I already have a master's degree. So I don't really want to go back to school for another degree. What can I do? So there's a lot of different things going on here with regards to if I were to help you in this situation, okay. 

So somebody who already has a bachelor's degree or a master's degree, you know, there are a couple of different reasons why he or she might not necessarily want to go back to school to get another degree in cybersecurity. So say you have, you know, a degree and a bachelor's degree in nursing, for example, you've got you to know, you got an RN BSN. And you want to transition into cybersecurity, there are programs out there that you can get a graduate program in cybersecurity, where you don't necessarily have to have an undergraduate degree related to that particular field. 

But when you already have a master's degree in cybersecurity, well, then what right? So there's a couple of different options that you have here, you could go back to school and get another degree, might not necessarily be the best choice for a couple of different reasons. Number one, time, number two, you've got responsibilities, you want it, you want to be working, you don't want to quit your job and go to school full time. And number three, you know, oftentimes, if you're using financial aid, this is not financial advice. 

But if you're sometimes if you're using financial aid, you won't necessarily be covered, if you've already got a degree. So it'll usually only financial aid usually only kicks in to cover the next degree that the next degree up, right. So again, not financial advice, but just something to take into consideration here. So what you need something to get your foot in the door, you need to have something to get your foot in the door, right. So like, there's got to be some sort of technical experience, some sort of cybersecurity-related experience, it doesn't necessarily need to be technical, because there's so much to cybersecurity, that's nontechnical, there's law, there's, there's, you know, compliance, there are policies, all that kind of stuff that isn't necessarily super technical, right. 

So you do have to have something to get your get your foot in the door. So what I would suggest doing is going to your own internal IT department or Information Security Department, especially if you work in a hospital or a larger healthcare system, there is a information security team, there is an IT team.