My experience in Ironhack.
When I told my friends I wanted to start my path in cybersecurity, they were very amazed: why someone who has finished her degree in International Studies would like to join the IT world? In 2020 I finished my degree in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and besides two months of practices I had not much more experience. But during those four years I realised I wanted to help others and that security was fundamental to achieve liberties and rights.
Not knowing too much about computers with covid-19 situation, I started to realise that security is not just something physical, which is something we have been always thinking (for example taking about wars). With the help of some friends and family being part of the IT world, I started to investigate about cybersecurity. I took in advantage the recommendations of the people I had with me, who started to recommend me to enter in this cyber world and who told me that I could get the necessary tools to start my new path.
As you can imagine, from what I have explained until now, I did not have any relation with IT world and cybersecurity. Is true I had close friends learning and working in this field, but any of them in cybersecurity. Also, I had not learned anything about IT before. You can imagine myself trying to do an index in Word properly. Definitely, before the first day I started to work in the bootcamp, I had never learned anything about this field.
My Ironhack experience.
I chose to start learning with Ironhack because so many people recommend it to me. And I am very happy about having taken that decision.
As far as I know this bootcamp is a bit different from the other ones Ironhack has, because it is more self-learning. Being self-learning does not mean working alone, not being guided. To explain it to you I will tell you how our days worked: first, at 09:00 we used to have a meeting, this meeting could be a small one, for example a meeting of 30 minutes, or longer. During this time, we were all together and our facilitator explained us what we should do that day.
From that point we had the whole day to work. This work could be more theoretical or practical, depending on the day. And that is something I love. Because for a person like me, who did not know anything about this world, it was necessary being explained some concepts. What is more, we had the opportunity of working in labs and scenarios, so everything we had learned so far could be materialized, which I think is one of the most important things. Is not about knowing things, is about knowing how to do these things, and you cannot imagine how you feel when you are able to do something by yourself, is so satisfying.
It is important to say that you are not working alone, not just because you have a canal where you can communicate with each other and the facilitator, also because it is very common to work in groups, which is something that I love. I have to say that this type of things makes that from the very first week of bootcamp we all felt like friends, we all wanted to work together and being part of Ironhack community.
In the evening meeting which had to finish at 18:00 and used to start at 17:00 (depending on the day) we were doing many things. Some days we had the opportunity to overview some labs, to explain them and doing them together. Other days we made some sessions about our skills, abilities, and other things important for our career, which is something I would explain later.
As I have said, I did not have any background in IT as many of my classmates, but I was able to do it, we were able. Sometimes it was difficult, and obviously some friends of our class, how had more knowledge about IT, sometimes were faster, but in the end we all achieve the same goal. One of the best things about doing this bootcamp as self-learning is that you could organise your time, and if you finished before the time of the evening meeting you could investigate more about different topics you wanted to go in deep.
An important thing about the bootcamp is the final project. During these weeks you work in a team doing a project which is composed of different products. This project could be about anything which could be related to cybersecurity, which is very interesting because it leads you to learn about whatever you and your group want. Also, it helps you to understand how a project in cybersecurity is and helps you to develop different soft skills as creativity.
Apart from that, I want to talk about what we have learned in the bootcamp: first of all, before starting the bootcamp we had to do a pre-work. During this pre-work we could learn basic knowledge about IT and cybersecurity, which has been reviewed during the whole bootcamp. Since we started, we covered different topics as network and application security, incident handling, forensics, malware analysis, ethical hacking, secure design principles, risk management and threat intelligence. I would say that this bootcamp is very useful because you can have an overview of cybersecurity and the different areas you can find in the field, also to know what are the ones you like and you are good at. If I talk about my personal experience, there are two parts I have really liked: the first part is the one which is relates to SOC teams, and the second one is forensic.
Also, it is important to say that working with different tools and having the opportunity to go in deep with them has been very useful but also funny. I have also used them in my network. Some of these tools are: Splunk, Wireshark, Snort IDS, Insights, HxD, Network Minner, Cisco Packet Tracer…
Talking with myself I have to say that it has been a difficult path, and because of that I am so proud of achieving everything I have achieved. I have had very gorgeous days, where everything went perfectly, and I did not have any trouble. But other days have been very difficult, and sometimes I wanted to give up. But I did not, and one of my pillars have been the Ironhack community. People working in Ironhack have been always by myside, I have had many 1x1 with them, who have been always trying to help me and not just in practical and theoretical things, also helping me changing my mentality. Also, it has been a pleasure working with all my classmates, who always have been there to help me and to whom I have been always there to help when they had a bad day. And I have to say that is one of the best things I take with me.
I have to say, that one of the best things of Ironhack is the help they give to you with your career. All the weeks we did something about our careers as identify our soft skills, our weakness, we had worked in our CVs and in interviews. What is more, after finishing the bootcamp we had had a career week where we have had the opportunity of meeting different companies and where we could still working in our career profile. This is very useful, and even when we thought we knew everything we learned new things.
So, why I make a change in my career? What is happening after Ironhack?
As I have said, I study International Studies. During my studies in the university, I realised I wanted to work in security. I decided to change my path to add more value of what I want to do. In a world that is changing faster and faster and technologies are each time more important the security of these technologies is also a point where we have to put our eyes.
Because of that, I decided to start this path. I really wanted to help others and cybersecurity is an incredible place to do it, because it affects everyone. Just think about yourself, and if you have been hacked or someone you know, or even a company which has your data.
As I have mentioned before, you have career support in Ironhack. And it is very useful. Before finishing the bootcamp I got a job, and it is amazing to have that security to found something and practice what you have learned.
If you need help, I will be there.
This is my experience in Ironhack and I hope it has helped you. It has been an incredible hardworking path. I take with me a lot of people and friends, and to much knowledge. If you would like to know something more about the bootcamp do not doubt to contact me by LinkedIn, I will help you with everything I can.
