What’s it like starting out in cybersecurity? | by M.Tayyeb | Oct, 2025
*Disclaimer: Before I start anything I’m just going to point out that this is my OWN experience from when I first discovered this field and my very first blog ever, apologies for the bad writing in advance 😣
Everyone is already familiar with the term “cybersecurity” by now since it’s quite literally everywhere, but what is it exactly? To put it in simpler terms, it is the practice of protecting your systems, networks or data from harmful attacks or permanent damage, simple right? On the outside, sure, but in reality it gets really complex, and I’ll explain why in the following.
Many people think cybersecurity is easy money. They believe a degree automatically leads to employment. When you have to pay more than anticipated for extra items like certifications, exams, or courses on top of your college degree, reality can be harsh. Also, many people aren’t ready for the field’s complexity. From my experience, I had over 100 students in my first year, but only 30+ remained. Surprisingly, we were just building websites using basic HTML, CSS, and JS and small SQL databases! I was just like everyone else back then. I had no idea what I was getting into and didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had many fields to choose from. My lack of preparedness caused me to waste two years of college. Surprisingly, I figured out my path during a study break.
I took a study break, which helped me remember why I wanted to study cybersecurity in the first place at all. I just liked hacking.
Cringy as it may sound, I have always liked the idea of hacking systems and was especially a fan of a popular game series called Watchdogs (though it isn’t so popular anymore). Figuring this out helped me stabilize my direction in the future, and even though I might be quite late as compared to others, I feel like I’m just where I have to be.
If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it a lot and I do apologize for the bad writing. Continuing forward, I hope to do red teaming related posts/write ups!
