The NICE Framework has a wealth of information about the various types of cybersecurity work, which applies across the public, private, and academic sectors.  Topics are divided into seven categories, with a combined total of thirty three specialty areas.

The majority of the speciality areas that I’m currently interested in are classified under the ‘Operate and Maintain’ category.  These include network services and systems administration:

1. Network services is one of my top interests because I have some background knowledge that relates to a lot of the KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) provided on the NICE Framework resource, due to previous academic experience.  This occurred back when I was working on my IST: Cyber Security & Network Admin Specialization, A.A.S. degree.
2. Systems administration is also among my top interests because a lot of its KSAs relate to the content I learned back when I completed the CompTIA A+ certification.  I find satisfaction in the installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and maintenance of both hardware and software.  I’m also comfortable with the creation and administration of user accounts, as well as managing passwords and ensuring that users update theirs as often as the company/network’s acceptable use policy (AUP) specifies.

There are also some specialty areas that don’t appeal to me as much.  This is because I either have basic experience with some of these things as a student, or because I haven’t had the chance to experience some of them due to previous experience being necessary.  These include software development, systems development, and executive cyber leadership:

1. Software development is one of my least favorites because I normally haven’t enjoyed creating or modifying code for computer applications.  I do currently have a small amount of experience in working with Python code, but I do not currently utilize this skill set that often.
2. Systems development is something that I’ve had recent experience with earlier this year actually. It was what I focused on back in the Spring semester because of the capstone course I was taking to finish my A.A.S. degree.  However, this proved to be very difficult, both because of the complexity of projects in that class, as well as the added challenge of managing other team members as I held the project owner role throughout that semester.
3. Executive cyber leadership is another area that I’m not currently interested in.  Similar to being a project owner in the previously mentioned systems development project course, any other leadership role will typically present greater challenges as you manage not just yourself, but also the workers that you supervise.  Additionally, this is typically going to require some previous job experience in other roles first.