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My cybersecurity degree drew on three disciplines that would rarely share a syllabus: cybersecurity (CYSE 270, CYSE 450), computer science (CS 112), and interdisciplinary studies (IDS 493). I used those courses to build three skills that map directly to my work as a senior network engineer: Linux, Python, and written communication. The NICE Framework describes cybersecurity work as tasks, knowledge, and skills drawn from many fields rather than a single one (Petersen et al., 2020). The senior network engineer ads I analyzed for this course confirm it, asking for firewall and Zero trust expertise, automation, and the ability to explain risk to stakeholders in the same posting (Computer World Services [CWS], 2026; MongoDB, 2026). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CYSE 450 Network Reconnaissance Lab had me verify hosting addressing, confirm reachability with ping, scan a target with Nmap, and transfer a file over FTP. The commands were familiar from my job; what was new was treating them as the opening phase of a security assessment rather than troubleshooting. NIST’s testing guide frames discovery as the step that scopes everything after it (Scarfone et al., 2008), and that changed how I read scan output as an open port became an attack surface and not just a service status. The vulnerability scanning and attack simulation lab carried that forward and allowed me to match discovered services to known vulnerabilities and then exploit them to demonstrate impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CS 112’s 3D-array script taught me to break a mathematical problem into nested loops and index logic. The checkers final project went further, forcing me to model state with the board, legal moves, captures, and turn order, and debug how functions interacted rather than fixing single lines. Both were classroom scenarios but the skills translated into the Ericsson Cradlepoint SDK I wrote at work, which calls the router’s local API to pull device status and automate routine checks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CYSE 450 Threat and Risk Analysis Report required me to identify an organization’s critical assets, classify threats with STRIDE, and score them with DREAD. STRIDE gave me a vocabulary for categories of threat (Shostack, 2014), but the real lesson was that a risk score persuades only when its reasoning is written down since the reader needs to understand why one threat outranks another. The IDS 493 job advertisement content analysis extended that to research writing by applying Lipovac and Babac’s (2021) content analysis method to two ads. Their content analysis showed me that employers state hard skills outright and bury soft skills inside duties. Rios et al. (2020) and Graham and Lu (2023) confirmed that communication and collaboration rank among the most-demanded skills, including in cybersecurity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taken together, the portfolio shows that none of these skills belongs to a single discipline. The security labs needed networking knowledge from my job, the Cradlepoint SDK needed programming from computer science and data-handling judgement from cybersecurity, and the job-ad paper needed a social science method to answer a career question. Repko and Szostak (2021) define the interdisciplinary work as integrating insights from several disciplines to address a problem no single one can fully explain, and Newell (2001) argues that complex systems demand that integration. Interdisciplinary thinking matters in cybersecurity as attacks exploit people, process, and technology together, and an engineer who thinks in only one discipline is only able to defend one of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
References
Computer World Services. (2026). Senior network engineer \u2013 CONUS [Job posting]. Lever. https:\/\/jobs.lever.co\/cwsc\/446e26f7-1fb0-4bf0-ac0a-26bf4dc52a22
Graham, C. M., & Lu, Y. (2023). Skills expectations in cybersecurity: Semantic network analysis of job advertisements. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 63(4), 937\u2013949. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08874417.2022.2115954
ISC2. (2024). ISC2 cybersecurity workforce study 2024. https:\/\/www.isc2.org\/research
Lipovac, I., & Babac, M. B. (2021). Content analysis of job advertisements for identifying employability skills. Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems, 19(4), 511\u2013525. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7906\/indecs.19.4.5
MongoDB. (2026). Senior network engineer [Job posting]. Greenhouse. https:\/\/www.mongodb.com\/careers\/job\/?gh_jid=8173399
Newell, W. H. (2001). A theory of interdisciplinary studies. Issues in Integrative Studies, 19, 1\u201325.
Petersen, R., Santos, D., Wetzel, K., Smith, M. C., & Witte, G. (2020). Workforce framework for cybersecurity (NICE Framework) (NIST Special Publication 800-181 Rev. 1). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6028\/NIST.SP.800-181r1
Repko, A. F., & Szostak, R. (2021). Interdisciplinary research: Process and theory (4th ed.). SAGE.
Rios, J. A., Ling, G., Pugh, R., Becker, D., & Bacall, A. (2020). Identifying critical 21st-century skills for workplace success: A content analysis of job advertisements. Educational Researcher, 49(2), 80\u201389. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3102\/0013189X19890600
Scarfone, K., Souppaya, M., Cody, A., & Orebaugh, A. (2008). Technical guide to information security testing and assessment (NIST Special Publication 800-115). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.6028\/NIST.SP.800-115
Shostack, A. (2014). Threat modeling: Designing for security. Wiley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reflection My cybersecurity degree drew on three disciplines that would rarely share a syllabus: cybersecurity (CYSE 270, CYSE 450), computer science (CS 112), and interdisciplinary studies (IDS 493). I used those courses to build three skills that map directly to my work as a senior network engineer: Linux, Python, and written communication. The NICE Framework… <\/p>\n