Harshitha Vanga

Never say no to the opportunities that you get. Just accept whatever comes through your path, and make sure you check with a couple of people just before accepting, but do take upon opportunities. Never say no. You never know when these doors will lead to something great. I've lived by this advice throughout my career, and it's what led me to try SAP Vulnerability Management when I was relocating, even though it was new to me. I never said no to that opportunity, and it opened up my entire path into cybersecurity.

Rather than concentrating on getting certifications, I would definitely request them to get the actual foundation. If you want to go into networking, start low. Do a home lab and do courses that give you basic foundations, because if the foundations are weak, then no matter where you go, you'll always have to step back and get back to that. Foundations is the best thing to begin with. Don't rush into getting certifications, just learn foundations, have a home lab, and then work on certifications. This is what I learned myself when I realized I was just following the tool blindly, which is why I came to the U.S. for my Master's to learn the basics properly.

If you are in consulting, you definitely get to try different modules within cybersecurity. That is definitely an opportunity. But the challenge that comes with consulting is being a jack of all trades and master of none. So that is something that you would have to put extra efforts in learning outside of work to really master your skills while still maintaining that breadth of knowledge across different areas.

I think doing work in the right way is most important to me. I am someone who believes in quality over quantity, so even if you're working less, make sure you are doing the right things. Instead of just procrastinating and delaying things, I focus on doing things properly and with high quality, even if that means doing fewer things overall.