Getting my masters was never in the books. My book, anyway. I like to say I’m a planner who thinks of every possible route to the point that I go down endless rabbit holes towards some random demise. I really never thought I’d go back to school- much less grad school. Yet here I am! Starting my first semester at Berkeley in the Masters of Info and Cybersecurity program.

How did I end up here? I learned about the program back when I was doing my undergrad in CS at SJSU. I was an IT intern at the time with an interest in cybersecurity. SJSU didn’t really cut it. They had a certification route and some relevant courses but they were mostly theoretical and had very little hands-on or practical work. EXCEPT Ben Reed’s Networking Pt. 2 (fantastic professor and fantastic hands-on technical projects – that’s a story for another time though). After thinking of grad school for a brief second, it was back to the endless grind of “need to graduate… need to get a job asap,” and grad school was tossed out of contention.

Well, here I am a couple years out of finishing my undergrad and functioning fairly well as a working human being. Now, I just want to learn more. I work in security (lucky me!) and it’s awesome. I’ve learned about different threat types, how to mitigate, how to detect, how to research them. But it wasn’t enough. I felt like I was lacking the knowledge to really get into the field. Constantly on the cusp and never quite there. I started to feel complacent in my everyday life. Sure, I try this cert or that cert but they lacked the urgency which plain ol’ academia brings to the table. This time around, grad school felt right.

Off I went, applying to schools and looking into programs that interested me. I ended up with Berkeley. First, we can’t lie, the name sounds intriguing. Second, the coursework was right up my alley. It had a good mix of technical work mixed with a focus on the social impacts of cyber. There were lots of blurbs about research opportunities, hands-on work, and discussions. All of these were selling points. I applied.

The process was fantastic. The contact between the admissions offices were made within the same week. They provided so much info and help on what needed to be done for admissions.

After resumes and weeks and months of waiting, here we are on week 1. I had my first classes today and I cannot begin to express my excitement. There’s a lot to read, a lot to discuss, and a lot of brain-picking to be had. It’s time for my smooth koala brain to pick up the pace. Buckle up and come along on this wild wild ride into the world of cyber.