Soft Skills in Cybersecurity
Cyber-security = fancy code, green terminal, bold letters, black hoodie, anonymous mask, and many cinematic and aesthetic vibes
Okay, it is good. It depends on you and your vision… But this is not the only way to achieve what you want in cybersecurity.
Although, maybe at this time I am also not in the position of guiding you what to do and what not to do, but I want to share some cases with you guys. Just read them and visualize them by placing yourself in my position:-
Case 1
It was Jan 2024 when I met a guy on LinkedIn named Abhay Pandit. At first sight, we did not know anything about each other, and I just DM’d him to learn something about cybersecurity. At that time, he had done EJPT and I was at 0.
No certification, no network exposure, nothing. Just a curious mind to learn and implement. After some chatting, I don’t know why, but he connected me on a call and explained some important topics in cybersecurity + he gave me his [REDACTED] account to study. I followed him. Studied like he guided me, and after some time, he exposed me to other people in his network, which was a goldmine for me. He suggested that I do CPTS. I again followed him. Started the CPTS path, and after some months of hard work, finally earned it. And without his support, you might not even be reading this blog.
By pivoting to Mr. Abhay’s network and people, I met many more great souls, which later became a great strength of mine.
Case 2
It’s December 2024, and I met a guy named Piyush Lamba from Punjab… He was quite impressed with me because I found a reflected XSS in the DPS Gandhinagar website, which persuaded him to connect with me. He wanted to learn from me… I guided him to some extent and after that he gave up, but till now we became good friends….. Now you guys might be thinking what role he played in my journey. Chill….. and read further. While I was finally going to buy a CPTS voucher, I found that I needed a student email from a university to prove I was a student and had to create an account from that email in order to buy that $8 student discount (and if I did not do that, then I had to buy a $500 HTB Academy subscription, which was really out of my range). Fortunately, Piyush is the leader of his student cell in his university, and surprisingly, I asked him this concern:- “That I need a university student email, in order to continue my learning and CPTS.” He immediately sent me the whole Excel sheet containing hundreds of student email accounts and passwords of university students. Hence, since Piyush was the head of the student cell in BCA in his college, it was possible.
I know it is not a good thing to do [ exposing all the ID-passwords of innocent students ], but I also showed my honesty and just chose 3–4 accounts from them and did not do any harm. I successfully purchased that $8 path in HTB Academy and started my journey. Without this help, maybe I would not have been able to continue, or it would have been delayed for months.
Case 3
From Mr. Abhay’s network, I again met a guy named Aditya.
He was a cool boy… He gave me his [REDACTED] account for practice on what I was studying. Without his help, I might have failed in that or been delayed for months. Mr. Aditya guided me through many more steps further in my practice and gave me constant support till now.
Case 4
By pivoting more and more in Mr. Abhay’s network, I again found a hidden gem named Aman Yadav. Truly a legend. Now he grabbed my hand and guided me to many more people, and also supported me financially when I needed it + also opened many more earning opportunities for me. His entry in my life is one of the greatest turning points ever.
Case 5
This is quite confidential to talk about because the person involved here is not an ordinary person. HE/SHE was a great soul from one of my connections. Yes, HE/SHE was not my direct connection but also a pivoted connection like Mr. Aman. I am not able to give much details of HIM/HER…. but just imagine I am not able to properly introduce HIM/HER, so think of how great a soul HE/SHE was. Really, HE/SHE guided me in the field of jobs, market, foreign connections, goals, money, and many more things.
Now let’s come to the point… After reading all these cases and connections, as you already guessed, without these great souls, my life and my journey was not full. These people helped and supported me on my journey and still keep supporting me whenever I need them. After meeting these people, I started thinking that:- Thank God, you also made some great souls, not only devils in this Kalyug
The final connection graph is looks something like this :-
But many more important connection are also there which i can’t disclose here because of personal and privacy concerns.
Summary
This is the summary of my whole blog in the intent of saying to inform you how much connections, making connections, meeting new people, messaging them, and being humble are important in cybersecurity. And in my views, connecting with these kinds of souls is much more important than learning because maybe you learn hundreds of topics in cybersecurity, but when it comes to real life, you don’t have anything to experiment with or take help from. So many people ignore this skill and just keep studying, studying, and studying and keep studying and get trapped in a loop. And without implementation and professional guidance, they end up with nothing and give up. So, at the end, knowledge gives you the skills required to sustain in this industry, but without the connections and your team, you still remain confused, goalless, hopeless, and might burn out very early because surroundings matter. You have to make your surroundings, you have to make friends in this business to achieve greatness.