Professional development: The process of increasing the professional capabilities of one's self by attending training or meetings of like-minded professionals who are willing to share information and techniques.
This week I'm attending a FEMA course called "Cybersecurity: Incident Handling and Response". So far it has been review but it looks promising for the next 3 days. It is a free course if one is in your area but seating is limited. I recommend checking it out. I'll provide a full review after the course is over.
If you've been following the blog you know that I am a major proponent of professional networking. It's a great way to meet people that you may be able to employ or gain employment from, there are also lots of people that just know a lot about security, forensics, hacking, etc. that are willing to share ideas and tips. I had no idea that there was already a group of these people that meet regularly here in Helena and have for some time. 2 hours into class and I had an invite to the local DEFCON group. First Friday of the month at the best sandwich shop in town? Done. It simply can't hurt to get yourself known inside local circles.
Speaking of DEFCON, I'll be attending in Las Vegas this year. It will be the first time I've ever attended any kind of hacking conference and I'm pretty stoked to check it out.
Grayson is absolutely correct! There is simply too much to know to expect any one person to know it all. By making some good contacts, you can really broaden your ability to ask questions and tap into the experience of others.
ReplyDeleteConferences are a great way to meet people in the industry as well as learn some new tools and techniques (or revisit some old ones), and just make yourself better at what you do.
I'll also be at DEFCON this year, so dood...see you there!