Cyber Security Engineer | student testimonial

We catch up with Learning People student Paul Abel who has fulfilled his lifelong ambition of becoming a cyber security professional.  Paul has studied and passed the CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA Pentest+.

He is currently working towards his EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker.

 

 

Tell us why you inquired with Learning People

Like most people getting into Cyber security I wasn’t sure where to start and found it all a bit overwhelming.  I decided on using the Learning people as I wanted a UK based training platform where I could contact them if I had any problems and not wait for a time zone to come around.

 

Were there any specific skills you were looking to gain or develop by enrolling with Learning People?

I joined the Learning People with an aim to get myself into cybersecurity as it had been a passion of mine for most of my life.

 

Was there a particular reason you chose to enrol with Learning People, and did you speak to any other educators or training providers?

I settled on using the Learning People for a few reasons: they had an extremely professional webpage compared to other more sketchy looking websites.  They offered a very well known certification -“CompTIA”, and if you look on most, if not all job adverts, that’s the minimum spec for a candidate.

 

Tell us what the career consultation phone call was like for you.

The career consultant was a very friendly guy called Adam.  I think we discussed my past experience with computers and types of jobs I’ve done for an hour or so and went through the best available options for me to choose from.

 

Tell us about your experience of learning online using our system and the associated labs.

If you can sit and watch videos of cats playing keyboard online then you’ve got the necessary skill to learn from the videos Learning people provided.  It’s all there in video modules for you to watch.  What I liked about the experience was that it marked the time it would take you so you could easily plan out how many modules you could sit and watch that day or afternoon.  

They also provide live labs so you can practise what you had been watching the videos on, that day or week.  And if you just need a wind down during the evening, nothing too heavy, pick up one of the many free ebooks in the library.  I mean these things are £25 plus online to buy hardback so read away while you have access to them.

 

Were you able to gain support from our StudentCare™ team when you needed it?

For me, the support is what made it a good decision to take a package provider.  When you need help to book a test there is someone, when you need help because you are stuck on something like your CV there’s someone.  I wouldn’t have gotten that self studying.  And when you hit a setback in the journey and that imposter syndrome kicks in (trust me it gets all of us) there is someone to speak to.

 

 

How did you get on with the practice exams / test preparation?

We all get to our goals differently and we all prepare for exams differently, but for me, having those question banks to blast away through, so that I got used to the exams and what type of questions they send at you was a God send.  Sure, the nerves are still there on the day but you were prepared.

 

Did you attend any of our Live Online Classrooms for your courses?

No, sadly you started doing these after I had finished my comptia’s but I heard they were good.

 

Tell us about your experience of working with our Career Services team, and what did you find most useful?

Let’s face it, how many of us can build a great CV from scratch. We’ve all just tweaked it over the years, but building it from scratch, that’s hard. Give the careers services team a call and they’re always willing to offer a helping hand.  Not sure what to be applying for or even how to play the interview game in the tech industry, sit in on one of their virtual seminars.

 

How did enrolling with Learning People affect your career (new job / promotion etc)?

Let’s not pretend that taking a course is a guarantee of a pass. You’re going to work hard to get what you want, but Learning People are that tour guide you could use to find your way through the labyrinth.  When you get out the other side you should have the basis to build on for a career in cybersecurity.

 

Tell us about your new job / promotion.

So I have managed to secure my first role within cyber security as a “cybersecurity engineer” and am loving every day so far.  It’s nice to see all that knowledge come alive in front of you and put things you studied into practice.  It’s the job role / career I wanted for many years of my life and recent events of realising how short life can be gave me that push I needed to say it’s now or never – go do it.

 

What has been the best part of your Learning People experience?

For myself, it was meeting people in the industry and networking.  There are a few people I met in the Learning People student group on LinkedIn that I have spoken to and made really good friends with. There are others that work in the Student Care team that I know I’ll be able to call upon no matter where they work.  And deep down it was the ability to validate what I always knew I was capable of achieving with a little bit of blood sweat and tears.

 

What advice would you give to somebody who is thinking about enrolling with Learning People?

Don’t do it for the money, don’t do it for the fashionable job or the better lifestyle, because you will fail. But do it for your passion, do it to prove that you can achieve your dreams if you want it enough.  And good luck.

 

If you’d like to experience world class career education and support from the experts in tech, simply get in touch with one of our specialist career consultants today.