New year, new semester
With the beginning of the new year comes a new semester of graduate school and a chance to look back at my first semester. My first and foremost impression of graduate school is how different it is from undergraduate studies. I began to sense that things were awry when I was selecting my first semester classes. Gone were the typical classes on networking, operating systems, and programming where you’d get specific, hands-on instruction with the various topics. My first selection was a class called “Network Security” with Prof. Sam Liles. I figured it combined two of my favorite topics just in the course name alone and would involve things like firewall configuration, penetration testing, and intrusion detection. Day one of the class Prof. Liles dispelled any misconceptions about graduate course work by stating that there would be no labs, no hands-on, and no vendor specific instruction. I think half the class didn’t come back the next session. Those things are for undergraduate classes where you’re building a technical skill base, graduate classes take a step outside the command line and ask questions such as “What is network security?”, “How do you define security?”, and “Is a network ever completely secure?” When you step back that far from the actual implementation of network and security devices you begin to understand the bigger picture and get a totally different perspective.
When you go from college to industry back to college like I did, you find that you’ve been placed in a vendor-induced coma when it comes to technology. Instead of developing a system that best fits the need of the business or organization, you find yourself focusing specifically on the various technologies you’ll need to utilize to implement a system. This is especially true when considering information security policies. Vendors would like you to believe that the level of security your organization has directly correlates to the amount of money you spend on the security system. I think Prof. Liles takes pride in taking students who have been out in the field for a few years and smashing their perceptions of industry that they’ve developed to help them see the bigger picture. This is necessary in making the move from an entry-level position and undergrad. degree would get you like an “analyst” or an “engineer” to an “architect.”
Another thing that graduate school teaches you is critical thinking skills that you obtain from doing research. My second class of my first semester was called “Analysis and Research in Industry and Technology.” This class focused specifially on doing scientific research and writing a directed project proposal. After taking both of my graduate classes last semester I find myself being much more critical of sources of information on the Internet.
For anyone considering graduate school, my first piece of advice would be that it requires a lot of commitment and dedication. Whatever amount of work you think it will be, it’ll be more. When you’re balancing a job, family, and school it’s really easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t think that taking 2 or 3 graduate classes will be a nice time filler for week nights, they will consume a lot more of your time than you can imagine. One thing I noticed myself doing quite often was even during the day at work I’d find myself thinking about my research project. If your job requires 100% focus for 8 or so hours a day, make sure you have the mental self-control to separate your school work from your actual work.
My second piece of advice for those considering graduate school is to use the buddy system. Having a strong, core group of friends with you as well as a good academic advisor can make or break your experience. I can only imagine how difficult my first semester would’ve been if I’d have gone through it by myself. Having friends you can bounce ideas/questions/complaints against will give you a support mechanism through difficult times and prevent academic frustrations from making it back home.
Is it worth it? After a semester I can definitely say I’m looking forward to take more classes, I’m beginning to see changes in my thought processes, and I can’t wait to see what else grad. school has in store for me.
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