Professional development

Top eight podcasts episodes and webinars on closing the skills gap and starting a cybersecurity career

Introduction: Expert-led digital audio and video files grow in popularity

These days, employers are facing millions of unfilled IT security positions and a shortage of talented workers. In fact, there may be as many as 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions by 2021. When you look at the sheer number of open positions, there are several different approaches to solving this challenge in order to fulfill the growing demand for new talent. 

Podcasts and webinars can help rectify the problem and overcome the shortage of talent in cybersecurity. Quickly growing in popularity, these expert-led recordings can help amateurs or professionals explore topics of interest, close knowledge gaps, support remote learning and ultimately enhance workforce skills.

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Podcasts and webinars have multiple benefits. They are able to reach a wide audience and are capable of bringing remote learning to anyone, addressing specific topics of interest outside of more formal environments like college classrooms, conferences and online courses. They also, however, have drawbacks: the need for stable internet speeds, bandwidth and technology; the possibility of technical issues that impair seamless vision; and little to no interaction (especially with recorded options).

Why use podcasts and webinars for skill-building and professional development?

Podcasts and webinars are becoming an effective way to continually up-skill professionals. The value of this type of learning has proven vital during the coronavirus outbreak, when the lockdown and the increased availability of time has caught professionals off guard. Many remaining at home have turned their attention towards online skill-building as a way to productively use their new free time.

IT, information security and/or cybersecurity offerings abound on the internet, so what podcasts and webinars should you be starting with? You would do well to begin with episodes specifically about closing the skills gap and starting a cybersecurity career.

Four top podcasts 

1. Teach yourself cybersecurity with skills-based education

In this episode of Cyber Work with Infosec, John Wagnon (senior solution developer at F5 Networks) and host Chris Sienko talk about skills-based education, in-demand job skills, learning programming on your own and, of course, the OWASP Top 10.

This episode (43 minutes) helps listeners learn how the OWASP Top Ten list is created; discover how to get into cybersecurity; and explore the skills, certifications or experience desirable to an employer that newcomers should work on first to get their foot in the door.

Cyber Security Education from Student and Teacher Perspectives

“Cybersecurity has never been a hotter field to get into, but how do you gain the skills needed for landing a job?” The answer to this question is explored in this discussion between Jesse Rasimus, a recent graduate of F-Secure’s Cyber Security Academy, and teacher Tom Van de Wiele, an F-Secure consultant.

In the first episode of Cyber Security Sauna (40 minutes), both the student and teacher reveal the type of educational background and practical training to improve skills and increase experience. What’s more, they discuss how to start a career in the field, as well as cover cybersecurity careers of the future.

Insights on Cyber Talent

This podcast discusses opportunities for building a stronger cybersecurity workforce and attracting new talent.

In "Live from RSA Conference 2019," Rafal Los (the founder and producer of the Down the Security Rabbithole Podcast) interviews Deidre Diamond (the founder and CEO of the Cyber Security Network) discuss a variety of interesting and relevant topics, including her new "human model" for hiring, staffing and retaining talent; what makes a good leader and a good manager; the challenges faced by women in cybersecurity and what is finally changing about it; and today’s pay gap, why it still exists and what can be done about it.

Must-Have Skills for Today’s CIOs

This 10-minute Gartner ThinkCast features a conversation between Suzanne Adnams — a research vice president with CIO Research on the Leadership, Culture and People team — and Gartner Research VP Bruce Robertson. The focus is on Chief Information Officers (CIOs), the key drivers for addressing risks and managing processes while providing insight and guidance to ensure an effective security strategy is implemented in the workplace.

In order to fill the role in the best way, CIOs must possess a unique blend of personal skills and technical skills: communication, leadership and people skills must complement the IT abilities needed to fill such high-level positions and support operational and technical activities for organizations in today’s digital age.

Four top webinars 

1. Infosec Skills instant demo: Close your team’s skills gap

The 30-minute demo with guest speaker Jeff Peters, product marketing manager at Infosec, provides an instant demo of Infosec Skills.

In this short web-based seminar, viewers will learn to build hands-on experience in cloud-hosted cyber ranges and projects, plus assess and track their skills development, all while developing custom learning paths to ensure they’re properly skilled in the real world as cybersecurity professionals.

Closing the Skills Gap 2019

Today’s fast-paced technological advances are making it difficult for companies to hire the talent they need for open roles, so how can employers work with educators to close the skills gap and retain legacy employees?

The one-hour on-demand webinar presented by Jeremy Walsh (vice president of Enterprise Learning Solutions at Wiley Education Services) and Dan Schawbel (a Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace and the founder of WorkplaceTrends.com) shares information collected through a survey of 600 HR professionals. They discuss the leading causes of workforce skills gaps; hard skills and soft skills employers need most; why workers need continuous learning opportunities; ways to close skills gaps through innovation; and solutions that unite employers and educators.

Hack the Gap: Building the Cybersecurity Workforce

This free, 56-minute webinar presents findings of a report on how to better understand the magnitude of the cybersecurity skills gap, the challenges to building the cybersecurity workforce and how hiring for these positions is changing.

This web presentation answers basic questions on the growing demand for cybersecurity workers and how employers are looking for very specific candidates (with education, skills, experience and certifications) to fill job roles.

Midsize Enterprises: Adopt a Lean Security Organization to Mitigate the Skills Shortage

This Gartner one-hour web seminar hosted by Tom Scholtz, VP analyst, provides case studies on the challenges that smaller organizations face when building a security team with fewer resources and with a rising skills shortage challenge.

The presentation helps midsize enterprises discover ways to grow their digital cybersecurity team through a “lean” security approach that still allows them to face the ever-increasing amount of online threats.

Conclusion 

As the skills gap grows and the demand for specialized cybersecurity professionals exceeds the pool of available candidates, employers are looking at cost-effective ways to keep their workers informed and allow them to acquire new skills and keep up to date in this ever-changing field. 

Remote media training via podcasts or webinars to hone existing skills and learn new ones is essential in this effort. This creates opportunities for many busy professionals and companies of any size to build training plans, boost careers and still foster education even when working from home or on the road. Webinars and podcasts are available for virtually any topic.

Sources

Is It Better to Do a Webinar or a Podcast?, MyOwnConference

7 Best Cybersecurity Podcasts You Should Be Listening To, Business News Daily

The state of the Cybersecurity skills gap heading into 2020, Security Boulevard

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Cybersecurity Talent Crunch To Create 3.5 Million Unfilled Jobs Globally By 2021, Cybersecurity Ventures