Western Governors: Masters Edition (MSITM)

jibtech

Wow, its been a while since I have been here, and so much has changed.

I knocked out my Bachelors (BSITSec) at WGU in 2017, over a single session. That story is here: https://community.infosecinstitute.com/discussion/126437/my-version-of-the-wgu-story/p1

I planned to start my MS in 2018, but took on a new role at my job, and didn't want to negatively impact either. Now, it has been two years, work is going incredibly well, and I am ready for the next step.

As such, I wanted to document the process again, similar to the first round. My application is in, my admission is approved. I am trying to sneak into the 5/1/2020 session, but will likely start with the 6/1 group. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask. I found that documenting my progress here was instrumental in my success in accelerating, so I am ready to do it again.

Go Night Owls!

jibtech

Z0sickx said:

i'll be following this thread...thought about doing this particular masters, and it would technically make a nice check box for government contracting gigs but are you getting the value out of this Master? meeting your expectations and developing/learning skill sets that can be applied? i have a technical background so trying to get an feel if this is worth the commitment

I have mixed feelings on it, but that is more about my circumstances. I have been in the field for 25+ years, including serving as senior management. One one hand, much of this is repetitive. That said, there is a great deal of focus on agile methodologies, as well. I am fundamentally an ops person, so I still tend to look at "agile" with a great deal of suspicion.

Ultimately, I was trying to decide between 3 options: MBA, MS,Cyber and MS, ITM. This is how I reasoned it out.

• I gain all of the benefits of a Master's, with any of these choices.
• I only gain further benefit in the marketplace if I have an MBA from an AACSB accredited school.
• I have my BS in Information Security. 
• I want to improve my marketability both internally and externally.
• I am primarily a technically driven person, even as a manager.

My thought was that the MS keeps me on the more technical side, than the MBA. It might matter if I got my MBA from an AACSB school, but the MBA side of things just doesn't interest me as much. I was also concerned that going for the MSCSIA might tend to pigeonhole me. I work in InfoSec as it is. I have a degree in InfoSec. But, my career has been all over IT, and I don't to lose out on a chance to move up through Ops, just because someone sees only the Security side. It may be logical, it might not be. But that is what I reasoned out.

End of the day, it is more technical than an MBA would be, but set realistic expectations. A Master's is all about the business and the management side. Project management, financial management, globalization, etc. Most of these classes use IT as the backdrop, but focus on those kinds of skills. The only class that had an kind of actual IT focus was C954. And that class was a runaway train slamming into a dumpster fire, while carrying sewage and burning tires. (Yes, I have let WGU know exactly how bad the course was.)

Overall, it is worth it for me. You can see what my concerns were, and why I made the decision I did. Your situation may be completely different. But, I did my BS through WGU, and really love the way the courses are structured. So for me, it is absolutely worth it. In fact, I am strongly considering going back for another Bachelors when I finish.