Looking for some advice - interested in Security

Jman01

Hi guys,
I currently live in Sweden, am 34, and I have 10 years in the U.S. military which I walked away from to be with my future wife. Real bummer is it was right before an Info Assurance job came open too! In the last 6 years I have what would be considered "professional" experience at the help desk and hands on support level. My education is ... interesting. My bachelors was in Sociology, but I managed to get accepted in a MSITM program due to my work experience and now have a Master's in Information Security from Trident University. I also have a Security+ certification from my work in the service. My fiance is retired and has a steady income, more than enough for both of us. But i'm far too prideful and "type A" if you will to just sit back and enjoy it. I'd love some suggestions, security is my interest but unfortunately my clearance means nothing here. When I google the topic I get the impression that to actually work in IT security in the civilian sector you have to be a programming genius with years of ethical hacking achievements. Could I get some suggestions on where I should steer my education and experience towards? Studying Swedish is a given, since most of the English speaking jobs are for career programmers. I've even considered online teaching in the IT field (along with tons of veteran IT people I'm sure). I'm also taking a few Udemy courses just to see if enjoy programming in any particular language. I've always been terrible at math, so that could pose some challenges having to rely on logic based processing. Note- I had one person suggest I look into a Swedish college and use it as a platform for interning, problem is I can fund two more years of education and couldn't find any two year programs. I'm really not interested in accumulating more college debt (siting on 17k atm). Thanks !

alan2308

Security is a pretty broad category. The first question is where exactly do you want to go in security?

Jman01

Thanks for replying alan, I've been trying to understand that myself. I'd like to be geared more towards management and policy. I've been learning basic programming but I can't say that it really excites me. I'm not sure how to land a job with my mismatched experience and education.

GoodBishop

Why don't you shoot for more of the management and compliance side? Focus on getting some of the applicable certifications, like CISSP and CIPP/E, and look to lead a team or two.

ssehg

You need to close down on what you want to do in security. This will help you set your goal and CISSP could be one of them.
All the best.

raybfree

How about, look at the modules in the CISSP... what Domain is of greatest interest to you? Look at the CISM - IS Management or perhaps the CISA - Auditing? You need to first consider what is appealing and what gives you a little excitement. Personally, I love the forensics world but now even forensics is getting a bit broad... Fraud forensics, digital forensic and network forensics...they are all so awesome. See what makes your heart pump. Good luck... it's a long road.