I will be starting school soon

Posted At : December 29, 2009 8:49 AM | Posted By : Jason Dean
Related Categories: School,Security

As some of you know, I have decided to return to school to pursue a graduate degree. I am excited about beginning this new adventure in life and I wanted to tell you a little about it, and about how it came to be.

I am not sure if all of my readers are aware of this, but I am a veteran of the United State Coast Guard. The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that works under the Department of Homeland Security. I served for four years in Houston, TX and was honorably discharged in June of 2006 after fulfilling my commitment. During my four years, I earned two Coast Guard Achievement Medals for my service (both computer/programming related), qualified on the 9mm pistol (sharpshooter) and the M-16 rifle, received an amazing letter of recommendation from my commanding officer, and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology Management while attending school online.

So that long-winded horn-tooting was really about pointing out that I finished my B.S. while serving.

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Jason, you are an excellent example of our tax dollars being invested wisely. Money is used to directly benefit those who serve but also indirectly benefits society as those people apply their knowledge. In your case, you share your knowledge generously, and I can't imagine that you won't continue to do so after this degree too. The ripples spread, but the CF community is well-positioned to gain from this particular government benefit.

# Posted By Sarah Kelly | 12/29/09 9:01 AM

@Sarah

Thank you. That is very nice of you to say. I had not really thought about it that way before. I will do my best to make sure that those government dollars are well spent :)

# Posted By Jason Dean | 12/29/09 9:20 AM

Jason - Good luck to you! This past fall I started my Master's degree as well- Applied Information Technology with a focus on Information Security and Assurance. Its been 10 years since I got bachelor's... feels weird being back in school.

# Posted By Bob | 12/29/09 11:07 AM

@Jason,
Good luck, hope to see more security oriented postings..

# Posted By Raj | 12/29/09 11:08 AM

Jason, sounds like a great plan. Good luck!

# Posted By Ben Nadel | 12/29/09 5:45 PM

@Bob, @raj and @Ben,

Thanks guys.

# Posted By Jason Dean | 12/29/09 6:04 PM

I have been thinking about completing that program as well. I am looking at starting in February though. Good Luck to you

# Posted By Daniel Harvey | 12/31/09 5:21 AM

@daniel,

Thanks! Good luck to you as well. Are you looking at the same program at Capella? If so, we'll have to keep in touch.

# Posted By Jason Dean | 12/31/09 9:32 AM

I am looking into the same program, though I was thinking about the PHD program, but probably not right now. I think I am going to get my feet wet... well probably half my body wet with the masters before I look into a PHD program.

# Posted By Daniel Harvey | 1/4/10 11:06 AM

@daniel,

Yeah, i am thinking the same thing. Plus, after talking to the admission counselor, it sounds like they might be revamping the Ph.D. program in the next few years to, hopefully, accommodate those who already have the M.S. to have some class overlap.

# Posted By Jason Dean | 1/4/10 11:41 AM

What are you looking at getting out of the program? Are you looking more for gaining knowledge for the programming, network, storage, or other areas related to security. I know I enjoy the overall knowledge for security with everything as i believe they are very much intertwined but I enjoy the programming side better.

# Posted By Daniel Harvey | 1/4/10 1:26 PM

@daniel

i think i feel pretty much the same as you. I enjoy application security best, but I do not know much about network or storage security, so maybe that will change. I am looking forward to learning more. I suspect ultimately I will move into a full time security role in my work, but I hope it will be primarily web application security.

# Posted By Jason Dean | 1/4/10 1:38 PM

@Jason
Ya that is why I have been looking at this program. It seems to be more application security oriented. I know some of the others I have looked at required you to have an extensive network background and no development background. One of them wouldn't even take some CS degrees as they said most CS degrees are to programming oriented. Which is probably where most people see issues but you are only secure as your weakest link.

# Posted By Daniel Harvey | 1/5/10 5:15 AM

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