Wei Liang’s career has taken some turns. He spent 15 years in the Air Force, then four years as a head pet groomer. He had studied IT-related subjects along the way, including a part-time degree in infocomm technology, but his working life had taken him elsewhere.
“The career paths I’d chosen weren’t really using the skills I had. That was what triggered me to pivot.”
Cybersecurity was in the air at the time, so he went looking, and CFCI came up.
A first taste of the work
The free experiential workshop gave him a concrete sense of what the day-to-day might feel like.
“That experiential workshop really interested me. We were given the chance to try it out, a short introduction into what a SOC analyst’s work is like. I found investigating networks quite interesting.”
That is what the workshop is for: not a sales pitch, but a real, hands-on hour or two so you can judge for yourself before committing.
Where the training shows up at work
Wei Liang is candid that his current role is not pure security operations. He manages access services and applications, working with access policies. Even so, the training earns its keep.
“My role isn’t directly SOC analysis, but the relevance of what I learned does help with the job. A lot of things would seem strange when you look at them, and the course helps you understand what should and shouldn’t be there.”
His honest advice
Wei Liang does not sugar-coat the effort involved, and we would not want him to.
“It’s not going to be an easy journey. It takes a lot of self-learning. The course itself is just a starting point, a stepping stone.”
That is the right way to think about it. A good programme gives you the foundation and the momentum; you carry it forward. If you are weighing up a later-career pivot, start with a free info session and the free experiential workshop, then look at the flagship Career Kickstart programme.
Most of our graduates who secured cyber roles had no prior IT background, and our comprehensive guide to a mid-career switch into cybersecurity in Singapore covers the practicalities of making the move.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it too late to switch into cybersecurity later in your career?
No. People move into cybersecurity from very different careers and at different ages. What matters is a willingness to keep learning. A structured, hands-on programme gives you the foundation, and the demand for security skills in Singapore means experience from other fields is often an asset, not a barrier.
Do the skills from a cybersecurity course transfer to non-SOC roles?
Yes. Even in roles that are not pure security operations, understanding networks, access policies, services and how systems can be attacked makes day-to-day technical work clearer. Graduates regularly find that the fundamentals carry over into adjacent IT and infrastructure roles.