BSc Computing Science - James Campbell
James Campbell studied BSc Computing Science and is currently undertaking a PhD in Cyber Security
How would you describe your job to a friend / family member with no experience of the role / company?
I work with customers from around the globe to identify their needs for cyber security and then help them to configure and adopt our products to give them the maximum benefit.
On a day to day basis, what do you do in your job?
Speak to customers, answer questions and research solutions, a bit of development/presentation.
What skills do you need for your role?
- Soft skills are a major part of my job (e.g. stakeholder management, presentation skills, communication).
- Wide spanning technical knowledge of various cyber security technologies/practices.
- Programming knowledge – particularly Python.
Did you have any previous jobs or roles that are relevant to your current job / your career progression?
From UEA I left and became a Business Analyst at Aviva, eventually transferring into the Cyber Security team. From there I became a Network Security Analyst before leaving to join Tesco as a Security Engineer.
Did you have to do any further study or qualifications, in addition to an undergraduate degree, for this role?
I studied for an AWS certification and also undertook the SANS GCIH qualification however these weren’t necessary. Just needed the knowledge from exposure to various technologies.
Was there anything you had to do to develop yourself for this role?
Just built on skills I’d already learnt and refined them.
How has your Computing Sciences degree influenced or helped your career?
Having the degree has definitely helped. It’s given me a lot of background on various topics and the programming aspect has been useful too. The main thing I’ve benefitted from has been the softer skills from different modules which have allowed me to become an effective communicator alongside the technical skills.
What do you enjoy most about this job?
Being able to work with a wide variety of teams from different countries and being able to help them with their issues/problem solving.
What are the challenges of this job?
Having to problem solve various issues that I may not have come across before is challenging but it makes the job very interesting.
Is there anything you wish you had known about this role / career path before you started?
Make relationships!!! Cyber is a very small world and you’d be surprised how many times you come across people you’ve worked with before in different companies so form those bonds as it does really help.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your job or career path?
Just that cyber is a challenging but really rewarding industry to work in and it’s always changing which is very exciting.
If you would like to know more about James' experience, connect with James on LinkedIn.