Meet Mitch Haszard

What was your program of study?

Cybersecurity, M.S. - NYU Cyber Fellows

What attracted you to this program?

My undergraduate was in international business. My master's was in economics. So, I had no academic background in computer science or cyber security. So, for a few years you know I learned as much as I could on the job, but I was looking for I guess you could say more academic and you know a credential as a way to kind of... improve my domain knowledge in cyber security. I stumbled across initially actually the Bridge to Tandon Program and I wasn't necessarily looking for another master's degree at the time, but it looked like a good program. I had some friends that did it. So, the Bridge was really good and after that a few of my classmates from the Bridge went on to either the Cyber Fellows program or you know other computer science programs at Tandon and I initially decided not to, but then I came back around about six months later.

The Cyber Fellows program is subsidized 75 percent. So, it's very affordable for me. So, I decided to take the leap and join the program.

At what stage of your career are you in or are you making a complete career change with your degree?

I made the transition into the cyber security career field about five years ago from a totally separate career field. I was in the U.S. Air Force for a few years and then I went to grad school for a totally separate subject economics, and then worked for a few years in a field tangentially related to that abroad. I spent about eight years abroad and was looking to move back to the United States. I stumbled across a job that was looking for a Korean Speaker. I happened to speak Korean and it was in a Cyber Security company in New York City and they were looking for a Korean speaker to do research on... Korean-speaking Cyber Criminals. In North Korea, they have a large cyber warfare unit so they were looking for Korean speakers to help with their research into what was going on kind of in that region of the world and that's what led me to the cyber security career field.

Why did you choose to study online at NYU Tandon School of Engineering?

I think NYU has a good online program... I'm able to still work my full-time job. I'm able to you know have a good work-life balance.

How many badges have you successfully completed so far and which ones are they?

The Splunk I and II badges...

What attracted you or what was your motivation to complete the badge(s) you selected?

I've really appreciated you know at least NYU providing this for free, that... gives students something additional to do... if you want to learn more about a certain subject, but also... if you want to learn more about a certain company right, because these are corporate partners... and if you're interested... in some sort of company software NYU is giving you the opportunity to take... a short course on it that would give you exposure to that.

Would you recommend any of the badge(s) to future students and why?

Splunk is kind of a ubiquitous software in cyber security, so I think that would be very helpful for... people that are entering this program that aren't familiar with that.

These badges are are offered to you for the entire duration of the program. There's no rush to finish them. So, my advice would be... definitely do them, but you know do them at like a very comfortable pace.