IT Security Vs. Coding ?

[z123killer]

I will soon be going to High school and in my sophomore year there are some optional paid courses that I can take and two of them stood out to me:

1. IT Security (Certifications: ACT National Career Readiness Certificate, CompTIA A+ and Cisco CCENT)

2. Coding (Certification:  Microsoft MTA Software Fundamentals)

 

Should I take any of these courses and which one is better? 

[glitchmaster0001]

16 minutes ago, z123killer said:

I will soon be going to High school and in my sophomore year there are some optional paid courses that I can take and two of them stood out to me:

1. IT Security (Certifications: ACT National Career Readiness Certificate, CompTIA A+ and Cisco CCENT)

2. Coding (Certification:  Microsoft MTA Software Fundamentals)

 

Should I take any of these courses and which one is better? 

it depends on what you like, personally i have an interest in IT Security. but do what you like and want to do as it is no fun to sit through a class that you don't like. 

[DXMember]

I'd do coding, that will stay relevant for a longer time and give you a practical skill

[Wiflare]

test out of a core class if your school lets you, and take both?

[glitchmaster0001]

2 minutes ago, DXMember said:

I'd do coding, that will stay relevant for a longer time and give you a practical skill

while i agree that is more stable and makes more money however, if OP doesn't like it then there is really no point to put yourself through something that you dont like. now unless OP wants financial security then id recommend coding weather he likes it or not as its much more stable and will give him the bigger bucks and that security of having money that he wishes. 

[DimasRMDO]

Well I'd do IT Security, you know.... Security breach has been hot topic nowadays so, you better know how to protect yourself....

Coding is sure a good thing as well, but well this is just my opinion.

[leadeater]

26 minutes ago, DXMember said:

I'd do coding, that will stay relevant for a longer time and give you a practical skill

 

21 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

while i agree that is more stable and makes more money however, if OP doesn't like it then there is really no point to put yourself through something that you dont like. now unless OP wants financial security then id recommend coding weather he likes it or not as its much more stable and will give him the bigger bucks and that security of having money that he wishes. 

 

IT Security, Networking etc are not going anywhere. They are extremely relevant and will be around forever, the type of work these roles do changes and evolves with technology just like computer programming jobs have.

 

Also jobs that require highly skilled and certified IT Security experts or Networking Engineers pay just the same as programming positions, in same cases more.

 

Even the traditional IT roles such as Systems Engineers, which I currently am, are changing too. Everything is becoming automated and code/script driven but people have to write and manage these processes,  Infrastructure as Code (IaC). A computer programmer does not have the correct skill set to do this work. Writing code is not a unique skill, anyone can if they wanted to. Where the difference comes in is that while yes I can write code I could not do the job of a computer programmer who creates and maintains software applications in the same way a computer programmer could not do what we do. Code is just code, what/why/how it does is it is important.

 

Never choose a career because you hear it pays more than something else. Do what you enjoy, like and are good at. If you are good at what you do the correct compensation will find you.

[DXMember]

54 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

while i agree that is more stable and makes more money however, if OP doesn't like it then there is really no point to put yourself through something that you dont like. now unless OP wants financial security then id recommend coding weather he likes it or not as its much more stable and will give him the bigger bucks and that security of having money that he wishes. 

by staying relevant I mean the knowledge not the profession...

if you take a course on IT security today, well the basics of it will be valid for a long time, but the certificate it self will lose value quite fast if you don't  renew it with an updated course very soon

coding on the other hand is an essential skill for any IT specialist and will help out in both personal projects and work even if you have nothing to do with writing the code, the background knowledge is very valuable

Security guys, the really good ones will be paid much higher than code monkeys

 

[LAwLz]

Both of those sounds like entry level courses. Pick whichever one you think sounds more fun and then decide if you like it or not later.

 

If you want to be a bit more sure (since they are paid courses) then why not try it out first? Just google something along the lines of " Cisco CCENT guide" and study it for a while. Does it seem interesting after having studied it for 10 hours? Then it might be worth checking out. Does it not seem interesting anymore? Then it was probably not something for you.

 

Nobody on the Internet can help you decide your future career because they don't know your personality and what you like/dislike. It might be hard for you to know that too, but it is even harder for a stranger.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, DXMember said:

by staying relevant I mean the knowledge not the profession...

if you take a course on IT security today, well the basics of it will be valid for a long time, but the certificate it self will lose value quite fast if you don't  renew it with an updated course very soon

coding on the other hand is an essential skill for any IT specialist and will help out in both personal projects and work even if you have nothing to do with writing the code, the background knowledge is very valuable

Security guys, the really good ones will be paid much higher than code monkeys

 

You raise a good point worth talking about. But the gist of it is any certification, even in programming, should expire and professional development/re-certification should happen regularly. An old certification has a lower value than a newer one and should hold only a small amount of value to an employer, it's not worthless but as you said the knowledge is applicable years afterwards.

 

But I wholly disagree with the wide spread sentiment around coding and when, who and how it should be learned. There are many essential skills for IT specialists and some you need to know sooner than others depending on your career path. Too often I see coding being held up as some kind of shining beacon or holy grail without any real justification. Part of this is it's ease of access compared to say networking/NAS/SAN/SDDC etc, these things require hardware to learn and the community to learn it off is far smaller.

 

All IT skills should be treated as equal and all have equal importance as a collective, some are more applicable than others based on job role and responsibilities.

• Networking
• Hardware
• Databases
• Security/PKI/Encryption
• Scripting
• Coding

These are all fundamental knowledge areas and should be thought of like a Radar Chart.

 

Also I often come across people and software with outdated programming practices and clear lack of understanding of computer networks, virtualization and managed distribution. Outdated programming knowledge is equally as worthless as any other outdated knowledge and can cause huge problems.

 

It is extremely hard to get software that is written using old networking API's and methodologies working properly in a modern data center for example that has complex routing, multiple firewall zones, load balancing, virtualization, disaster recovery with multiple sites.

 

You can't write a multi-user networked application without fundamental network knowledge, but you also can't write it without coding knowledge either.

[Sauron]

4 hours ago, z123killer said:

I will soon be going to High school and in my sophomore year there are some optional paid courses that I can take and two of them stood out to me:

1. IT Security (Certifications: ACT National Career Readiness Certificate, CompTIA A+ and Cisco CCENT)

2. Coding (Certification:  Microsoft MTA Software Fundamentals)

 

Should I take any of these courses and which one is better? 

Both can be useful, read up on what the actual certifications do and chose the ones that seem more appealing to you.

[z123killer]

4 hours ago, Wiflare said:

test out of a core class if your school lets you, and take both?

The classes are after school based on my knowledge and I don't think it'll afford taking both (or if it's allowed) because I would still have to pay exam fees after the classes and semester fees

[FRN]

I'm a programmer. I'm also interested in ITSec. Watched a few CBT Nuggets video about ethical hacking and it was good. Coding is also great, it really puts your mind into working with all the algorithms and all those stuff.. It all boils down on what you want and what do you think will be good for your career. You're still young, and progress only stops the moment you stopped studying.