Nicholas Langenfeld | Infosec Accelerate Scholarship winner knows learning extends beyond the classroom
Nicolas Langenfeld, one of Infosec’s Accelerate Scholarship winners, plans to use his talents to promote a healthy respect for cybersecurity practice, even among casual technology users.
Many of the world’s top cybersecurity professionals begin their careers in academia. Nicholas Langenfeld is following this proud tradition and has recently won an Infosec Accelerate Scholarship.
Langenfeld is starting his cybersecurity career journey as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. In his first year at Stout, he enrolled in introductory IT classes. Although none of his classes were specific to cybersecurity, he made the astute observation that information security was an overarching theme that tied them all together. This discovery sparked Langenfeld’s interest in cybersecurity and inspired him to major in computer networking and information technology with minors in information security management and computer science.
Langenfeld quickly points out that while very important, education means more than just earning a degree. Instead, a good cybersecurity education also means having a genuine passion for the industry.
“As a result of the fast pace of the cybersecurity field, one must have a passion for technology and cybersecurity,” said Langenfleld. “This will help them go above and beyond when learning, resulting in education simply for the sake of learning, which establishes a richer education.”
Interning to kick-start his career
Langenfeld is putting his newfound skills to work at a help desk internship with Waupaca Foundry, an iron casting supplier located in Waupaca, Wis. He’s incredibly proud of his internship and counts it as his most significant achievement. He’s been at the company for two and a half years and is considering taking up a full-time position after graduation. Langenfeld likes the internship because it exposes him to many different teams, including the server security team. Seeing many aspects of IT and information security is helping him decide what he wants to specialize in.
Langenfeld feels that the internship is an excellent match for his career goals.
“One of my cybersecurity goals is to increase the appreciation and respect that technology users have for the cybersecurity practices commonly implemented in a company,” he explained. “This includes teaching them how to create a strong password or identify social engineering attacks and educating them on why this must be done. The more we educate tech users and increase their appreciation for cybersecurity, the less we will fight with them, and more progress can be made.”
Infosec’s scholarship will help Langenfeld achieve his goal of teaching non-technical staff the value of good cyber hygiene practices. While at school, Langenfeld plans to develop his professional communication skills and learn the technical side of information security: “It is one thing to know anything and everything about cybersecurity, but if you cannot disseminate that information to others, then you are no better off.”
There’s also a range of other skills Langenfeld thinks are essential to master in order to have a successful career in cybersecurity, including critical thinking, team spirit, problem recognition and a passion for technology. Langenfeld’s teamwork and problem-solving skills have allowed him to become a leader among his peers and spearhead collaborative solutions for complex problems.
“A single person cannot work on everything, and one person may see problems or solutions where their colleagues do not,” he said.
The value of good mentors
Mentors have played a massive role in Langenfeld’s success story. His professors and the heads of each IT department at his internship are among his most valued mentors.
“They answer any questions that I have, and they go a lot of times out of the way to explain things to me,” he said. “My professors here at school do an outstanding job of helping me when I need help and explaining things in a way that makes them easier to understand.”
Langenfeld’s mentors shared a big piece of career advice with him: “There's never a wrong time to ask a question.” He explains, “I used to be the kind of person that wouldn't ask questions because I'd be kind of afraid that it would be considered a stupid question, but just working with other people in the IT industry, it's abundantly clear that nobody can know everything. So there's no way you'll survive if you don't ask questions.”
For anyone just beginning their cybersecurity journey, Langenfeld encourages them not to get intimidated. He was dismayed to see some of his school cohorts burn out after the first year of intense coursework and change majors.
“Learn the base foundation of all the simple things. Even though it's so much, once you get through that, it's much more interesting to learn the more advanced features. Getting through that initial hump of the massive inflow of social information is very important.”
Now that Langenfeld has mastered the basics of cybersecurity, he’s looking ahead to the next steps in his education and career. He someday plans to pursue a role related to server administration and cloud computing because, as he said, “Cloud is the future.” He plans to do this by completing his degree at UW-Stout and beefing up his credentials with certifications. He currently holds certifications for CCNA, Microsoft Office and Linux. Next, he has his sights set on a couple of AWS certifications.
Wherever Langenfeld’s career takes him, Infosec is thrilled to be a part of his success story.