For Cassandra Knapp-Mason, every day at the office or on-site with the client is a busy day—and a fulfilling one. For three years she has enjoyed a role in the service delivery department at a small Midwestern managed security solution provider (MSSP), and the clients she manages are mostly primary educational facilities. When Knapp-Mason’s team gets a ticket for one of those clients, she uses her expertise to get things set up, configured or repaired as necessary and, in doing so, establishes the most basic foundations for letting education happen.
The work Knapp-Mason does each day is always a little different. Some days she is managing access with Active Directory. Other days she’s configuring Chromebooks or on-site setting up a networked printer. Which client she’s handling, its differing needs and even a given school’s course schedule or calendar determines the type of tickets she will take and the type of problems she will solve. This variety, and the opportunity to constantly develop and expand her expertise into more advanced technological territory, was a welcome change from her career prior to discovering IT.
For 10 years after college, Knapp-Mason was a data-entry professional—and she was great at it. With an eye for precision, a knack for picking up the intricacies of new content management systems and a sense for streamlining processes, she always got the job done. Data entry day-in and day-out for a decade, though, got to be a drag. She was looking for something that would both ask more of her and allow her to build a more versatile, technical set of skills.
When Knapp-Mason arrived in the IT world, she found exactly what she was looking for, and there she learned that CompTIA certifications could provide a critical tool for establishing confidence and making the most out of the opportunity her job offered. Before getting there, though, shifting careers into the profession required some personal detective work.
Turned on to Tech by TV
Working as a data entry professional, Knapp-Mason would get home each evening, flip on the television, and tune into a couple of her favorite comedic crime procedurals. These shows would turn out to be not just a source of entertainment, but career inspiration.
Knapp-Mason regularly watched Castle and Bones. Her fandom for the two crime series, the latter featuring a computer forensics expert, got her thinking. While she knew that the real-world version of crime solving was quite a different pursuit from what a viewer sees in a half-hour drama, she found the concept of using technology to solve crimes exciting.
In 2016, she began pursuing an associate of applied sciences degree in digital forensics, to see how it was really done. In classes taught by, and attended alongside, law enforcement, Knapp-Mason learned about the advanced forensic toolboxes and techniques used in the field—and also got hands-on experience with the tech basics.
“I learned how to build a computer, learned all the parts and I learned troubleshooting, that kind of stuff,” Knapp-Mason said. “I was like ‘OK, this seems pretty cool.’”
By the time she earned her degree in 2018, Knapp-Mason understood where computers fit into the world of criminal justice and had a set of foundational hardware and software skills which CompTIA would help her build on.
Rediscovering CompTIA A+ on the Job
Late in 2020, Knapp-Mason got her first (and current) IT job. At the time, she was vaguely aware of CompTIA as an organization. Her mother and father, who long anticipated her having a career in computers, had heard of CompTIA certifications too, and mentioned them as a potential option. She was on the fence, unsure of how much of an advantage certification would confer. One day, about six months in, she heard the organization’s name again. Her employer suggested a surefire way to build up her practical skills—earning a CompTIA A+ certification.
“This is my first real IT tech position so they were like, ‘get this and it will give you a better idea of the industry and how to do stuff,’” Knapp-Mason said. “So I got that one.”
Earning the certification was no simple task, but with a regimen of self-study and tutoring, she was able to succeed at both portions of the exam within a year. After that, she quickly saw the value of being CompTIA certified. She now had a comprehensive knowledge of configurations and best practices for the hardware and software she worked on; she had been tested on them and she knew her stuff.
With that accomplishment achieved, it was time for Knapp-Mason to revisit the theme that sparked her interest in technology in the first place.
Learning to “Get The Bad Guys” With CompTIA Security+
The world of cybersecurity and the world of crime scene forensics can both involve puzzling out criminal behavior and using high-tech tools to understand and outmaneuver malicious actors. Knapp-Mason, with a degree in digital forensics and now hands-on experience in IT, wanted to focus on cybersecurity, to help see justice served, playing a direct role in protecting clients and their data. She knew where to turn.
“Every time you look up the top IT certs for entry level, the [CompTIA] Security+ is always in the top three,” Knapp-Mason said.
Knapp-Mason self-studied for CompTIA Security+ and found a valuable resource in her office too. A coworker who holds (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) made himself available for support as she delved into her exam prep. The questions she was asking him rang a bell. Thinking through the information in the CompTIA Security+ exam objectives made the cybersecurity pro remember concepts he had learned for the higher-level exam, serving as a refresher for him as much as an introduction for her.
In January of 2023, Knapp-Mason passed the CompTIA Security+ exam. Anticipating a move toward securing solutions in the near future, she is excited about using her cybersecurity skills in the field and continuing to develop them. She looks forward to building her penetration testing skills, to help clients stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
“I will be able to say, ‘you need to do this, this and this because I was able to get in here doing this, and your system is not as secure as you think it is.’,” Knapp-Mason said.
From Working on Computers to Working With Them
Knapp-Mason’s busy schedule does not end with the workday. In the evenings she works out on the heavy bag in her kickboxing class, building physical strength and coordination—hard work and self-improvement of a different, but also important, kind. Then finally, at night, she may relax with a TV show or two.
Today, Knapp-Mason uses her proven tech skills to solve problems, with a level of responsibility and degree of fulfillment far beyond what she got from data entry. As she continues building her skills and her career, she will increasingly use them to protect innocent organizations and businesses from scams, data breaches and malware. It might not always look like cybersecurity as televised, but it will mean using her knowledge and ability to stop real-life crime. For those who likewise want to move from spending their days working on computers to working with computers, Knapp-Mason has some hard-earned wisdom on how to get started.
“Start with A+,” Knapp-Mason said. “That’s very foundational. If you’re green and want to move into the IT world definitely start with A+.”
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Matthew Stern is a freelance writer based in Chicago who covers retail, information technology and various other topics and industries.
