Tell us about your expectations for the SECCLO programme, career aspirations, relevant experience

SECCLO programme admission

Tell us about your expectations for the SECCLO programme, career aspirations, relevant experience and achievements (max 500 words)

Dear Admission Committee,

I am looking for a suitable Master's degree programme which allows me to pursue two important aspects of modern computing systems, cybersecurity and cloud computing. That is exactly what I found in the SECCLO programme.

I completed my bachelor studies in information security at Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications. My studies have provided me with different security concepts and methodologies in order to tackle modern security challenges. I spent a month and a half working as an intern for telecommunication company, Kazteleport. This helped me to gain hands-on practical skills as well as deeper knowledge in information security. For example, throughout the internship I was able to pass 3 Network Security Expert certificates by Fortinet. This experience made me realize the importance of security in a corporative world, because until then, I didn't understand why I was learning information security.

Besides the university, I have experience in penetration testing and cloud computing. For example, I hold cybersecurity certificates, eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations. Currently, I am learning Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) systems and I work for ICORE-Integration company as technical support engineer. From time to time, I love studying on the hacking platform Tryhackme. In fact, currently I'm in the top 1% worldwide.

I believe SECCLO is a programme that combines all topics I am interested in such as cloud computing and cybersecurity. I'm confident that by enrolling in this programme I can keep up with the latest skills and knowledge in this field. I expect to gain in-depth knowledge in information security along with practical skills for designing, analysing and implementing secure computing and cloud-based systems. I would love to spend my second-year studies at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and take an ethical hacking course there. I believe NTNU has lots of cybersecurity experts who would help me learn hacking. Living in different countries provides a great opportunity to experience a variety of cultural differences and learn more profoundly about the people that live in these countries. Moreover, I like the summer school and internship which are part of the study programme.

In my future career, I would like to focus on the security aspects of cloud computing. Also, I would like to give back to the cybersecurity community that taught me a lot by launching a course. I would be pleased to complete my master's thesis at NTNU. The topic for my thesis would be "Implementing security best practices in AWS Cloud". I assume that Katrin Franke, who is a cybersecurity expert, would be a perfect supervisor for my master's thesis.

I believe my experience in cybersecurity and deep interest in cloud technologies would make me a valuable asset to all Consortium partner universities.

Thanks for considering my application.

What is missing from your statement is evidence of in-depth research into the applicant skills requirements of the program. While you do display great talent, training, and educational foundations in relation to your masters course of interest, you do not explain how these make you the ideal candidate for the program. You speak of the belief that SECCLO is the program that will serve your needs as a learner. However, you do not really back these up with a balanced discussion of expectations versus program offerings. These have to balance out in the sense that they support your learning needs in a manner that highlights the best of the program, along with the best of your abilities. I will grant that you provided a perfect run-down of the prompt requirements, but that was all you did. The essay is weak because it does not create a convincing foundation of your list in relation to the program. Revise the essay after you have better familiarized yourself with the program requirements. When you know what the candidate qualities are, you will be able to serve up a perfectly balanced response essay.

@Holt
Thanks for the feedback