Burnout…why isn’t this talked more?
By: David Fraley, Maekshyft
Tags: Infosec, Burnout, Lifestyle, Cybersecurity

So this is my first blog post and I thought I would start it out by talking about burnout. Burnout is a very real thing and for some of you, you might never see it coming, until it’s too late. The thing is, burnout sucks and can literally RUIN your career and your passion. Burnout can literally strip away the feeling of love and sense of accomplishment when doing that thing you love so much. I chose to talk about burnout because, while it might get talked in passing, I don’t personally feel it gets talked about enough. So, while I know there are plenty of places you could go and hear someone who’s been in the industry for a while, talk about burnout and such, I’m going to give you my perspective on it.

I should start out by saying I’ve never REALLY let myself get burnt out on any one thing. I’ve always been quite good at realizing, “Hey, I need a break”, and just stop for a bit and go off and do something else for a while. The times that I have come close to burnout, I’ve come REAL close. I started getting frustrated and agitated way too easily over little things or I try rushing thru things because I’ve been so busy during the day, that I’m trying to do things late at night and I’m exhausted, it’s just not a good mixture. I want to tell you guys about some things that you can do to prevent burnout and keep the passion alive.

I wanna get this out of the way before I get too much further in this post: Stop trying to rush things. I’ve been in, and still find myself sometimes, trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can, to get where I want to be. I’m currently studying Cybersecurity and I found out very quickly that there is so much to learn and it got very overwhelming. So my mind immediately went to “lets learn all the things, all at once” and that’s just not the right way to go about things. What you need to do first is come to terms with the fact that you’re not going to learn everything about cybersecurity in one night, week, month, or even a year. Learning that stuff takes time and lots of it, so take your time with things. Take the time to REALLY learn the subject matter at hand. Also, real quick side note, I’m going to refer back to Cybersecurity, because that’s what I’m currently going for and so I can relate to that the most currently (Back to my rant). Do not think that you’re in a competition with anyone. You don’t have a deadline for this stuff and even if you’re starting this out at the age of 40, thinking you’re past your prime and that you’re too old to start something new. Just do it! I should note that you’re not on a deadline unless you’ve signed up to take a certification exam on a particular date. Only then will you want to create some sort of plan or schedule, so you make sure that you’ve studied as much as you can and that you’re prepared for the test. Outside of that, there’s no rush. Don’t schedule an exam if you’re on the verge of burnout either, bad idea.

Some of you might be asking what you can do if you’ve already hit burnout or you’re on the verge of hitting it and to that, I’ll say one word: BREAK. Take a freaking break. Because you’re not in a rush to learn this stuff, you are allowed to stop doing CTFs, step away from the lab for a bit, the TryHackMe rooms and HackTheBox machines aren’t going anywhere. Think of it in terms of a computer. If a computer stays on and continues to run day in and day out, it eventually will slow down, maybe not work quite as well and needs a restart. It needs to take a break from running, shut down for a bit, and start over new. Same thing with you and me and every one else. So our “restart” is taking a step back and doing something else. I would suggest not even doing anything that relates to what you were doing. When I got close to burnout, I played video games, I watched movies and tv shows, consumed more YouTube than I care to admit in a blog post (HAHA). I did so many other things that didn’t revolve around cybersecurity and after a day or two, I felt I was good to jump back in and start studying again. Now, not everyone will need even two days, sometimes it might just be a 24hr break, sometimes it might be a week long break. Try not to take longer than about a week and my reasoning for that is, if you take too much time away, sometimes its a struggle getting back into it.

I know this won’t answer all the questions someone might have regarding burnout and that’s ok. Not only are there other resources on the web (Chloe Messdaghi did a really good video on burnout, which I’ve taken the liberty of putting the link for you here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS_aNuUk6I0), but you can also feel free to reach out to me on twitter David Fraley (@Maekshyft) and DM me, mine are always open and if I don’t get back to you right away, I’m probably busy, but I WILL get back to you. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to others in the infosec twitter-verse, MOST of us are super friendly and welcoming and willing to help out those in need. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. :)