The Guard at the Gate
Jessica Vazquez (MSIT ‘24) discusses why she turned to the MSIT program to boost her career and help her cybersecurity role with Motorola Solutions.
Sep 15, 2023
Jessica Vazquez (MSIT '24) spends her workday blocking would-be hackers while providing monitoring services for Motorola Solutions customers
As a junior security operations center analyst, Vazquez compares her role to that of a security guard. Her job is to monitor suspicious activity and prevent it from escalating into danger.
She turned to Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program to help her
in that mission.
“What initially appealed to me were the courses offered in the MSIT program,” she said. “It includes a little bit of everything you might encounter as an IT professional.”
Vazquez started the MSIT part-time program in September 2022 so she could continue working at Motorola Solutions, a company focused on data communications and telecommunications equipment systems.
Prior to MSIT, Vazquez served 10 years in the US Navy as a telecommunications technician. Afterward, she worked for nearly three years as a telecommunications specialist with the Department of Defense.
She joined Motorola Solutions a month before starting the MSIT program.
Vazquez said the biggest challenge she faces in her job today is keeping current on the latest tricks and tools hackers use in attempts to circumvent cybersecurity systems.
“Artificial intelligence, for example, has become more available to the general masses and has become a tool that hackers and cybercriminals have been using to make it easier to find vulnerabilities,” she said. “Being aware of how these tools work and how we can use the same tools to defend and protect against these types of attacks is vital.”
The pace of change in information technology is accelerating, which adds another layer to the challenge. But that rapid pace of change also has opened up new fields of employment for those looking for IT careers, ranging from cloud computing to machine learning.
“Some people still believe IT is just networking and hardware," she said. "It is so much more now.”
That lesson has been emphasized throughout her time in MSIT, particularly in Data Science for Business, where she saw how analytics and data was being applied in different ways across the IT and marketing fields.
Vazquez has enjoyed learning from her professors, but her most enjoyable experience has been getting to know and learn from her classmates. The diversity of her fellow students has helped her learn what she says is the most important lesson in the program so far.
“Everyone at MSIT is there to help you," she said, "whether I need extra support from my peers or to reach out to a professor."
Vazquez is looking forward to continuing her MSIT studies — particularly with the program's new cybersecurity minor — and is excited to apply the lessons learned in the classroom into her day-to-day work. Beyond that, she will continue to build bonds with her classmates, something she recommends all future students do as well.
"My best advice would be to connect with other students," she said. "Learn from each other. And ask for help from your fellow peers because we are all in this together.
As a junior security operations center analyst, Vazquez compares her role to that of a security guard. Her job is to monitor suspicious activity and prevent it from escalating into danger.
She turned to Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program to help her
in that mission.“What initially appealed to me were the courses offered in the MSIT program,” she said. “It includes a little bit of everything you might encounter as an IT professional.”
Vazquez started the MSIT part-time program in September 2022 so she could continue working at Motorola Solutions, a company focused on data communications and telecommunications equipment systems.
Prior to MSIT, Vazquez served 10 years in the US Navy as a telecommunications technician. Afterward, she worked for nearly three years as a telecommunications specialist with the Department of Defense.
She joined Motorola Solutions a month before starting the MSIT program.
Vazquez said the biggest challenge she faces in her job today is keeping current on the latest tricks and tools hackers use in attempts to circumvent cybersecurity systems.
“Artificial intelligence, for example, has become more available to the general masses and has become a tool that hackers and cybercriminals have been using to make it easier to find vulnerabilities,” she said. “Being aware of how these tools work and how we can use the same tools to defend and protect against these types of attacks is vital.”
The pace of change in information technology is accelerating, which adds another layer to the challenge. But that rapid pace of change also has opened up new fields of employment for those looking for IT careers, ranging from cloud computing to machine learning.
“Some people still believe IT is just networking and hardware," she said. "It is so much more now.”
That lesson has been emphasized throughout her time in MSIT, particularly in Data Science for Business, where she saw how analytics and data was being applied in different ways across the IT and marketing fields.
Vazquez has enjoyed learning from her professors, but her most enjoyable experience has been getting to know and learn from her classmates. The diversity of her fellow students has helped her learn what she says is the most important lesson in the program so far.
“Everyone at MSIT is there to help you," she said, "whether I need extra support from my peers or to reach out to a professor."
Vazquez is looking forward to continuing her MSIT studies — particularly with the program's new cybersecurity minor — and is excited to apply the lessons learned in the classroom into her day-to-day work. Beyond that, she will continue to build bonds with her classmates, something she recommends all future students do as well.
"My best advice would be to connect with other students," she said. "Learn from each other. And ask for help from your fellow peers because we are all in this together.
