This weblog is by means of Noor Zafar, a Cybersecurity Cadet Chance Advisory Analyst at Deloitte in Australia and a former member of Cisco’s FIFA Girls’s Global Cup all-female Dream Workforce. We’re excited to have Noor sign up for us as we move behind the scenes with the Cisco Dream Workforce on our subsequent Girls Rock-IT match on February 29, 2024. 

Noor holds a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the College of Wollongong (UOW) and a Degree of Mechanical Engineering from TAFE NSW in Wollongong in Australia. She is these days within the UOW / Deloitte Cyber Academy traineeship and finding out her Bachelor of Pc Science (cybersecurity) and Degree of Data Generation (IT). Her multidisciplinary learn about in more than a few fields in Mechanical, IT and cybersecurity has resulted in a robust hobby for synthetic intelligence (AI).  

The Girls Rock-IT Program addresses the gender hole in STEM-related topics. Established in 2014, this system has reached an target audience of over 2 million other folks, that includes 156 feminine audio system, 91 reside TV pronounces and 78 blogs. Because of this, greater than 974,000 other folks have enrolled in era lessons.

There are two rules in lifestyles that I’ve learnt; if one door closes, any other door opens, and the entirety is expounded and interconnected someway or shape. No wisdom can ever be wasted it—it might probably all the time be utilised—whether or not or not it’s imaginative, ingenious answers to genuine international issues, or just the curious machinations of our thoughts’s personal creativeness. 

Then again, by no means in my wildest goals would I ever have imagined that I might be a part of serving to to seize and broadcast an iconic match in ladies’s Australian wearing historical past the world over. That is my tale. 

Internal workings of an artistic kid’s thoughts

As a kid I used to be desirous about the internal workings of a pc, robotics and era usually. In reality, one of my earliest reminiscences helps my father construction and solving computer systems in our house storage. Tinkering with computer systems is a keenness that I appear to have inherited and have since constructed upon. As a kid I briefly won wisdom and talents to hassle–shoot working programs from previous manuals that have been the scale of phone directories! And for the ones of you who don’t know what they’re, they’re large! As an grownup, I now glance again and realise that my formative years obsession and pastime in era was once a a part of my undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Dysfunction trait that may shape a key a part of my id later in lifestyles. 

Upheavals of migration 

My folks migrated from Pakistan, upheaving their complete lives simply to teach their daughter. My mom gave me a robust sense of conviction and the root to pursue arduous demanding situations and set objectives. As a lady, she embedded a robust trust in me to pursue training, to be unbiased and most significantly, to lead a lifestyles in useful provider, leaving a just right legacy for long term generations. My folks sought after me to pursue medication, which I directed my research against. However I had no concept that at some point I might return to my authentic dream and fervour of era. 

Delving into programming

Right through my teenage years, I delved into programming when my instructor enrolled me into the inaugural Google Python pageant. This concerned growing html and CSS web pages which uncovered me to technical demanding situations and difficulty fixing. As scholars, we got Lego robotics kits to build robots with a small contact censor and a black and white digital camera for the robotic to have a look at objectives forward. Our purpose was once to code a sensor program so that the robotic may flip and steer clear of hindrances. Those reviews no longer simplest honed my technical qualifications however additional instilled in me a way of interest and a love for hands-on problem-solving. The fervour for robotics naturally led me to increase an overly robust pastime in AI. At highschool, I beloved science, era, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) topics and carried out for a bachelor’s level in science at UOW after I stopped my ultimate yr. 

Coding, COVID, and cyber profession trade 

At UOW, I majored in chemistry and I did a Degree in Mechanical Engineering at TAFE NSW Wollongong. On the time, I simplest endured coding and pen-testing lessons as a pastime. After graduating, I had a short lived stint as a chemical engineer which I loved immensely. Then again, after I used to be laid off all through the COVID-19 pandemic, I determined to return to my previous activity as an early childcare educator and thought to be educating as a profession trade.  

I had began doing a Grasp’s in Training till at some point an commercial on Reddit stuck my eye. The advert promoted a UOW / Deloitte Cyber Academy Program for brand spanking new college leavers and mature age scholars, paying them to review some extent in laptop science at UOW, a Degree in IT at TAFE NSW and to paintings at a large 4 corporate. Such probabilities appeared insurmountable, but I carried out for it and after the year-long software procedure, I in the end were given in.  

This system consisted of a two-week bootcamp sooner than coursework commenced. I finished the Basics of Networking [Networking Essentials] direction via Cisco Networking Academy, some of the international’s longest-running and purpose-driven IT skills-to-jobs methods. My instructor, Shan Ansari, nominated me for the Cisco Dream Workforce as I used to be ready to select up networking ideas briefly, requested numerous questions, and was once very fast to difficulty clear up the Cisco Packet Tracer lab workouts. He wrote me a gorgeous advice letter and I carried out for the Dream Workforce; it was once an overly last-minute software!  

You’re dreaming!

In truth, I used to be gobsmacked once I heard that I were given into the Cisco Dream Workforce. My TAFE instructor instructed me that I used to be the primary TAFE pupil to make it into the Dream Workforce and that could be a extremely coveted enjoy to acquire within the IT trade. The Dream Workforce went to a few workshops the place we won hands-on enjoy of tips on how to do cabling and fundamental troubleshooting. It was once the primary time for me to fulfill the all-female Dream Workforce which integrated the all-female Dream Workforce which integrated six ladies from all throughout Australia. The workshops have been very informative as we have been all enrolled into Cisco Networking Academy’s CCNA direction, and we bodily learnt tips on how to do cabling and paintings with Cisco apparatus. This was once my dream coming true:

I had all the time sought after to review and observe my technical wisdom however this was once at a complete new stage, at a big wearing match!  

The Dream Workforce match went over seven days. We have been break up into two groups to hide the cabling at each match stadiums: Stadium Australia and Homebush Stadium. The Dream Workforce shadowed the Swisscom group which was once in command of making plans and putting in the IT infrastructure the usage of Cisco apparatus. We got the schematics of the media tribune space, and we spent our time setting-up the apparatus to ensure that the media to have dependable high-speed web all over the protection of the FIFA Girls’s Global Cup. The Dream Workforce additionally arrange wi-fi get entry to issues close to the world of play. At the day of the outlet fit of France vs Jamaica, the Dream Workforce accumulated with the Swisscom group to troubleshoot the fit in real-time. Seeing how a big match is put in combination in the back of the scenes, from the infrastructure and making plans and sheer scale of other folks operating, was once a life-changing enjoy for me. Thankfully, the outlet fit protection went easily with none problems and it was once an incredible finding out alternative.  

Cisco popularity

The sensation of contributing to any such huge match introduced a wave of feelings over me. The camaraderie a few of the Dream Workforce individuals and the popularity from Cisco executives made me realise the a lot of alternatives and pathways for ladies in IT.  

Cisco’s all-female Dream Workforce gained protection within the nationwide newspapers, trade press, and my native native land regional newspapers. I even were given the chance to percentage my enjoy at the ABC Illawarra radio station. This chance has opened-up such a lot of profession pathways and popularity that I’m in point of fact thankful for. My recommendation to any one beginning in IT is to grasp the chance to upskill and retrain. IT is a pathway for ladies that may give extra choices and bigger flexibility than many others, and your entire wisdom that you just achieve all over your profession may also be utilised to resolve essentially the most distinctive issues and create leading edge answers. All the time be curious, be resilient underneath the face of demanding situations and all the time have an artistic aptitude on your paintings.  

I’m hoping this tale serves as an inspiration for the ones navigating the tech panorama. As I mirror alone trail, it’s heartening to understand that the abilities I evolved in my adolescence performed a an important function in my newer good fortune. The FIFA Girls’s Global Cup made Australian TV historical past. The Cisco Dream Workforce adventure stands as a testomony to the infinite probabilities that spread when formative years passions meet interest and resilience.  

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