Discover how Arpit navigated cultural shifts and academic challenges as he transitioned from Mumbai to Johns Hopkins, chasing his passion for security informatics and research.
Guest: Arpit Kubadia, Associate Application Security Engineer at Pearson VUE
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpitkubadia
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Host: Saman Fatima
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/saman-fatima
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Episode Description
Are you from India? Wishing to come to the USA for your studies? Is your dream university - The Johns Hopkins University? If yes, grab a pen, paper, and water; you are all good to know everything. From researching the dream university to getting selected and beating the elephant in the room (i.e. the VISA process) to settling up - you need to know EVERYTHING because it is a foreign land with a lot of newness, loneliness, and self-dependency.
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Resources
Be Cyber Aware in the month of October and the following months: https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month
Join the BBWIC Foundation Community: https://www.bbwic.com/
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For more podcast stories from Off The Record With Saman: https://www.itspmagazine.com/off-the-record-with-saman-student-abroad-podcast
Watch the video version on-demand on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0954PDs3hFI&list=PLnYu0psdcllS96iavkI5nQsErJ3795ow6
Arpit Kubadia's Journey at Johns Hopkins: From Mumbai to Baltimore, Pursuing Dreams in Security Informatics | Off the Record with Saman — Student Abroad Podcast
18:01:40 Hi, everyone. We're back with another episode with me, someone on off the record and here we'll discuss another episode, another university, another student and obviously different levels of experiences.
18:01:54 And I'm really glad that I am catching up on a lot of colleges on the same side of the belt. We've done, you know, the Baltimore County University. We've done George Washington University, and now we head on to Johns Hopkins University.
18:02:11 So here we have Arpit and he will be talking us through a lot of different things, how he got through the university, how his experience was, and now he's working with Pearson.
18:02:25 his job experience, the current role and how it aligns. We talk a lot about those things so
18:02:31 First of all, I really want to thank you, Arpit, for joining us and sharing your experience with everyone on Off the Record.
18:02:39 on IDSP magazine. So I'd like to give you a moment to introduce yourself. When did you come to the United States? From where? And yeah.
18:02:50 Well, firstly, thank you for having me on this podcast.
18:02:56 Yeah, so I'm originally from mumbai
18:02:59 I came to the US in fall of 22
18:03:03 a little bit after after the COVID thing had settled down.
18:03:07 I pursued my master's of science in security informatics.
18:03:12 cybersecurity from Johns Hopkins.
18:03:15 And yeah, I graduated last year in december
18:03:19 And since then, I have been working as an application security engineer
18:03:24 that patient uh so yeah it's it's been a journey and I'm excited to talk about it here.
18:03:30 I'd really love to know more about like you know.
18:03:34 Working with Pearson, obviously offline, but I've always heard like because I've sat for a couple of certifications and
18:03:43 Pearson view was you know the top most priority to, you know, go through and, you know, use their platform. So I would really love to talk more about it. And obviously a little later in the podcast as well with you.
18:03:56 But starting off with Arpad, like you graduated very recently. It's been like 10 months working
18:04:03 Yep.
18:04:03 But if we go back in time and when you were actually planning up to come to the United States.
18:04:10 What was your criteria of choosing? Obviously, we know Johns Hopkins is a very elite university. Nobody would say no to it but
18:04:19 As students, we always have a bunch of options from where we select and see okay
18:04:25 the city may be a preference or the tuition fees or the scholarships. So let's just talk about the college. What stood out for you
18:04:33 for the college that you chose it.
18:04:36 Yeah, sure. So
18:04:39 Firstly, before even selecting the college for me
18:04:43 major decision point was whether to go with an MS in cybersecurity and put all my eggs in that basket or whether I should go with just an MS in computer science.
18:04:56 Then explore. Luckily for me, by that time I had been working in the industry for a while
18:05:02 I had kind of realized that
18:05:05 Cybersecurity is where I wanted to have my career.
18:05:08 So that's why in the application process, I'm mostly focused on applying to cybersecurity programs.
18:05:16 There were a few universities where I also applied for their CS programs.
18:05:21 But my focus was on this cybersecurity.
18:05:24 And coming to your original question about Johns Hopkins.
18:05:29 For me, the major criteria the reason why I selected johns hopkins
18:05:35 was one of the
18:05:38 I was personally, I was interested in doing research
18:05:42 in space tech, in space cybersecurity
18:05:45 And I found a professor at Hopkins, Professor Gregory Falco.
18:05:50 I think in princeton right now, if I'm not sure, but he used to work here and uh
18:05:57 I had a war with him and he offered me to join his lab.
18:06:03 in attacking satellites. Basically, if I was given an if i was
18:06:08 given an admission to Hopkins.
18:06:10 So I wanted to work on that part
18:06:13 So that was, I would say
18:06:15 a major deciding factor for me
18:06:18 Apart from that i was
18:06:21 also
18:06:22 like the brand name of hopkins
18:06:25 was definitely a factor.
18:06:28 And also there was this thing where
18:06:32 So I had also received admits from a few other universities
18:06:37 But the batch size there was
18:06:39 really huge like capacitoras, I think 400 or 500 people compared to hops
18:06:44 where our batch size was only 60.
18:06:46 So for me personally, that was
18:06:50 another plus uh because
18:06:53 it felt like there were more opportunities that I could utilize.
18:06:59 And yeah, those I think were the major factors
18:07:02 And looking back now.
18:07:04 I definitely feel like I did make the right choice with that.
18:07:19 Thank you.
18:07:09 Totally you did like no going wrong with such like benefits that you actually talked about. And I guess it's just limited there would be more that you would have you know gone through all through your session time. So how was like the curriculum for the cybersecurity program with Johns Hopkins about the MS?
18:07:32 So, how is like the curriculum for the cybersecurity program at Hopkins? I'll just say it Hopkins so that it's quicker.
18:08:26 Thank you. Yeah.
18:08:09 So, and there's like a funny story behind it as well. I guess there should be one Katie session we have at the end of the program where, you know, you tell your colleagues correct pronunciation. Maybe a lot of us may get it wrong, but why not be this a teaching session as well? So we can take that at the end of the podcast. But coming back to the point, like obviously
18:08:32 Hopkins stood out for a lot of different pointers.
18:08:35 because of the research program and a lot of other things that it really excels on. How did the curriculum stood out for you as compared to obviously the other college admits that you had? What stood out in that curriculum like generally which really wanted you to go for that course?
18:08:53 And not for the other ones.
18:08:57 Sure. So
18:08:59 When you just look at the curriculum or
18:09:03 at its face value.
18:09:05 I did find that the curriculum was pretty similar to other universities
18:09:10 But when you actually go and talk to your seniors, you will realize that there are certain differences.
18:09:16 So basically everything at Hopkins, you would see it is more
18:09:23 academia focused or research focused
18:09:26 By that, what I mean is if you're learning something here.
18:09:29 or if you have a professor, then it would be very easy for you to expand upon
18:09:36 the subject if you want to do some research in that
18:09:40 Hopkins obviously uh
18:09:42 It's known for its
18:09:45 medical field like Johns Hopkins Hospital is one of the best in the world and the medical institutes, the colleges are also also great. So that you will see sure in every aspect
18:10:01 So.
18:10:03 If you are someone who is interested in
18:10:07 medical device security or anything to do with medicine then yeah Hopkins is a great choice now personally for me uh
18:10:14 Apart from medicine, for me personally, space sector was something which was very exciting and Hopkins does have a lot of that uh
18:10:24 or like the James Webb Space Telescope, it's operated right from Hopkins itself
18:10:31 there is this space telescope Science Institute. So there's a lot of things going around space so
18:10:37 there were subjects in the curriculum which were specific for space sector
18:10:42 that I was attracted towards.
18:10:44 And apart from that.
18:10:46 Hopkins does have some full class professors like the professors like Matt Green, who are very well renowned in the cryptography and blockchain space
18:10:58 So all the subjects that we had, they were great they were taught by
18:11:04 faculties who
18:11:06 were both in the industry as well as there were people who were deeply into
18:11:12 researching or
18:11:14 exciting new ways
18:11:16 of utilizing these. So the professors were a big factor for me
18:11:23 in selecting the university.
18:11:27 when talking about the curriculum, some things that attracted me were
18:11:32 when we had, I think now this is going to be something which is
18:11:36 Pretty similar for other universities as well. This is more of a general thing, but the way I try to design my curriculum was I tried to
18:11:46 keep a balance of
18:11:49 different technologies, different aspects of cybersecurity. So for example, I took some courses which were more
18:11:58 policy and management oriented.
18:12:01 when talking in context of security
18:12:04 there were some courses which were
18:12:08 around ethical hacking and
18:12:11 and web security, I had taken a cryptographic course i had taken a few courses on forensics
18:12:21 I've taken a few courses on reverse engineering, on network security
18:12:26 uh so those
18:12:28 things just gave me a good breadth of everything that security had to offer.
18:12:35 And that helped me
18:12:37 kind of both be a jack of all trades as well as
18:12:40 understand what was it that I actually liked and then go deeper into that.
18:12:45 So if I had to give an advice that's something
18:12:49 I would give to anyone else who is also
18:12:53 thinking about maybe just cybersecurity or even computer science in general
18:12:59 is to unless you definitely know that you are looking at the specific field
18:13:04 try to keep your options open.
18:13:06 Yeah, I was about to say like jack of all trades because you know a lot of people actually come up and say, you know, what domain should we go for because obviously cybersecurity is pretty huge in terms of areas and what are the different things that one could learn and excel or like.
18:13:23 But this is really good like if you're paying so much tuition fees, it's better that you explore all of the areas and see for yourself like what works for you once you're out in the professional world. So I would say that's like a really smart decision.
18:13:42 Yeah.
18:13:38 Of course, Hopkins providing you with that curriculum where you have exposure to everything like little bit, little bit and then you can actually understand that, okay, this is this, this happens here and, you know.
18:13:52 that would have helped you a lot at with with
18:13:56 choosing what area you want to go into eventually.
18:14:00 Right. Yeah. Like I mentioned, some of this was also due to the design of the course itself
18:14:06 like we were required to take two, I think, yeah, we were required to take three courses
18:14:13 So I was in the technology and research track and in this we were required to take
18:14:19 three courses had to be around policy and management.
18:14:25 So just knowing that you had to take those made it easier to select those. Otherwise, the technical courses themselves were so exciting that
18:14:35 If it was up to me, I would have probably dropped one of the non-technical courses in favor of
18:14:42 technical one but again
18:14:47 Sure.
18:14:42 Yeah. They just keep it like to balance the you know the load because if you take a lot of technical, it would be a little difficult so they try to balance it with non-tech like it happened with my university as well.
18:14:54 Definitely. And by being in the industry uh
18:14:58 definitely having those non-tech subjects was
18:15:03 also definitely really helpful
18:15:05 things like just writing up
18:15:08 incident response plans or
18:15:11 knowing about
18:15:13 privacy laws
18:15:15 Mm-hmm.
18:15:20 I agree.
18:15:15 things of that nature are really helpful now when I'm working in my job.
18:15:22 there was one subject with my university like in the curriculum it was on disaster management
18:15:28 And we used to actually write like BCP for, you know, any private sector like there were, you know, certain cases where our professors used to, you know, call up the friends and, you know, give us like certain sections of their private sector, you know, product.
18:16:01 Good.
18:15:46 And we used to do like the 360 degree analysis and then we used to write a report okay this is missing. We would recommend this to be done. And, you know, there's no, like there were, you know, institutions where DR plans were not there. So, you know, it's difficult, you know, to cope up with such
18:16:04 places where you have your database just across a tropical place and you don't know anything can happen.
18:16:11 So those were good situations where I actually wrote like DR plans for a government agency
18:16:18 And it was fun like to you know
18:16:21 hypothetically think of situations and write it and just to understand what actually happens when BCP occurs or you know disaster occurs
18:16:31 right even for me. So it's not just hypothetical. So we had a similar subject or cybersecurity risk management crm
18:16:39 where we had the same thing. We were supposed to
18:16:44 write a HIPAA audit report for a medical institution
18:16:48 And the way we went about doing that
18:16:51 So just doing like an architecture of
18:16:55 the entire hospital network
18:16:59 who all the stakeholders were
18:17:02 what's the important data, how it's being secured, backups.
18:17:06 right till the point of writing
18:17:09 a final report and then presenting it in front of the class.
18:17:14 that exact thing so earlier before coming to the US, I used to work at eva for a while
18:17:18 And the exact thing that we did in crm
18:17:23 across our semester but the same thing that we actually did
18:17:29 with one of our
18:17:30 client, one of our Fortune 500 clients.
18:17:33 So just seeing
18:17:37 how accurate it was in its portrayal of what you do in the industry
18:17:41 was really good. Like if you're someone who is interested in those kind of things
18:17:46 about audits or like you mentioned, disaster recovery plans or writing those up.
18:17:53 building those out and taking such courses would really be helpful.
18:17:58 I agree. There's like one more subject that I had like these subjects I really liked because they were not more of
18:18:04 theoretical portions but they were like what you learned is what you actually practically apply. So there was a course, I just can't remember its name, but it was more of
18:18:16 where you know you're divided into teams obviously and then you choose one uh
18:18:30 product or maybe one, you know.
18:18:32 Great.
18:18:30 anything that's operating currently and you know build up the architecture for it if you are building for it and then see what model they are actually following and how safeguard their data is and how they're actually processing all those things.
18:18:40 So I do remember
18:18:43 We had different situations, but my team actually chose there's like a grocery run app back in India that's called blink it
18:18:50 Mm-hmm.
18:18:50 Anyone not knows who Blinkit has this thing that, you know, we deliver everything in 30 minutes like anything with there in, you know, 30 minutes or maybe lesser, I guess. I don't remember it now. It's way past one year.
18:19:03 So we did like the complete analysis of what actually how it's actually, you know, built up and then what all things we can incorporate to you know
18:19:13 magnify those features better.
18:19:16 So these activities actually play really a role here where you actually understand things and then
18:19:23 you get out in the world and apply it. And that's what I guess the curriculum for you also provided.
18:19:30 Right, right. Not exactly the same, but we had a similar subject called SVA, which was software vulnerability analysis
18:19:37 Which I felt was really cool. Some parts of it was similar to what you said.
18:19:41 where we took an existing application and then
18:19:44 kind of understood how its architecture worked
18:19:49 We took open source applications
18:19:52 So, uh.
18:19:53 it helped having the access to the core
18:19:55 to see how it works. But moving further into the course, we actually
18:20:01 kind of like reverse engineered those retro games that we had in consoles like the metashi consoles and things like that
18:20:08 Oh, nice.
18:20:10 Yeah, we reverse engineered those games, exploited vulnerabilities in them
18:20:15 Mm-hmm.
18:20:16 act them uh so
18:20:17 that course was both
18:20:19 actually in the fun and very technical like i've learned more in
18:20:24 that one course in
18:20:26 three months and a heart.
18:20:28 And like three months before that.
18:20:28 I agree and
18:20:31 I still remember
18:20:34 In my first semester, like the first fall semester, I had a subject where you know we were given like a safe closed environment and we had to perform multiple attacks
18:20:44 In that environment limited to the data we have.
18:20:47 Right.
18:20:47 And that was by far the best. Like you do those attack and then as part of getting the grades
18:21:14 Right.
18:20:53 you have to replicate the same attack in the class on a presentation mode in front of your professor and you do those attacks or, you know, day one, you had to do those password attacks so you know how to generate those passwords. So that was really amazing for me to know like it's cracking the password from day one of my fall semester and it cracked it at the end of the fall semester.
18:21:17 So, you know, that was technically our assignments to, you know, do and submit it and maybe like extra credit or anything of that sort. But those were the instances where everyone actually understand, okay.
18:21:30 this is security onion. This is how things work up here and you know maybe talk about things like client server, you know, there actually you understand better who is who and what are we actually doing it
18:21:43 So those were the sections like how, you know, the curriculum really helps you like it's just not understanding, okay, this is DDoS attack and, you know, this is how it happens but
18:21:54 they actually give you those environments to
18:21:57 practically make it possible like do it for yourself like we have that zone where you're not using any public data it's just a safe space where you can do those things.
18:22:09 Right, right. Yeah, I have many such influences at Hopkins where we were allowed to do
18:22:15 such things and even encouraged
18:22:18 to do that. So I definitely agree with you.
18:22:20 That's perfect. And I guess…
18:22:23 on this lens, we've not had so far any conversation with any guests like about the curriculum because this is pretty much really
18:22:33 an expanded curriculum where you have the theoretical plus the practical knowledge and obviously you can hop on hop off on different areas and understand what it is and you know get idea of it so
18:22:43 I am totally like sold like
18:22:46 Right.
18:22:46 If I were you, I would have gone for it totally so
18:22:50 Great decision.
18:22:52 Okay, so far we've gone through the curriculum, the university and everything so
18:22:57 let's come to the point of let's talk money. So that's like the
18:23:01 Mm-hmm.
18:23:02 basic thing when we apply there are lots and lots of factors that everyone puts in in terms of finances that how we want to choose this particular university so
18:23:13 We don't want to get into the exact numbers but we
18:23:16 generally want to understand like how much something gets out of pocket when one has to go to Hopkins.
18:23:24 And also the second part would be majorly to talk about are there any sort of scholarships that the university provides or
18:23:32 you still have to apply it on your own or is it merit based
18:23:38 So we want to understand how was your process at your time and then obviously the finances how much
18:23:45 is expected out of pockets.
18:23:48 Right. So for our
18:23:52 both the I-20 requirements or if i remember correctly
18:23:55 around $80,000 for the I-20 requirements and the actual costs were somewhere close to that.
18:24:04 it kind of depends on
18:24:06 View space out your
18:24:10 subjects or if you're a full-time student or a part-time student, if you're a full-time student, then it's a flat
18:24:16 I think $30,000 per semester and then if you're a part-time student it
18:24:21 depends on the number of credits that you're taking.
18:24:26 So, uh.
18:24:27 If you're coming to Hopkins then
18:24:30 trying to plan that in the best way possible so that
18:24:36 you maximize the number of courses that you're taking
18:24:39 in your full time semesters while also not overburdening yourself
18:24:45 That's that's
18:24:47 a key. I'll talk a bit about
18:24:50 the strategy I followed when selecting subjects later
18:24:55 But talking about scholarships.
18:24:58 I'm not like there are definitely scholarships at hopkins
18:25:03 From what I saw, a lot of those were mainly for US citizens
18:25:10 Because I think Department of Defense
18:25:14 has some scholarship programs that are running
18:25:17 even Hopkins themselves to
18:25:21 But mostly when it comes to international students.
18:25:25 me personally or I don't even know anyone else who received any sort of scholarship
18:25:29 Okay.
18:25:30 So that's one thing but
18:25:33 The other side of this
18:25:36 is also one thing that I touched upon earlier is that the batch size is small.
18:25:42 So the research opportunities that you have here
18:25:47 are relatively huge.
18:25:49 So almost everyone in my batch, me including, were able to land an RA role in the first few months or definitely by the second semester.
18:26:00 There are also some on-campus jobs that are available.
18:26:04 But doing RA would definitely, if you're able to get an RA, that would definitely be a more useful
18:26:12 use of your time.
18:26:15 And it paid enough that it took care of my general living expense
18:26:20 So that the only thing I actually had to pay out of pocket was the
18:26:24 tuition fees.
18:26:26 Got it. That's good. I'm sorry I did not add up more about the, you know, what you talk about the research assistant and those kind of situation, because if not scholarship, those things actually help students in terms of like the day-to-day rent and other things because the only bigger chunk is the tuition fees.
18:26:47 Right, right.
18:26:48 So yeah, that's great.
18:26:50 Okay, and in terms of like when we talk about your application, like when you submitted it to Hopkins
18:26:58 Mm-hmm.
18:27:02 Mm-hmm.
18:26:58 I know it's pretty like a flashback memory, but anything like we know that one has to send LORs, one has to send the SOP and you know those are the common things but apart from that, did Hopkins
18:27:13 ask for anything you know different like in terms of like a video interview or an essay like a separate essay from SOP or
18:27:22 Right.
18:27:22 maybe like the test scores, anything of that sort.
18:27:27 Oh.
18:27:28 If you don't remember, that's also fine. That's totally good.
18:27:32 Yeah, no, I just don't remember whether Chiari was required at that time or not.
18:27:38 The English scores are definitely required.
18:27:41 Okay.
18:27:43 they had
18:27:44 suggested us to go through some third party
18:27:49 for conversion of our indian
18:27:53 exam scores to something that
18:27:56 Okay.
18:27:56 to a US format. I don't know what uh
18:28:00 what that third party was, but I didn't do that. I just sent my transfers before that I had asked them on email
18:28:05 Okay.
18:28:05 whether it's required or just recommended
18:28:08 And they said it's just recommended, but you can send in your
18:28:12 Okay.
18:28:12 regular official transcripts so i just did that
18:28:14 Apart from that, I think Hopkins also required us to send, so we had to give our SOPs and LORs.
18:28:21 Correct.
18:28:21 But Popkins also required us to send one video essay
18:28:25 Okay.
18:28:25 talking about the same thing, why do you want to join Hopkins and how to do it?
18:28:29 Hmm.
18:28:30 us in our career.
18:28:32 So yeah, those
18:28:32 Got it.
18:28:34 Pretty standard stuff just
18:28:36 these one or two extra things that were required.
18:28:39 Yeah, because the question that I like my my motive of asking this question was because you mentioned like your class strength was smaller
18:28:48 Yeah.
18:28:48 So obviously they're trying to like trim down on people so there has to be something that they're trimming it down so maybe the video, the thing helps them to actually filter out people that you know who they want to go ahead with.
18:29:03 That's definitely possible.
18:29:05 Yeah. Okay. So when is your like the program usually starts is it like always a fall start or like it starts in other, you know, times as well or it's like a strictly fall course or it starts in spring or summer as well?
18:29:20 No, it starts working.
18:29:21 In big ways.
18:29:22 it starts both in fall and spring.
18:29:25 Okay.
18:29:26 From what I saw, most people
18:29:28 do join and fall.
18:29:29 Okay.
18:29:31 But here it doesn't really matter like you can start in spring as well.
18:29:35 Okay. Okay, great.
18:29:37 So you said you wanted to talk about choosing the subject. So do you want to like
18:29:43 talk about it, just mention here.
18:29:44 Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.
18:29:46 So when we spoke about fall or
18:29:51 Mm-hmm.
18:29:51 bring one benefit.
18:29:52 of going for fall is so some subjects are only available in fall, some are only available in spring and some are available throughout
18:30:01 So the choices that you have are more when you are more in the fall semesters. So generally here at Hopkins, people finish their
18:30:12 courses and
18:30:14 three semesters.
18:30:18 maximum for
18:30:21 But most of the people I know, they finished it in three semesters, mainly because of the costs that are involved.
18:30:27 So…
18:30:29 What I personally did was so far completing a degree you need to complete 10
18:30:35 courses.
18:30:37 I think it was 40 grand or 30 days. I'm not sure about the number of credits, but it translated to 10 courses
18:30:43 As well as
18:30:46 or project or final project
18:30:48 final project that you have to do.
18:30:51 So for me, what I did was in the first semester
18:30:56 I took five subjects.
18:31:00 in the
18:31:01 So Lord help it.
18:31:02 Yeah, so the reason I did that was, okay, so even when it comes to selecting these subjects
18:31:10 What I did was and what a lot of people do
18:31:13 is I selected more
18:31:17 So I think I selected
18:31:19 for technical subjects.
18:31:21 and one management subject
18:31:23 So generally the workload for the management subject is a little bit on the lower end. So let's say it's like a four and a half subjects and I had an RA alongside that.
18:31:35 So most people do four subjects and then in the next semester they do five subjects
18:31:41 I did it the opposite way around.
18:31:43 In my second semester, I took again, I took four subjects as well as I tried to complete my capstone. So I completed my capstone project
18:31:53 in the second semester itself.
18:31:55 the reason for doing this and in the final seminar, I just took one management subject
18:31:59 So the reason for me personally to this
18:32:02 is like I had mentioned one was cost
18:32:05 So if you're taking anything more than two subjects or three four five
18:32:08 Subject to end up paying the same.
18:32:11 So I wanted to maximize the number of subjects I had completed in the first two semester.
18:32:19 You don't need to do that. You can also do four, four, two.
18:32:23 That also works.
18:32:25 in the second semester, I wanted to get done with my capstone so that I had like one full semester.
18:32:32 where I could do either like a
18:32:35 internship alongside my
18:32:37 classes and I could also focus a bit on looking for jobs so that was the reason I aggressively tried to keep my last semester as light as possible.
18:32:49 So, yeah.
18:32:48 obviously and you know job search as well
18:32:51 Yeah, yeah. So it definitely worked uh
18:32:54 it was a bit hectic
18:32:57 Hmm.
18:32:56 or complete all these.
18:32:59 courses but again uh we do have a good amount of time like if you want to drop a subject you have i think
18:33:06 a month or two months since your program starts
18:33:10 or if you feel you are overexerting and you want to drop any subject and then take it up later so
18:33:17 uh like it was a safe bet to
18:33:20 go with that and because of this like in my final semester, I was able to just continue the internship I was doing over the summer
18:33:27 I was able to continue that into a part-time internship
18:33:31 In my final semester as well. So that gave me a good amount of like
18:33:35 continuity and experience. And then I was just able to after graduation, I was able to just convert that
18:33:41 into a full-time job.
18:33:46 No.
18:33:50 Right.
18:33:53 No, definitely, yeah.
18:33:42 And obviously you had a great summer with your internship and then converting because you had not much of the subjects to do. It was more of a interning time and learning and you know putting everything what you've learned so
18:33:55 I didn't really have to think much about my capstone project because it was already done.
18:34:00 Correct.
18:34:01 So this was the way I did it.
18:34:04 It's definitely a bit more
18:34:07 hectic towards the beginning.
18:34:09 but you can also do
18:34:11 like you can maybe start with this
18:34:14 But if you feel that it's becoming too much, you can maybe drop a subject and do four, four and two.
18:34:19 Okay.
18:34:20 Which is what a lot of people do.
18:34:23 I guess it's a fair idea i think so when you come here
18:34:28 You're here for the studies so it's better you take more load
18:34:31 and get things done early
18:34:34 had it been, I would have been at your place, I would have done the same maybe like taking up maximum subjects at the starting so that the last semester I'm like pretty much open with the current job scenario and everything because
18:34:46 rather than chilling around in the first semester
18:34:50 that would really become hard to actually put yourself out for second and the last semester because you know
18:34:57 your chill period would have made you so lazy
18:35:00 that it would be difficult to you know take maximum subjects in the next two semesters it's better like start
18:35:07 being tough on yourself from day one like to take maximum and then maybe relaxing at the last semester like what you did
18:35:14 Right. And I mean, it's also a bit about
18:35:17 strategizing uh
18:35:19 Yeah.
18:35:20 So, for example.
18:35:22 for me uh so if you end up taking too many subjects but then you're not able to do good in any of them then
18:35:29 to it's not a good idea.
18:35:32 Yeah.
18:35:30 You have to make a balance, I guess the full subject should be in a way that, you know, at least you're able to manage
18:35:35 So yeah, so for me, for example, I had talked to a lot of seniors before deciding which subjects to take when
18:35:44 So let's enter five subjects that are doing the first semester
18:35:48 One was a management subject, CRM. So I looked at its
18:35:53 curriculum, it seemed similar to the work I had done already at EY. So I thought it would be relatively easy. It wouldn't take a lot of effort. So that was one subject down.
18:36:05 The second subject was space systems, cybersecurity. This again was
18:36:12 So the same professor
18:36:14 at whose lab I was working, he was the one who was teaching this.
18:36:17 So whatever work I was doing in the lab.
18:36:20 it was almost like the same thing was
18:36:23 being taught again
18:36:25 in the course, there were a few extras but
18:36:28 the effort required there as well wasn't
18:36:32 that much so there are two subjects terms so now
18:36:35 In reality, I only had like three subjects where I had to actually
18:36:40 dedicate a lot of time and effort
18:36:43 or to study.
18:36:45 So that made it easy and in the second semester as well, I think I took up
18:36:51 ethical hacking, which was something i was i used to do bug bounties
18:36:56 a lot in the past. Bug Mounties and even penetration testing. So I figured that subject would be relatively easy for me to do.
18:37:05 So there was a bit less pressure
18:37:08 for that as well as there were systems
18:37:10 security that was also relatively easier
18:37:13 so and again one management subject again in that semester, which was relatively chill
18:37:19 so then
18:37:21 In that semester, I was able to focus more on my capstone.
18:37:26 actual technical subjects.
18:37:29 So for me, I actually had planned exactly what subjects I would take in each semester.
18:37:35 Before I had even started my first semester and I had done all of this with like talking to class or talking to seniors
18:37:43 about how the professors are, how much is the assignment load how
18:37:47 How is the subject? Are there things that you can do beforehand which makes it
18:37:52 easier for you during during the classes itself
18:37:56 So all those sort of things just i think helped me
18:37:59 optimize my approach.
18:38:02 If I have to use those words.
18:38:08 I can't hear you.
18:38:18 Yeah.
18:38:10 Oh, sorry, sorry. So it's basically we're talking more in the computer language of you know you know optimizing, strategizing so but yeah that's like a fair strategy and I am totally like citing it. And I guess everyone hearing it right now may
18:38:26 have gotten a good idea that you know if you have to take 10 subjects and
18:38:31 somehow be quicker on that side, strategize it better, connect with your alumni
18:38:37 And obviously listening here as well would help that you know somehow you have to balance it.
18:38:42 Great.
18:38:43 So great. We talked about in depth about, you know, subjects choosing curriculum
18:38:50 finances, scholarship and you know the assistantship and other things as well
18:38:56 Just wanted to like uh
18:38:58 go to the next step before you know we talk more about things when you came to United States it's the
18:39:06 you know the elephant in the room that you know how how is your visa experience a bit for you
18:39:12 How did it go? Was it like a easy breezy thing, smooth transition, smoothly got your visa or was it like a, you know, took you months to
18:39:22 you know captured and captured an appointment and then go there and get things sorted for you so
18:39:28 of how was your experience with the visa?
18:39:33 I'm trying to remember it, but I think honestly for me it went pretty smooth.
18:39:39 Oh.
18:39:38 That's why you were not able to remember anything because
18:39:41 Yeah, I think it was pretty smooth. I was a part of a few WhatsApp groups.
18:39:50 Mm-hmm.
18:39:46 where people used to post if any visa slots were available. So before booking the slots, that was the only thing I really
18:39:54 had to constantly monitor. And then after that
18:39:56 It was just about finding the slot i was able to find
18:40:01 slot in Mumbai itself
18:40:03 Okay.
18:40:03 And the visa interview was
18:40:06 also pretty straightforward i think i was just asked
18:40:09 one or two questions like I think the interview just
18:40:13 So my I-20 is like, oh, Johns Hopkins
18:40:17 Maryland. I'm like, yes, Maryland.
18:40:20 that's, I think, all I remember from the interview. It maybe got over in 10, 15 seconds. So there was not a lot
18:40:27 there so yeah for me personally it was a very seamless experience
18:40:32 Great, great. That's great because we've had like, I've had really bad experiences with visa appointments and everything
18:40:38 I have heard.
18:40:40 It was pretty chaotic like
18:40:43 my flights were booked, but a week before I had my visa interview. So I was just manifesting it to the core
18:40:50 that I have to get it approved like everything is all set it's just this interview like resigning from the job, booking flights, the orientation is on head for the college and you're still interviewing for the visa so
18:41:04 that was like a
18:41:07 panic point or time but
18:41:09 Eventually things happen good.
18:41:12 Yeah.
18:41:11 so but yeah it was really difficult to find a slot. I found it first in Bombay.
18:41:16 But then eventually I rescheduled it back to Delhi because I got one and I did not have to travel that far because Delhi being the nearest place
18:41:24 Maintenance.
18:41:24 But yeah, it was really a circus at that time. I must tell you, it was really bad oh my god like another level.
18:41:34 I'm one of them.
18:41:31 I've learned a lot of horror stories of people who go to countries to get visa interviews. So yeah, I was definitely one of the lucky ones.
18:41:40 But that's great. That's great. Not everyone should go through the same experiences. But yeah, we talked about a lot about before coming to us
18:41:50 Just giving you a moment here how is like once you landed in Maryland and moved to your obviously the place that you had planned before how was the first few days or the first few weeks
18:42:05 transitioning to a new country.
18:42:08 Sure. I think for me on landing itself, if you are talking about that, two biggest things are one
18:42:16 I think we reached Baltimore at around
18:42:20 eight and
18:42:21 It was still sunny. So that was weird for someone coming from mumbai
18:42:27 that like sun was up in the sky at eight
18:42:31 At that time, it felt like there was literally no one on the road.
18:42:34 like all the roads are empty so uh
18:42:38 it was really silent like i was not used to silent
18:42:41 of the silence in the beginning.
18:42:47 Okay.
18:42:48 It's cool.
18:42:45 But now it definitely feels very pleasant. Now when you go back to India.
18:42:51 you just hear more it feels like you hear more like all of this
18:42:56 earlier uh
18:42:58 But in terms of differences and coming to the US, those are two main things that I can remember.
18:43:06 Okay.
18:43:05 Apart from that, personally for me, and I mean, I would recommend this to anyone
18:43:11 And so if possible for you to do
18:43:14 is uh
18:43:17 So few small things were
18:43:19 when coming here we had
18:43:22 pre-order our mattresses and
18:43:25 Oh.
18:43:25 And pick Wi-Fi because
18:43:28 we reached here late at night and first itself we had our
18:43:34 house where we are supposed to stay a lot of people
18:43:36 get a hotel and then it's a non-issue but
18:43:40 If you are coming directly to your apartment
18:43:41 And having those two things are definitely helpful.
18:43:46 For me, one of my friends who was
18:43:50 who had come to the US earlier or a year before me
18:43:54 He had come to help us set up
18:43:56 So that definitely made it a lot easier for us.
18:44:00 So if possible for anyone, that's something I would definitely recommend.
18:44:05 If you can have a friend come in and help you. And if not a friend, then maybe some
18:44:11 senior from the university whom you talk to if anyone is
18:44:16 willing to do that. That smoothed out a lot of the initial hurdles for us.
18:44:22 The biggest thing being here you need cars to go anywhere.
18:44:28 And we are coming from
18:44:30 driving on the left side of the road to the right side. So it's not something you can do on day one.
18:44:36 So having someone to show you around
18:44:40 about the US in general so
18:44:43 getting our SIM cards, getting our bank accounts
18:44:45 showing us where to get groceries, Indian groceries
18:44:50 what are the good brands?
18:44:52 what is cheap, what is expensive
18:44:54 Like if you go on day one to Walmart and you see like milk for $3, initially you'll convert everything to
18:45:01 rupees and everything will look expensive so you won't have a frame of reference. So just having someone in the initial few days
18:45:07 to help you set up
18:45:11 that's like I was really lucky that I have a friend to help me with that
18:45:16 But if that's not the case
18:45:17 then you can definitely join like all colleges have groups for new students
18:45:25 where there are some seniors so you can join
18:45:28 those and you can ask as many questions as you want there
18:45:30 or you can, as I said, if you have some senior with whom you talk to or someone who is local to the area
18:45:37 And just having them show you around.
18:45:40 Taking us about the US and the initial few days
18:45:43 It's definitely helpful and then after that.
18:45:45 Yeah.
18:45:46 you will easily get settled in in a
18:45:48 Yeah, you have to actually. And I remember like my university had this thing that they started up this
18:45:56 volunteering program to pick up
18:45:59 the students like the incoming students from the airport, like give them a ride to their places
18:46:04 And I really loved that because the airport from my place back in Atlanta was pretty far.
18:46:12 Bye.
18:46:11 And Atlanta is famous for a lot of traffics and other things.
18:46:17 And same as you, I had the same experience like
18:46:20 I landed at seven and
18:46:23 technically 6630 and 6630 is that time in India when you know the sun is almost at the verge of like you know just hiding itself but
18:46:33 it just felt like you know it's fully up like
18:46:36 Yeah, it was.
18:46:38 caring me a lot
18:46:40 But then I thought maybe my times haven't changed. It's somewhere else's time that I am able to see and that's why I see, you know, sun and everything. It's still like three or four o'clock in the afternoon.
18:46:51 But eventually I got hold like that was the biggest thing like you know sitting in the balcony for hours and then realizing oh my god it's
18:46:59 8.45 in the night
18:47:01 Yeah.
18:47:05 Right.
18:47:01 I have to make dinner and eat dinner. So, you know, that took us
18:47:06 took me some time and then since I reached late, I had a lot of help from folks in terms of like
18:47:14 bank appointments, grocery shopping, and I would totally agree like
18:47:19 You know, I did not even understand the difference between a lot of tomatoes and you know different types of them and i was like
18:47:28 Which one are we buying it
18:47:31 Yeah.
18:47:29 There are just so many options here you have milk you have like whole milk, 2% milk.
18:47:36 then you have all these non-dairy options
18:47:41 No.
18:47:39 Craig, I was really lost for a moment that with
18:47:50 Thank you.
18:47:43 click which one should i buy and in my head, I'm already like converting everything like $3, $4, $1, 99 cents and everything of that sort. And yeah, it took me ages to actually understand what is like quarter, what is like dying.
18:47:58 and other things so yeah it's always like a mixed feeling but then we eventually sustained here loved here
18:48:06 And now we know everything to what one day we were just thinking what to buy, what not to buy. So it's a long journey but
18:48:13 It was a great experience and
18:48:16 Yeah.
18:48:16 So was yours as well.
18:48:18 scheme for me.
18:48:19 it took you some time to settle up your room and you know
18:48:23 I am still doing that.
18:48:26 I'm still in the student
18:48:30 Okay.
18:48:30 And yeah, one thing that I think I didn't mention probably
18:48:37 is uh so i mentioned mattress as an example
18:48:41 But you will find your local groups. There are a lot of
18:48:46 groups local to your colleges where students
18:48:51 who have graduated their selling of
18:48:54 their old things and these people, if they're getting jobs elsewhere and they need to move quickly, you'll often find a lot of things for extremely cheap
18:49:03 So that's how i i like
18:49:06 have bought like most of the people here
18:49:09 buy a lot of things. You don't just buy new off Amazon and that's a good way to save money
18:49:14 Yeah.
18:49:16 ingest by like a desk for super cheap desk monitor
18:49:20 cupboards, any essentials.
18:49:22 I still go through Facebook Marketplace a lot.
18:49:26 Yeah.
18:49:27 Now that I live in like in a different state and you know live alone, you know, student life is more of shareable spaces
18:49:35 Right.
18:49:35 But I still go through Marketplace because you see a lot of good things at cheaper price and
18:49:41 that's like vintage or you know goes with the vibe of your room and or maybe like a necessity for you and you get those things so
18:49:48 Yeah, definitely. That's the first place I look at.
18:49:50 I guess that was one of the thing that I learned from us as well like
18:49:56 I…
18:49:57 remember it very correctly, my roommate came up and said there's like a sofa set, you know, that's there below in front of the apartment
18:50:05 let's just go and see how does it look. We want to keep it in our living room when we were student
18:50:11 Great.
18:50:10 And we had that like a couple of other people had like a television just in the
18:50:17 Yeah.
18:50:28 Yeah.
18:50:17 side of the apartment and they just used it for the entirety of their student time so that was also one other thing that I was like, who gives this all items for free? I would have not left it like they put something and they were all free and
18:50:32 you just have to bring them up to your place and
18:50:34 Yeah, and you don't see a lot of these things in India.
18:50:38 Right.
18:50:37 like there are definitely some secondhand marketplaces
18:50:39 were never free.
18:50:40 Rex wicker, yeah.
18:50:42 But the extent
18:50:45 of what some of the things you see in the US. It's not the same in India and definitely people leave things
18:50:52 Yeah.
18:50:56 Hmm.
18:50:51 on sites or in dead spaces in the building and it's free for everyone to use so that's
18:50:57 Definitely a thing here.
18:50:59 I've had my first vacuum like that.
18:51:03 back in student time. So yeah, it's all
18:51:08 Oh, nice.
18:51:04 I have gotten a lot of books like that, like a lot of open libraries
18:51:10 Okay.
18:51:10 everywhere where people leave their books and you can
18:51:13 Take them, read them and then keep your own books, whatever. So I built my library
18:51:18 like that.
18:51:20 Nice, nice, nice. That's great. This is one thing that I was really amazed at, but now I really love this part of
18:51:28 what we have this give and take thing of like of all these commodities so i really love it at times i put it likewise
18:51:37 drop it like just take it like
18:51:39 No.
18:51:39 I don't want to charge anything. So that's like the best part of living here. You get amazing things at
18:51:46 free prices.
18:51:47 Yeah, of DKES.
18:51:49 Great. So I know we've talked in length about a lot of things and uh
18:51:55 Pretty much the last segment is basically to talk about your current job experience.
18:52:01 And how does it aligns with your degree program that you did? So if you can shed some light, obviously talking about what is your position and company name, but how it aligns with your degree program and
18:52:14 Yeah.
18:52:15 Yeah, so currently I'm working as an associate application security engineer at Pearson
18:52:21 So this is a role that
18:52:24 continued from my internship
18:52:27 Basically, what I do
18:52:29 every day it's purely cybersecurity. My role is of
18:52:34 two parts. One is doing
18:52:36 penetration tests or penetration tests sorry about that or
18:52:43 our applications and second is doing vulnerability management
18:52:47 So then you'll have a lot of
18:52:49 when you're working in huge organizations.
18:52:52 you'll see a lot of these stashed dashed
18:52:56 SCA tools
18:52:58 you'll see a lot of logging systems, you'll see JIRA,
18:53:03 things like that and you'll be working with a lot of different teams
18:53:06 So managing the vulnerabilities that
18:53:09 these tools find and working with the teams and
18:53:15 like verifying those issues, helping them fix it, helping them retest
18:53:21 or those things. Basically, I'm the point of contact
18:53:25 for anything security related or the teams I'm responsible for
18:53:30 So it's a pretty fun experience. It's a good balance of
18:53:36 purely technical like when you think of cybersecurity, you think of hacking so there's a good balance of that in terms of penetration testing
18:53:44 As well as there's a lot of
18:53:47 or the relatively non-technical things
18:53:50 as well that I mentioned about
18:53:53 earlier that you learn in university
18:53:56 take things about following SLAs
18:53:59 Thank you.
18:54:00 or uh
18:54:01 trustees, disaster recovery
18:54:04 road arms or just incidents management
18:54:07 All of that is a part of my job.
18:54:11 Oh, great. That's amazing. And this was one of the subjects I assume as part of your curriculum as well.
18:54:18 maybe you explored a
18:54:23 Wonderful.
18:54:20 I won't say it was just one subject, but it was sprinkled throughout
18:54:26 And that was the same thing that you were interning with and then converted into
18:54:30 Full time.
18:54:30 Yes, my internship was a bit more focused on the penetration
18:54:36 testing side of things. And I have gradually gotten more into the vulnerability management as well.
18:54:42 Okay.
18:54:42 So I think that would just come with time in some variables.
18:54:44 That's amazing. That's amazing. And really nice like
18:54:49 It's been 10 months like
18:55:00 No.
18:54:52 you know of learning and obviously like I really feel happy when somebody's internship gets converted into full-time like we now hear it pretty less as compared to how we used to hear it
18:55:04 previously, but that's amazing that, you know, things worked out
18:55:08 And I know because the job situation is pretty
18:55:12 you know thin for a lot of people, but I'm really glad things worked out for you and obviously you are really meritorious so things may be worked out for you. So that's great that you're working with Pearson with a lot of experience.
18:55:25 We come down to one more question. I guess that's more on the fun side of things.
18:55:31 If it can give us like overview like a quick thing of any sort of community experiences
18:55:39 that you were part of as part of Hopkins.
18:55:42 like any clubs, any societies like apart from your busy schedule and the RA ship and the capstone project
18:55:50 Were there any activities, societies, clubs that you were part of with the university?
18:55:57 Yeah, there are definitely certain clubs, certain societies like that in the university. I personally wasn't a part of any like
18:56:09 I would have loved to. I was pretty active in such societies
18:56:14 In my undergrads uh in my undergrad uh but i wasn't able to do that a lot here at Hopkins.
18:56:21 But if I have to change something, it would be tagged. But yeah, Hopkins does have
18:56:26 good vibrant community. There is this tutorial project where you are doing volunteering with
18:56:38 with kids like teaching them basic math
18:56:40 Oh, nice.
18:56:42 There's that there are also being
18:56:46 ports that I don't know of anyone
18:56:49 from masters who is on the sports team. Yeah.
18:56:53 I guess you people were the busy ones.
18:56:56 I guess so. We are to get a lot done in a short time.
18:56:59 I can actually agree like 10 subjects cannot allow actually anything apart from covering them
18:57:06 Yeah, but in terms of community events, like our college had this igsa
18:57:13 which was Indian Graduate Students Association.
18:57:16 So that hosted a lot of events.
18:57:19 So a lot of our festivals, we had Diwali, Punja and Navratri garba.
18:57:26 and celebration of holy
18:57:30 so that
18:57:31 was pretty good like that gave a good sense of community there are a lot of things constantly happening
18:57:38 Mm-hmm.
18:57:36 on campus, there are drama
18:57:40 themes there are
18:57:43 debate organizations
18:57:45 all of these are a factor uh like
18:57:48 are a thing that's available here so if you
18:57:55 Yeah.
18:57:51 if you are motivated, if you have the time to do that, we definitely recommend that you should
18:57:57 look into those we should at least
18:58:00 Mm-hmm.
18:58:01 go for it see if you are able to give some time to it. There are also a lot of
18:58:05 Okay.
18:58:07 like technical
18:58:10 chapters here like you have
18:58:13 visas is pretty active, which is women in cybersecurity
18:58:17 Yeah. Yeah.
18:58:18 but yeah it's pretty active in our university
18:58:22 there are a few more such organizations. I don't just remember i don't remember them at this point, but there are a lot of
18:58:30 Mm-hmm.
18:58:30 such organizations that
18:58:31 that you can be a part of.
18:58:34 That's amazing. That's everything actually there. It's just if you can, you know.
18:58:59 Okay.
18:58:39 make time like the college has a lot of things that's great and you want to like shed some light on your college pronunciation like that I went wrong with and obviously you learned it as well on your orientation day so you want to put it out on the podcast like what's the correct pronunciation so that nobody gets wrong with it if by any means they are unintentionally.
18:59:12 I did.
18:59:03 Yeah, this is just a thing that a lot of people do. I think almost everyone when reading the college name the first and they would do this mistake, I did it, you did it. So it's not John Hopkins University. It's Johns Hopkins.
18:59:18 Okay.
18:59:18 And yeah, we were told this on the first day of our orientation itself
18:59:23 So there's a stat.
18:59:25 That's great. Like a lot of things shared and this was
18:59:29 You know, I'm happy that you corrected me or else I would have gone wrong all through the video. But that's amazing. And that's a good learning for all of us, obviously about the college curriculum and also about the college name.
18:59:41 It sounds easy, but somehow everyone just misses it. So thanks for that and
18:59:46 I wouldn't have minded that, but people in your comment section definitely would have pointed it out.
18:59:50 I know. Yeah, like people like full-time lovers of Johns Hopkins
18:59:56 they would have done it. So thank you so much for saving me from that. And one last thing before we wrap up is um
19:00:04 As you know, as part of the aluminized section, do you want to give out any advice
19:00:11 to the future incoming students as a senior
19:00:15 And as a graduate.
19:00:17 person from the university any advices that you have to give out to future students?
19:00:26 Just like a few random pointers uh
19:00:30 that pain point out.
19:00:32 One is…
19:00:34 If you're talking about cybersecurity
19:00:39 If you are anyone who is
19:00:41 interested even a little bit into things around
19:00:44 to medical community
19:00:47 then I don't think there's any better place than Hopkins for that.
19:00:52 you will see that as a backdrop everywhere in all subjects, anything that you do, there is this
19:01:00 strong presence of the medical industry.
19:01:03 So if that's you, then this is the best place
19:01:07 Apart from that, you'll hear a lot about Baltimore itself, like Baltimore being unsafe.
19:01:16 that is true to an extent but
19:01:19 places around the campus.
19:01:22 they're very safe.
19:01:24 we have this campus security that's constantly
19:01:28 doing the rounds there is a perimeter set around campus
19:01:33 So if you're living inside that
19:01:35 then it's going to be very safe and even outside that, there are just a few areas that you have to avoid that you'll know
19:01:42 when you talk to seniors or when you come here but
19:01:47 That was what
19:01:48 thought for me before coming
19:01:51 But honestly, I wouldn't uh
19:01:54 think that you should worry about that like if that's a factor for you
19:01:58 to choose between Hopkins or any other university, then it shouldn't be a factor.
19:02:02 You can talk to senior, you can message me if you want to know like what areas
19:02:09 cold water areas you want to avoid
19:02:14 And yeah, uh.
19:02:15 Talk to seniors people here are very helpful.
19:02:19 both in terms of
19:02:21 these subjects that you have to take the places where you can get stuff
19:02:26 apartments
19:02:27 anything, anything that has to do with
19:02:29 coming to the US and
19:02:33 Mm-hmm.
19:02:32 yeah i mean i mean that that would be pretty much it
19:02:36 Thank you so much, Alpit. And we'll have your LinkedIn handle in the description below. So if anyone wants to ask more follow-up questions, anything more that we couldn't discuss here or you want to have more one-on-one discussions so
19:02:51 we'll have his LinkedIn handle.
19:02:53 And you can totally connect with him and ask more questions if any, obviously, related to your degree program or any specific questions but
19:03:02 This was really great to talk about a lot of things, Arpad and thank you so much for taking our time and coming here.
19:03:10 talking about your experiences. I know we discussed in length about a lot of things and if somebody is coming up for this course, it would be really, really fruitful. Like I can say it
19:03:19 If I was to come and choose for the cyber program.
19:03:23 this particular discussion, the things that you talked about would really have helped me
19:03:28 uh you know in hd like
19:03:31 just choosing that course and the college.
19:03:34 So thank you so much for taking out time and I hope so people take advantage of it and ask more questions and
19:03:43 they could be more brilliant mind coming to Johns Hopkins. So thank you so much for sparing time and coming on ITSP magazine.
19:03:49 No, thanks a lot for having me here.
19:03:57 Mm-hmm.
19:03:52 it was similar podcast and similar videos that helped me as well when I was coming here so
19:03:59 I'm just happy to kind of
19:04:02 paid forward. So thank you. And yeah, definitely feel free to message me on LinkedIn.
19:04:07 If you want to discuss anything about Hopkins.
19:04:11 Great. Thank you so much. And to everyone, we'll be back with another episode soon and happy holidays to everyone.
19:04:19 And thank you so much, Artip. Bye.