The CSA/GIAC-aligned rubrics and SANS-style labs provided me with the structure I was lacking. Our audit preparation went from disparate documents to a single checklist when I implemented policy-as-code to enforce baseline IAM and encryption defaults across AWS/Azure. The most memorable part of the threat-simulation exercises was that I finally understood how to communicate, contain, and triage. Instead of overselling tools, the faculty (security architects and CISOs) focused on design and runbooks, which is what people remember.