Bad advice is better than no advice, right?

I built a yoga deck and I'm beyond proud. I've never built anything myself, other than slight assistance on other people's projects. I designed and built this 100% on my own, and it's absolute bliss... So delighted with the results. Had my first yoga session on it yesterday, pure joy! Today is rain though, so I'm back at my desk.

And with that triumph, on to the bad advice. Or, what I hope is bad advice.

My plan after GCIH was to move into GCFA, which is the elective portion of the program I'm currently taking. I wanted a second opinion on which cert to take next, so my advisor advised that I reach out to the SANS SME team with my questions. I did just that, and was able to schedule a call for the following week.

I wont name the SME, but he scheduled the call (not me) and was 15 minutes late. Fine, I wont judge for that, but also no apology or even an acknowledgement of keeping me waiting for 15 minutes? Alright, moving on.

Without asking any questions about me, he immediately started flexing about his experience and credentials. I let this go on for another 10 or so minutes, before politely interrupting with a "great, you're the perfect person to help me out with this decision". I let him know my history - 25 years software engineering, many hats - and my goals: to move into a cybersecurity specialization, and specifically eventually digital forensics.

His response? Abysmal.

A: you're not getting into forensics in the next 3 years. Its a small world and people have to like you to let you in.

B: Drop out of the bachelors program, it's a waste. Go get your network+ creds and then maybe take SEC555: Detection Engineering. Give upon your goals, and just learn detection.

C: You would have to know cloud platforms and SQL queries and how to write python to be successful, so you're out of luck (This is after I let him know about my 25 years experience as a software engineer 3 times. He did not ask if I knew these things, he assumed I didn't.)

I've been sitting with this for a week now, and still not really sure what to make of it. What I can say is - being a woman in tech is a special kind of challenge.