I don't post here very often if at all so I'd thought I'd basically share my story because I'm bored at work.
I was working in Operations over 2 years ago. My old manager from my first job IT job offered me a Cyber Security Analyst position at this new spot they were building from the ground up. He remembered my work ethic and thought I'd be perfect.
I told him I don't have any certs or any background in CS but he said I wouldn't need it. I knew I reached my peak at my current position so I took it. Everything was going great, the Engineers taught me a lot, I was just doing level 1 stuff like monitor security tools, did slight searches in Splunk. Used Crowdstrike for malware analysis. Used tenable.io, mimecast for phishing purposes. Recategorize/unblock URLs. VERY SIMPLE STUFF right? Everyone looked out for me and my training. Then my manager got promoted...
I was given a new manager and in our very first meeting he changed my job completely. I went to Risk Analyst. I was in a team of two people now. My coworker was the Head of IT wife. She also was a student of my new manager. Nepotism at it's finest. This lady was completely useless, I had to teach her how to copy and paste a URL into a spreadsheet.
I'm serious. I had no former training for this position and was thrown in head first. This job was absolutely the worst and what made it bad is every time I was clueless about something I would have to go to my boss and ask for help. He had the worst attitude with me. Eventually they kept giving me more and more Risk related task to do. I was fed up and felt like I was placed in a position to fail. So I asked my manager why did they move me from CS to Risk? And this nikka said, because I didn't have a Security+ Cert.
(liar)
That Friday they held a meeting with me and my coworker and told me I would be in charge of managing ServiceNow next week. I had no experience or training. They told my coworker she would be my backup but she didn't really have to help or attend meetings if she didn't want to. I was beyond fed up. I thought the weekend would cool me off but it didn't. I called HR on Sunday and resigned, told them to not expect me on Monday. Straight up quit.
This was late November 2021, I had more than enough in savings to hold me over. I went on Indeed, Glassdoor etc and looked up the requirements for jobs I wanted to do and just kept counting. In first place was Security+ in second was CEH in third was CISSP, after that was CySA, CISM, CISA and CASP. So I studied and got my Security+ by late January, took me two tries. I went back looking for jobs thinking I was the shyt now cause I had a cert.
That was not the case. A lot of jobs in my area require a Security Clearance. It was tough having less than a year of cybersecurity experience and no clearance. So I took a position that was less than aka a step back in my career. They are getting me a clearance though! Right now I have my interim clearance to do my job but probably won't have my full security clearance FOR A WHILE, last guy said it took them a year. I'm also in a scif so... no phone. So I sit here and I study. I got my CEH next.
So now the day I get my clearance I'm OUT OF HERE lol. No offense but this place (while cool) is beneath me.
Anyway, that old manager fired me up. It was the ultimately I took that personal meme. I feel by this time next year I'll have at least 3-4 certs AND a clearance. I took my old gaming PC out the closet and started using it as a home lab. Nothing serious at all but just to keep my mind in the cyber security space. 6 figures, 6 certs, 6 feet here I come! Lol
TLDR; Got a CS job then got moved to Risk. Manager was an ass. I quit. Studied. Getting my certs up and the future looks bright.
How Sway?
