IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[BlaqkSpliffin]

The only reason I was at to find a job in cybersecurity is working for the Feds as a contractor. They have by far the most made up job titles. So almost any job you do with them can be considered cybersecurity. If not for that I probably would've never gotten into the field. They gave me a job managing tickets for a SOC. But that was enough for me to finesse my way into the field.

I've got 7 years experience in cybersecurity yet still get turned down for the vast majority of jobs. So don't think just because you get into the field it's all gravy. These companies expect you have experience in everything cyber related along with half a dozen SANS certifications. Knowing that the training for a SANS course is 7K and the exam $1,400. I got one employer to pay for 2 of my SANS certs. And now if a company won't pay for these expensive cybersecurity certs I find one that will.

But having certs alone ain't gonna get you big money in cybersecurity. More than any other IT discipline you need hands on experience. That means scripting, coding, malware analysis, packet analysis etc. Plus supporting a million different security tools. Such as firewalls, antivirus, proxy, EDR or SIEM. And you need experience with practically all the major security vendor technologies. Because each company runs something different. If you know Cisco Firewalls and they run Palo Alto you'll get rehected. That's why cybersecurity people change jobs so often. I started out working with Cisco Firewalls first. But after Palo Alto started gaining market share I quit my job to work at a place using Palo Alto. Same thing with antivirus vendors when my previous company used Cylance. Well now Crowdstrike is the standard since everyone is moving to EDR. So you guess it I quit again because my company was too cheap or lazy to purchase the leading EDR tool. If you ain't willing to stay in the cutting edge of security technology. And learn every other IT groups job don't waste you're time trying to get into the field. But if you are let me know and I'll send you a blueprint on what I did to make it this far. But it requires a ton of work just to make 6 figures.

I need that blueprint pleighboi

I got the time and interest to put the work in while I'm getting my Masters.

 

[JT-Money]

If you just do half of what's on the list you'll easily find a job. The problem will be finding a company that pays for cyber security certifications. Most might pay for 1 or 2 certs at the most. So you'll have to job hop in order to get someone to pay for expensive certs like the SANS GIAC. Once you've got about 3 or 4 of those certs your basically home free. The problem is the courses cost about 8K and the exams about 2K unless you buy in bulk for everyone in the Security department. Most of them are overrated as fukk but stupid IT Security Managers don't know any better. They know the cost alone will prohibit most people from getting them.

Top SANS GIAC Certifications To Help Your Career

To get past most cybersecurity interviews study the Security+ exam curriculum. Most of the interviews you go on will just ask questions verbatim from the Security+ practice questions. That's how you can tell the people working there don't know shyt about security. Because if they did you would've gotten some kind of practical test before even being allowed to interview. Where they give you a pcap file or ask you to investigate a specific type of attack or threat like a phishing email or malicious word doc.

I would go through everything on this list for starters. It took me about 8 years to reach 6 figures per year. But I should've done it in half that time had I started job hopping earlier. I stayed at one job for 4 years out of those 8 years I've been in cybersecurity.

InfoSecAddicts - Best channel for beginners
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZZT2uxzBcq4mJ1VKAjl2Yw

Hands on Training some are free if your in school
100% Off Udemy coupon codes October 2020.
https://www.cybrary.it/
Hack The Box :: Penetration Testing Labs
Digital Cyber Academies | Students, Veterans, Neurodiverse | Immersive Labs
List of Hacking & CTF Challenge Sites

Free Training courses
100% Off Udemy coupon codes October 2020.
CoderProg - Ebooks & Elearning For Programming

I read these forums every single day
https://www.reddit.com/r/netsecstudents/
For [Blue|Purple] Teams in Cyber Defence
https://www.reddit.com/r/Kalilinux/
https://www.hacktoday.io/

Books
https://github.com/blaCCkHatHacEEkr/PENTESTING-BIBLE/tree/master/3-part-100-article
https://github.com/mariorandrade/Hacking-Security-Ebooks

Podcasts - Listen to several podcasts each day
https://digitalguardian.com/blog/best-information-security-podcasts
https://cybernews.com/security/best-cybersecurity-podcasts/

Cyber Career Advice Articles

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Kinda funny, made less money before i.t security but had more of a life lol but i wanted more money.. I am constantly grinding to get better but I'm running out juice. It requires constant learning while managers have it easy. At least from what I have noticed

I feel you breh

I've knocked out every cert I set out to get this year and switched jobs and got a major bag. After getting my last cert for the year, the RHCSA, I just instinctively fell back on some "my job is done" shyt. I kept telling myself, I need to stay on the grind. but 1 week has turned into a month of not studying.

My new job is on some bullshyt, It's been over 2 months and I'm still in the onboarding process. Barely hear from any one except to fill out an occasional form or two and knock out a few risk, compliance, sexual harassments training courses.

Other than that, I've just been waking up every morning and going for an hour walk and pissing the days away. Cant complain, because i'm still getting paid to do jack shyt ATM, but this feeling of being in limbo has me a little

It's only a year contract , I've been here slightly over 2 months, an at this rate, I might not get to do actual work for another 2 months. I need to get back on my home labs and studying tip to insulate myself for the future.

 

[krexzen]

I feel you breh

I've knocked out every cert I set out to get this year and switched jobs and got a major bag. After getting my last cert for the year, the RHCSA, I just instinctively fell back on some "my job is done" shyt. I kept telling myself, I need to stay on the grind. but 1 week has turned into a month of not studying.

My new job is on some bullshyt, It's been over 2 months and I'm still in the onboarding process. Barely hear from any one except to fill out an occasional form or two and knock out a few risk, compliance, sexual harassments training courses.

Other than that, I've just been waking up every morning and going for an hour walk and pissing the days away. Cant complain, because i'm still getting paid to do jack shyt ATM, but this feeling of being in limbo has me a little

It's only a year contract , I've been here slightly over 2 months, an at this rate, I might not get to do actual work for another 2 months. I need to get back on my home labs and studying tip to insulate myself for the future.

I’m going through the exact same situation with my new job. It does feel limbo and aside from the paychecks I don’t even feel like I’m apart of the company.

 

[Ducktales]

Starting my journey today. I am leaving accounting cuz I hate this shyt. And this is a field I always wanted to go into after getting out the military. I been reading the beginning of the thread.

from what I got I should start looking for like a help desk job? I have a psychology degree, so I have absolutely no experience. I have been learning java JavaScript html css on codeacademy last 3 months...Any advice would be appreciated. I am still reading through the thread as well

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Starting my journey today. I am leaving accounting cuz I hate this shyt. And this is a field I always wanted to go into after getting out the military. I been reading the beginning of the thread.

from what I got I should start looking for like a help desk job? I have a psychology degree, so I have absolutely no experience. I have been learning java JavaScript html css on codeacademy last 3 months...Any advice would be appreciated. I am still reading through the thread as well

What do you want to do? Answer that then we can properly answer you. IT is a Coli catch all. That's like you saying you were in the military - right but what branch, what MOS, etc. It goes a lot deeper than that.

 

[EnzoG]

Hey brehs,

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[Snoopy Loops]

Anyone taken RHCSA?

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Anyone taken RHCSA?

I have

 

[Dre23]

Anyone have any Azure labs?

 

[Silkk]

Back in the office for the first time in 4 weeks. Gahdamn this shyt boring

 

[Snoopy Loops]

I have

Thinking about taking it. Learning off the some Udemy course. No prior linux exp, but not a stranger to using terminal (powershell scripts for work in the past) and have some coding training (SQL, C#, Javascript etc).

Do you think 1.5-2 months of fairly consistent study (1-2hrs a day) is enough?

Also any practice tests or study guides/methods you can recommend, will be appreciated.

I feel you breh

I've knocked out every cert I set out to get this year and switched jobs and got a major bag. After getting my last cert for the year, the RHCSA, I just instinctively fell back on some "my job is done" shyt. I kept telling myself, I need to stay on the grind. but 1 week has turned into a month of not studying.

My new job is on some bullshyt, It's been over 2 months and I'm still in the onboarding process. Barely hear from any one except to fill out an occasional form or two and knock out a few risk, compliance, sexual harassments training courses.

Other than that, I've just been waking up every morning and going for an hour walk and pissing the days away. Cant complain, because i'm still getting paid to do jack shyt ATM, but this feeling of being in limbo has me a little

It's only a year contract , I've been here slightly over 2 months, an at this rate, I might not get to do actual work for another 2 months. I need to get back on my home labs and studying tip to insulate myself for the future.

Whats the new gig you got

 

[DJSmooth]

I'm looking to get out of cybersecurity asap. Cybersecurity at 99% of companies is a dumpster fire. Most won't even hire enough people to remotely handle the workload. It's not worth the slight increase in salary from other IT Disciplines.

What's the Cybersecurity interview process? I might be looking to switch out of Software Engineering. I'm over the SWE interview process too many hoops to jump through.

 

[JT-Money]

What's the Cybersecurity interview process? I might be looking to switch out of Software Engineering. I'm over the SWE interview process too many hoops to jump through.

The interview process is either boiler plate questions on security buzzwords. Or some type of take home security test. Most security departments are so overwhelmed they'll hire any warm body off the street.

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

What's the Cybersecurity interview process? I might be looking to switch out of Software Engineering. I'm over the SWE interview process too many hoops to jump through.

Honestly, you really just have to know Networking and Security. That's just really it. You can pass most cyber securitty interviews just by know this. They will also ask you linux questions etc.