IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[JT-Money]

I finally just manned up and decided to focus, cut the bs, and study for the A+. I actually know a lot of stuff already, I can't believe I took so long, but I'm focused now and doing 2 hours on workdays 4hour weekend of studying, I think I can pass this by Christmas then study for Network+. My question is what Cyber Security fields pay well but has good work-life balance and not to stressful?

Probably security auditing aka GRC because everything else is a shyt show with zero work life balance.

 

[RealCrownHeights]

Also, I was wondering if I could volunteer at maybe a Church, School in the IT department while working my current job while also learning my Network +, Security Plus+. That way I can try to skip that help desk time period

 

[JT-Money]

Also, I was wondering if I could volunteer at maybe a Church, School in the IT department while working my current job while also learning my Network +, Security Plus+. That way I can try to skip that help desk time period

I definitely wouldn't waste time on the helpdesk these days. I only stayed on the helpdesk for 5 months when I started. Just a complete waste of time in my opinion.

 

[HoldThisL]

This roadmap has helped me so much and gave me a clear outline on what I need to learn.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

I definitely wouldn't waste time on the helpdesk these days. I only stayed on the helpdesk for 5 months when I started. Just a complete waste of time in my opinion.

What do you recommend he start with?

 

[JT-Money]

What do you recommend he start with?

I would only start out in either desktop support or network technician never helpdesk. Because helpdesk is usually a waste of time if you stay put longer than a year.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

I would only start out in either desktop support or network technician never helpdesk. Because helpdesk is usually a waste of time if you stay put longer than a year.

That makes sense. Some people use help desk and desktop support interchangeably. So I was wondering what you meant.

I started out in IT asset management. It gave me experience with ticketing systems and the occasionally shytty user (and coworker). After that job, I just faked my way into desktop support.

 

[Tr0yTV]

bruh i swear to god I hate IT
some dumb ass brings their old ass laptop to work with WINDOWS XP on it with no patches whats so ever and infects the entire network

So guess who has to stay onsite for an additional 5-6hrs trying to debug this shyt
i don't even know how he even got cleared to bring that thing inside the building since we have a 100% no tolerance policy when bringing in laptops

Forget to enable MAC address sticky on a corp network, brehs

 

[EnzoG]

Forget to enable MAC address sticky on a corp network, brehs

Can you break that down as to how that might prevented that from occurring?

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

Project Management - Six Sigma Yellow Belt; I've mostly been working in insurance the past 2-3 years as a insurance team manager. My only experience in IT has been learning AWS and a little bit of Cybersecurity because my older brother let me shadow him while he works. That's who put me onto this career path.

Just get the I.T project management bag lol. You will make six figures asking engineers is there any update on this hey where are we along with this implementation, hey client is frustrated, any progress on this this is high priority, management visibility .

 

[Lord Z]

Probably security auditing aka GRC because everything else is a shyt show with zero work life balance.

That's very true. I don't know why but we dont talk about GRC enough on here.

Like 10 years ago, we saw cloud coming and becoming the next in demand skill . It still is to a certain degree. GRC will be the wave possibly for the next 30 years. There are lots of technical dudes out here. If you can do anything related to GRC and you come from a technical background, you'll never have to worry about making money ever again.

2 specific areas of GRC are coming strong from what I see :

• Compliance : this is more about a company showing that they have a strong security standard and they decide to get certified (ISO 27001, CMMC...). There is also SOC2 audit that are performed by an external auditor. So basically, companies get certified to show customers that they are serious about security.

• Data Privacy : How do we protect people personal info ? This shyt is the next biggest thing to look out for. Think about health data (HIPAA) or personal data (NY privacy act, CCPA GDPR for europe)

It is not as exciting maybe as pentesting or networking but GRC is where the real money is. I just opened my GRC consultancy LLC and I have too much shyt to do.

Let's get this money brehs

As a side note, I see people coming around asking career questions . I beg you, READ ALL THE PAGES OF THIS THREAD. There are so many jewels in this thread, I don't think anyody can even imagine . I discovered the Coli and this thread in 2015, it changed my life. I went from barely employed to consultant with my own LLC in 7 years basically

We have to do the knowledge, it is all here for you. Take 30mn each day and just read it for about a month, all profiles have been addressed over time .

 

[Suicidedoorsonabuick]

Forget to enable MAC address sticky on a corp network, brehs

TBH I thought I did set the Sticky Mac address so this shyt doesn't happen
but long story short this guy plug it in via LAN in one of our lobbies that has Ethernet ports available, all I saw was a big ass alert notification via snort saying that an intrusion was detected
by the time I located where he jacked in at and kicked him off our network was infected with a root kit and a mailfinder

granted I got our shyt cleaned and re-harden everything again and back to normal

hopefully when I bring this up in my weekly report (which prob won't go anywhere like usual) we can just go around and cap off those LAN ports

 

[Tr0yTV]

TBH I thought I did set the Sticky Mac address so this shyt doesn't happen
but long story short this guy plug it in via LAN in one of our lobbies that has Ethernet ports available, all I saw was a big ass alert notification via snort saying that an intrusion was detected
by the time I located where he jacked in at and kicked him off our network was infected with a root kit and a mailfinder

granted I got our shyt cleaned and re-harden everything again and back to normal

hopefully when I bring this up in my weekly report (which prob won't go anywhere like usual) we can just go around and cap off those LAN ports

Look into a NAC solution too. It makes endpoint management a lot easier.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

That's very true. I don't know why but we dont talk about GRC enough on here.

Like 10 years ago, we saw cloud coming and becoming the next in demand skill . It still is to a certain degree. GRC will be the wave possibly for the next 30 years. There are lots of technical dudes out here. If you can do anything related to GRC and you come from a technical background, you'll never have to worry about making money ever again.

2 specific areas of GRC are coming strong from what I see :

• Compliance : this is more about a company showing that they have a strong security standard and they decide to get certified (ISO 27001, CMMC...). There is also SOC2 audit that are performed by an external auditor. So basically, companies get certified to show customers that they are serious about security.

• Data Privacy : How do we protect people personal info ? This shyt is the next biggest thing to look out for. Think about health data (HIPAA) or personal data (NY privacy act, CCPA GDPR for europe)

It is not as exciting maybe as pentesting or networking but GRC is where the real money is. I just opened my GRC consultancy LLC and I have too much shyt to do.

Let's get this money brehs

As a side note, I see people coming around asking career questions . I beg you, READ ALL THE PAGES OF THIS THREAD. There are so many jewels in this thread, I don't think anyody can even imagine . I discovered the Coli and this thread in 2015, it changed my life. I went from barely employed to consultant with my own LLC in 7 years basically

We have to do the knowledge, it is all here for you. Take 30mn each day and just read it for about a month, all profiles have been addressed over time .

Yoooo… this is actually what I wanted to do.

I actually just got pentesting but plan on doing more. My goal is to do vulnerability testing or compliance checks for small businesses maybe

 

[NYtymes]

12 month contract on the table as a field engineer but doesn’t have vacation or pto time ,

Should i still consider accepting just for the experience or should i say nah?