IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[RealCrownHeights]

I can add more later, but first get your Security + certification. If you haven't already, give yourself a deadline (aim for later this month or early January). You listed three different role types, so I would suggest you narrow down and Google/research each role, and determine which one seems the most interesting to YOU. You can rank the roles based off your interest level if you want.

Once you complete the research you'll probably get a better understanding of the starting path you will need to take. For network positions, I would recommend looking at NOC tech roles, and for security look for SOC roles. Obviously, look for entry level roles at 0 - 2 years of experience. The end goal for six figures are roles ending in "Engineer" or "Manager", but technician, support, or specialist roles are usually where you start.

Try to knock out that certification. With no experience or technical education, you will need something that keeps your resume from being tossed. It may also give you a better chance with government roles.

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Thanks, I narrowed it down to Cloud Consultant/Engineer and Security Network Engineer. Yes I plan to take and pass sec + by late January. Do you think with that cert I can skip helpdesk and land technician and support? anything above 52k and im saying sayonara to my current job

 

[krexzen]

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Thanks, I narrowed it down to Cloud Consultant/Engineer and Security Network Engineer. Yes I plan to take and pass sec + by late January. Do you think with that cert I can skip helpdesk and land technician and support? anything above 52k and im saying sayonara to my current job

I doubt it, but don't let that keep you from trying. The certification is just to help you get that initial interview/phone call. For network roles it is also in your best interest to get the CCNA. You can also try Juniper Network's JNCIA. Juniper isn't as well known as Cisco, but a decent amount of companies still use their products. And Juniper's entry level certifications are some of the cheapest, quickest, and easiest to get.

 

[Tr0yTV]

Just scheduled AZ-500 for next week. SC-200 is scheduled for the week after that.


Free game:

Microsoft is offering certification exams for $15 for a limited time for those ‘affected by Covid-19’

 

[Rozay Oro]

Just got my first pay check from my city council job ($1061). I work in the medic department. No certs required it’s clearly not I.T.

I’ll do this hopefully for a year or more. In the meantime what entry certs can I pursuit that aren’t help desk?

The benefits, life policy and pension are all good from this job. Making a thousand with some low change every two weeks ain’t the wave.

I want to make bank. Thank you brehs.

edit:
I want to get my own crib and shyt. Help a breh out.

 

[Project Pooch]

How do I get my foot in the door of this IT shyt?

28 with no experience but I’ve been studying professor messor 1001 videos and I feel I’m close to being able to take the test

after I pass both Parts of the A+ test should I just start applying for help desk as soon as I’m certified? Will I be able to find something decent with just A+?

this I just a starting point and I’m not sure what I want to specialize in yet but should I just continue with the Comptia certs after A+ like network+ and security+

someone plz respond I’m really trying to get my bread up get my own fukkin apartment

 

[BlaxOps]

How do I get my foot in the door of this IT shyt?

28 with no experience but I’ve been studying professor messor 1001 videos and I feel I’m close to being able to take the test

after I pass both Parts of the A+ test should I just start applying for help desk as soon as I’m certified? Will I be able to find something decent with just A+?

this I just a starting point and I’m not sure what I want to specialize in yet but should I just continue with the Comptia certs after A+ like network+ and security+

someone plz respond I’m really trying to get my bread up get my own fukkin apartment

IMO, A+ is a waste of time unless you are looking into doing hands on work. I'd shoot for Security+, then Network+. Both of those will open doors for real IT positions. After you get Security+, look to find an IT niche to focus on. If you aren't sure, get a job (or internship) at a NOC to see what different teams do.

 

[Project Pooch]

IMO, A+ is a waste of time unless you are looking into doing hands on work. I'd shoot for Security+, then Network+. Both of those will open doors for real IT positions. After you get Security+, look to find an IT niche to focus on. If you aren't sure, get a job (or internship) at a NOC to see what different teams do.

thanks for the response bro. But you don’t think I should learn A+ as a base for somebody with no experience? There’s a lot of shyt in 1001 that I didn’t know (I haven’t even began to study 1002 yet).
For me time is of the essence I just want the quickest path to a IT job so I can get my money up. Thanks again bro.

 

[BlaxOps]

thanks for the response bro. But you don’t think I should learn A+ as a base for somebody with no experience? There’s a lot of shyt in 1001 that I didn’t know (I haven’t even began to study 1002 yet).
For me time is of the essence I just want the quickest path to a IT job so I can get my money up. Thanks again bro.

Learning is always good to make yourself more well rounded, but subnetting, basic firewall operations, what different network devices do, how to patch a server (Windows/Linux), Active Directory, etc. is IT.

A+ is more for workstation help desk jobs. Its more like customer service.

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

Just look through the thread. Linux+, Network+ and Security+ would be three things my job would look at honestly, my legit advice would be to knock the cissp out instead of the security plus if you trying to kill the competition. It was the biggest reason why I didn't have to start at the bottom. You can get the associate of isc designation.

Also many of you guys would probably not even have to be super technical. There are other routes, privacy management (CIPM, CIPP, CIPT) that would be more suitable for yall.

SOC work suck but its the quickest way to learn technical skills.

Don't let your lack of experience hinder you, not every manager will hire base on experience but you must absolutely show that you can learn quickly if you lack it which means you gotta to put in the work to get your foot in the door.

 

[chargers31]

Just look through the thread. Linux+, Network+ and Security+ would be three things my job would look at honestly, my legit advice would be to knock the cissp out instead of the security plus if you trying to kill the competition. It was the biggest reason why I didn't have to start at the bottom. You can get the associate of isc designation.

Also many of you guys would probably not even have to be super technical. There are other routes, privacy management (CIPM, CIPP, CIPT) that would be more suitable for yall.

SOC work suck but its the quickest way to learn technical skills.

Don't let your lack of experience hinder you, not every manager will hire base on experience but you must absolutely show that you can learn quickly if you lack it which means you gotta to put in the work to get your foot in the door.

.

What is the downside to SOC work? I’ve recently applied to some to get out of my current service desk.

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

.

What is the downside to SOC work? I’ve recently applied to some to get out of my current service desk.

Mainly client expectations. There are many who are very unrealistic and act as if you are their only customer. The good thing is that you will touch so many issues that your knowledge will continue to grow throughout the time there. It's not something I would honestly do long term.

Get in, get them to pay for your certs then make your move to something else.

 

[JT-Money]

.

What is the downside to SOC work? I’ve recently applied to some to get out of my current service desk.

SOC jobs are all going to the lowest bidder. Which means cheap outsourced overseas labor. It's a race to the bottom now for most entry level cybersecurity jobs like in a SOC.

 

[Uno Venova]

Just going through this cohort, I been killing these AWS CCP practice exams and honestly this cohort over prepares you so much I feel like I can pass the solutions right after

Right now they're teaching us Python just to have a base and I see how it's easier to understand because Javascript was killing me last year.

Otherwise I just been working on my LinkedIN, and I even made a new Twitter just focused on journaling my progress, I still haven't broken in, but I'm hopeful

 

[Uno Venova]

When I read through this thread and see people talk about projects I still don't really understand what that means, I under stand the concepts but I can't think of what I can put on my Github or something that would be interesting and fun to work on.

Can someone point me to where they got examples and ideas from? Anything pertaining to AWS services, or Python, or Docker.

 

[aXiom]

Smh. I found out that it's my company's VPN that they're using. I brought it up in a team meeting and people made jokes. "It's a layer 8 problem" and "It's DNS, it's always DNS."

Sounds like they're being assigned an internal DNS server via the VPN DHCP pool settings that's resolving that site/tool internally once they're connected to the VPN, but that VPN subnet may not be allowed access to that site/tool internally through the firewall? As a workaround/test, while connected to the VPN, you can manually add the site url with the external IP address to the local machine's hosts file and see if the site works.

If it does work I'd just grab the internal IP and send it to the firewall/security team and have them comb through the firewall logs to see if access to that site is being blocked from the VPN subnet.

edit: just saw this post

It’s just a SaaS app though. Like anyone can sign up for this thing and it isn’t hosted by my employer.

Yeah, then this is weird.. unless it's a tunnel all vpn that has a separate NAT for the VPN subnet that's being blocked by whoever is hosting the site/app, but that would not make much sense..

Do you know if this application was hosted onsite any point prior? Could be an old DNS entry in whatever DNS server is being handed out by the VPN that needs to be updated. You can do an nslookup against the site url wile connected to the VPN and see what it IP it resolves to, and find out if that's the correct IP.