IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[cartierhoe]

Thanks breh, I actually was thinking about hosting a blog using Wordpress+AWS services like Route53, CloudFront, S3, etc, but I got stuck because I don't know how to blog if that makes sense. Do you have any resources on how to exactly document progress, do documentation, or blogging for IT that would look good towards employers? I did some documentation and stuff for my last job but it was not in depth or anything.

Yep! There's a couple ways I went about it like say screen recording and showing the process on Vimeo, like for example I had a cybersecurity course and we had a lab like simple nmap port scanning, screen recording step by step. Another example would be like remediating hosts in a vcenter, you screen recording and saying step by step what you would do in that process. Another example could just be screenshots, for example building an AWS Database server, those screenshots would be your step by step process of how you get from point A to point B and so on, and just add captions of how you got there. If you can show employers you have been exposed to any technologies or the space within IT you want to be in, they will fall over with excitement if you can say hey this is what I can do or have done, even minimal in my opinion. You got this breh.

Edit: Hosting a blog with AWS services is a good start too.

 

[Data-Hawk]

One Study tip I just started when studying for the AZ104.

Create an excel spreadsheet and keep track of any labs and how long the lab is & the resource of the lab. For example:

Lab Name - Module 05 - Intersite Connectivity
Time - 1hr
Resource - Github AZ-104 Azure Admin Labs.
Date - 7/14

Helps to build confidence , set a goal and knock it out.

I'm only tracking Lab work. But you can probably do the same when you finishing reading a chapter etc.

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

My coworker STINKS! He's an older man in his 60s about to retire and he has some heath issues but man he be gassing it up all day. I legit just had to leave our shared office space for an entire hour for the smell to clear out.

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

Oh yeah I'm sticking around for the Secret Clearance and then I'll start the process of looking again. That was the goal and I'm almost there. I'm not going to be a manager now with the hope that they take care of me later. Guess what, right after I sent that message the manager came to talk to me again. He told me I should also consider taking this job because it's a good opportunity and it would put me in the IN basically. It's a good networking opportunity and it would put me in the room with a lot of important people who could further my career even more down the line. That everything isn't just about salary, even though that's important but to just consider this aspect also. Then he tells me a story about someone that left for more money but he's basically in a situation where there is zero chance for growth and he works alone.

Update: So my manager is still trying to convince me to take the position. I have my meeting with the Special Agent next week and my manager tells me hopefully I'll be finished getting my Top Secret soon. I stop him and say I thought it was only Secret and he responds nah I'm pretty sure it's a Top Secret


Then what was all that talk about last week. So I have a meeting with the director today and clearance was going to be one of my talking points but if I'm already up for a TS then I don't need to mention it. But I had to make sure so I reach out to the Project Manager and ask which one am I getting and he says should be TS with the end game of me getting a TS/SCI. What the hell is going on here and why doesn't anyone just know!? I asked him could he just check with the Security Officer and confirm for me. He says he will but I doubt he will before my meeting. So I'm just not going to bring up the clearance stuff and I'm going to strictly make this about compensation. 25K is the minimal I will take to do this job and the way I see it I'm in the driver's seat. I have nothing to lose, if they say no, I'll say no and my situation is no worse off.

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

Update: So my manager is still trying to convince me to take the position. I have my meeting with the Special Agent next week and my manager tells me hopefully I'll be finished getting my Top Secret soon. I stop him and say I thought it was only Secret and he responds nah I'm pretty sure it's a Top Secret


Then what was all that talk about last week. So I have a meeting with the director today and clearance was going to be one of my talking points but if I'm already up for a TS then I don't need to mention it. But I had to make sure so I reach out to the Project Manager and ask which one am I getting and he says should be TS with the end game of me getting a TS/SCI. What the hell is going on here and why doesn't anyone just know!? I asked him could he just check with the Security Officer and confirm for me. He says he will but I doubt he will before my meeting. So I'm just not going to bring up the clearance stuff and I'm going to strictly make this about compensation. 25K is the minimal I will take to do this job and the way I see it I'm in the driver's seat. I have nothing to lose, if they say no, I'll say no and my situation is no worse off.

So the director basically said some complex shyt about the way the contract is set up, they would only be able to give me a big bump in salary if a slot and a role were to open up and slots are different than roles. So basically a slot is a job and a role is financial space on the contract. Something like that, I still don't know if I comprehend it. And in addition to that, it would depend on my stats when that opening happens so if I have a title change and more certs for instance I COULD be in line to get more money. So we didn't even discuss money or salary because from what he was saying he wouldn't be able to change anything now anyway. But not only that, there is really no telling WHEN it would be MY TURN for a big raise because they have other people waiting also. So really it could be 3 months from now or it could be a year from now. It all depends on the opening and most of the time that only happens when someone leaves or something of that nature.

My friend says I should just take it because it's a win/win. They could put me in for TS/SCI and that would make me very marketable once I'm about to make a move. But if not worst case scenario is Manager with Top Secret. But part of me is like fukk these nikkas thinking they can get me to do more for the exact same price. Their motto seems to be

More work = More pay... eventually

 

[JT-Money]

So the director basically said some complex shyt about the way the contract is set up, they would only be able to give me a big bump in salary if a slot and a role were to open up and slots are different than roles. So basically a slot is a job and a role is financial space on the contract. Something like that, I still don't know if I comprehend it. And in addition to that, it would depend on my stats when that opening happens so if I have a title change and more certs for instance I COULD be in line to get more money. So we didn't even discuss money or salary because from what he was saying he wouldn't be able to change anything now anyway. But not only that, there is really no telling WHEN it would be MY TURN for a big raise because they have other people waiting also. So really it could be 3 months from now or it could be a year from now. It all depends on the opening and most of the time that only happens when someone leaves or something of that nature.

My friend says I should just take it because it's a win/win. They could put me in for TS/SCI and that would make me very marketable once I'm about to make a move. But if not worst case scenario is Manager with Top Secret. But part of me is like fukk these nikkas thinking they can get me to do more for the exact same price. Their motto seems to be

More work = More pay... eventually

He's probably lying. When I worked as a Federal contractor my company claimed there wasn't any money left to give me a raise.

But once I put in my my notice they mysteriously found money to give me my raise. I guess thinking I would change my mind or something. But I knew I could make more money in the private sector.

What I should've done is find out which Federal contract companies are on huge contracts. And go to work for them instead. But these Federal contract companies are so shiesty you can't believe a thing they say.

 

[duckbutta]

Yo what happened to the "nobody wants to work" agenda these companies were pushing out? I done applied to hundreds of jobs and even applied to jobs where I would be taking a huge pay cut. Only got like 4 interviews out of every 100. I also had my resume professionally looked at as well. I don't know what to do, this shyt is depressing.

I honestly think it's because my lack of experience even though I already know the concepts for most things and always trying to learn more. I understand companies probably not wanting to take a risk with me but damn, none of these companies train anymore? Do they want the ultimate Superman IT nikka for minimum wage?

I mean what kind of work are you doing? If it's not AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, or really anything cloud related...companies don't really care.

You get you an AWS sys admin cert and you can probably walk into a 70k job...i see people do it at my company all the time.

 

[duckbutta]

So the director basically said some complex shyt about the way the contract is set up, they would only be able to give me a big bump in salary if a slot and a role were to open up and slots are different than roles. So basically a slot is a job and a role is financial space on the contract. Something like that, I still don't know if I comprehend it. And in addition to that, it would depend on my stats when that opening happens so if I have a title change and more certs for instance I COULD be in line to get more money. So we didn't even discuss money or salary because from what he was saying he wouldn't be able to change anything now anyway. But not only that, there is really no telling WHEN it would be MY TURN for a big raise because they have other people waiting also. So really it could be 3 months from now or it could be a year from now. It all depends on the opening and most of the time that only happens when someone leaves or something of that nature.

My friend says I should just take it because it's a win/win. They could put me in for TS/SCI and that would make me very marketable once I'm about to make a move. But if not worst case scenario is Manager with Top Secret. But part of me is like fukk these nikkas thinking they can get me to do more for the exact same price. Their motto seems to be

More work = More pay... eventually

Dude is playing you for a fool breh

You said he leaving for another position in the company. He probably can't leave until his position is filled. That is why he asked you. Not cause he think you can do it, not cause you impressed him, but because he just need somebody to fill his role so he can move on. You said you don't have any management experience. So why would a manager ask someone with no management experience whatsoever to become a manager? You should straight up ask him why he thinks you would make a great manager if you have never been a manager before. You said there are older more senior people there but somehow he asked you? This flag is so red it's soo wooing

Your current manager has a TS? How long ago did he get it? You should ask him and if it was awhile ago you should ask if it is getting renewed. I see that alot with managers, where they are able to get a TS or DOD one time and then somebody is like "why the fukk this manager that don't log into shyt and don't view sensitive information got a clearance?" And then they just let that shyt expire. If they letting his expire then you got to question if they really going to even get you one.

I see you talking about getting cleared and then leaving. Be careful with that. It shows up on your Eqip. You might do it this time and get a nice bump but then when you have to get cleared again and have to fill out your eqip again and have to write down your work history, agencies but 2 and 2 together and will see that you leaving as soon as you can, then whatever company you are at will be like "why would we renew your clearance when all you going to do is leave." I been a director in federal IT services for a decade and I done seen managers just straight up CANCEL a persons clearance that was in progress after they saw how the person getting cleared lined up with them job hopping.

That's actually a perfect example of what it's like to be a manager. You get cleared and leave upper management going to be coming to your manager asking him why they paid that money for you to get cleared and now another company is benefitting it. They going to be telling your manager he should have done something to keep you there. Now your manager has to politic to try and get ANOTHER person cleared after he just got you cleared and you bounced. But if you take that management job and somebody does it to you...your answer is going to be what? That's some serious shyt to so you not going to be able coli breh you way out of it. Having a cleared person leave is like watching 10 to 20k walk out the door AND you got to find a replacement AND you might not be in compliance with a contract if you contractually have to have X amount of cleared and you don't. So how you going to fix that problem? Cause you going to have people at the executive level with the power to just straight up fire you asking you how you going to fix that problem?

People think the federal clearance game is sweet until they a manager and then they have 3 cleared network engineers leave for amazon and the next thing you know the manager is just straight up fired for letting 40k of clearances walk and work for a competitor. I done seen the shyt more than once. Some people think you should take any management job but you shouldn't cause some of them shyts are doing nothing but setting you up to fail and now you in front of an employer lying about what happened at your last job where you got tricked into being a first time manager.

 

[klientel]

I mean what kind of work are you doing? If it's not AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, or really anything cloud related...companies don't really care.

You get you an AWS sys admin cert and you can probably walk into a 70k job...i see people do it at my company all the time.

That’s the move. Just watch a Udemy course, practice on a free tier acct and get an associate cert. Finesse your resume to make it seem like all the stuff you do today, you do in a cloud environment.

 

[HoldThisL]

I mean what kind of work are you doing? If it's not AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, or really anything cloud related...companies don't really care.

You get you an AWS sys admin cert and you can probably walk into a 70k job...i see people do it at my company all the time.

I'm unemployed right, and been searching for jobs. I am coming from a PC Technician role to the cloud. I want to be a cloud admin or engineer eventually. It has just been hard looking lately for that first gig. I did some blogging and projects to show emoyers and still no luck.

I said fuk it, and decided that I will try to lower IT gig like deskyop support or help desk just for now, but it seems that even these entry level gigs are requiring IT work experience .

I'm deadass about to lie about my experience on my resume, I'm tired. No company wants to train anymore and it feels like I need to master 20 skills for a entry level position.

 

[duckbutta]

I'm unemployed right, and been searching for jobs. I am coming from a PC Technician role to the cloud. I want to be a cloud admin or engineer eventually. It has just been hard looking lately for that first gig. I did some blogging and projects to show emoyers and still no luck.

I said fuk it, and decided that I will try to lower IT gig like deskyop support or help desk just for now, but it seems that even these entry level gigs are requiring IT work experience .

I'm deadass about to lie about my experience on my resume, I'm tired. No company wants to train anymore and it feels like I need to master 20 skills for a entry level position.

If you trying to get into cloud just sign up for an aws account and start building shyt, it's free for a year i think. Grind that out, get the aws cloud practitioner and then either the associate solutions architect or sys ops admin and it shouldn't be to hard to get a job. Both certs are I think 100 or 150 bucks but you can grind out the training with that free account you can sign up for.

AWS is going to be your best bet since you can set up training for free and the certs are relatively cheap. Trying to get in doing azure or vmware is WAY more expensive.

You can just do that aws training and learn some shyt and then just straight up say you did that shyt at your job. Nobody is going to know the difference, and if you are strong enough technically in the interview...nobody will care.

 

[DonDadda]

How can I get AWS experience when it’s so expensive to home lab?

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

Dude is playing you for a fool breh

You said he leaving for another position in the company. He probably can't leave until his position is filled. That is why he asked you. Not cause he think you can do it, not cause you impressed him, but because he just need somebody to fill his role so he can move on. You said you don't have any management experience. So why would a manager ask someone with no management experience whatsoever to become a manager? You should straight up ask him why he thinks you would make a great manager if you have never been a manager before. You said there are older more senior people there but somehow he asked you? This flag is so red it's soo wooing

Your current manager has a TS? How long ago did he get it? You should ask him and if it was awhile ago you should ask if it is getting renewed. I see that alot with managers, where they are able to get a TS or DOD one time and then somebody is like "why the fukk this manager that don't log into shyt and don't view sensitive information got a clearance?" And then they just let that shyt expire. If they letting his expire then you got to question if they really going to even get you one.

I see you talking about getting cleared and then leaving. Be careful with that. It shows up on your Eqip. You might do it this time and get a nice bump but then when you have to get cleared again and have to fill out your eqip again and have to write down your work history, agencies but 2 and 2 together and will see that you leaving as soon as you can, then whatever company you are at will be like "why would we renew your clearance when all you going to do is leave." I been a director in federal IT services for a decade and I done seen managers just straight up CANCEL a persons clearance that was in progress after they saw how the person getting cleared lined up with them job hopping.

That's actually a perfect example of what it's like to be a manager. You get cleared and leave upper management going to be coming to your manager asking him why they paid that money for you to get cleared and now another company is benefitting it. They going to be telling your manager he should have done something to keep you there. Now your manager has to politic to try and get ANOTHER person cleared after he just got you cleared and you bounced. But if you take that management job and somebody does it to you...your answer is going to be what? That's some serious shyt to so you not going to be able coli breh you way out of it. Having a cleared person leave is like watching 10 to 20k walk out the door AND you got to find a replacement AND you might not be in compliance with a contract if you contractually have to have X amount of cleared and you don't. So how you going to fix that problem? Cause you going to have people at the executive level with the power to just straight up fire you asking you how you going to fix that problem?

People think the federal clearance game is sweet until they a manager and then they have 3 cleared network engineers leave for amazon and the next thing you know the manager is just straight up fired for letting 40k of clearances walk and work for a competitor. I done seen the shyt more than once. Some people think you should take any management job but you shouldn't cause some of them shyts are doing nothing but setting you up to fail and now you in front of an employer lying about what happened at your last job where you got tricked into being a first time manager.

So the official story is... he was working in one department. The manager for my department resign or whatever. This was before my time but also before the pandemic. So instead of hiring for the position they just plucked my current manager from where he was working and told him he would now be the manager for this department. He did it reluctantly. Then the pandemic hit and he just stayed on through 2020 and 2021. The beginning of this year he talked to the higher ups and was like he wants to go back to doing the job he was doing BEFORE he was made manager. So he basically was in charge of hiring his successor from within. Super weird. So the smartest guy (on a technically level) was offered the job and he turned it down. Basically said he prefers to be a solider. So they asked him in January again in Feb, Mar, Apr every single month and he kept saying no. SO EYE was hired in late March. I'm surprised I got the job because I'm overqualified for it (again I came for the clearance). My current Manager tells me they hired me with the mindset that maybe one day I would take the lead position. So since the person who would have been the obvious second choice resign and left for a different company. The other 2 people (and I'm sorry to say this) are complete morons where I have no idea how they got this job. One guy is in his 60s with one step out the door waiting for retirement he was basically grandfathered in from the previous contract. The other guy is just too green IMO.

So they are trying to flatter me into taking the job, we think you're this we think you're that. But I know from talking to the other guys I'm their only option and like you said, my manager can't go back to his other job until someone fills his position. So if I turn it down he has to continue to keep being the manager. This guy is like in his 40s and just has that mindset of staying with ONE company. Even though he has years of experience, certs and a ts/sci he doesn't even want to test the market because he's comfortable. I think he would even stay if they told him he'd have to take a pay cut. Dude is weird, he's like one of those Dungeons and Dragons / World or Warcraft kids all grown up. How TV shows present IT people. Sketchers shoes, big baggy wrinkled khaki pants he probably wears 3-4 times before washing. Polo shirt and glasses. Anyway... he's a manager that also gets his hands dirty so they would expect the same thing with me, which I prefer actually. So not only would it be sensitive information but going into scifs frequently. He's been here 7 years and he's had the TS/SCI for like close to 2 years now maybe. But you also bring up a good point of are they really going to even get you one. Because no one is giving me straight facts. First I was told I only needed a secret, now I'm being told I'm actually getting a TS with the end game of getting me a TS/SCI. I was fine with a Secret so anymore than that is found money.

I'm not a job hopper btw my resume shows that I've been at places for 3-4 years each, unless you consider that job hopping too. I think they probably think they'll safe with me. Bouncing here would be the first time I would leave someplace right away. The game is the game and I just need to get mine but wherever I go next would be some place I could stay for a few years. I'm fine with that.

You bring up a lot of good points about people coming in here and pulling a "me" also. That's something I didn't think of, I've just been writing down the pros and the cons. I've heard good points on both sides. I'll take the weekend and have a decision by Monday morning.

 

[duckbutta]

So the official story is... he was working in one department. The manager for my department resign or whatever. This was before my time but also before the pandemic. So instead of hiring for the position they just plucked my current manager from where he was working and told him he would now be the manager for this department. He did it reluctantly. Then the pandemic hit and he just stayed on through 2020 and 2021. The beginning of this year he talked to the higher ups and was like he wants to go back to doing the job he was doing BEFORE he was made manager. So he basically was in charge of hiring his successor from within. Super weird. So the smartest guy (on a technically level) was offered the job and he turned it down. Basically said he prefers to be a solider. So they asked him in January again in Feb, Mar, Apr every single month and he kept saying no. SO EYE was hired in late March. I'm surprised I got the job because I'm overqualified for it (again I came for the clearance). My current Manager tells me they hired me with the mindset that maybe one day I would take the lead position. So since the person who would have been the obvious second choice resign and left for a different company. The other 2 people (and I'm sorry to say this) are complete morons where I have no idea how they got this job. One guy is in his 60s with one step out the door waiting for retirement he was basically grandfathered in from the previous contract. The other guy is just too green IMO.

So they are trying to flatter me into taking the job, we think you're this we think you're that. But I know from talking to the other guys I'm their only option and like you said, my manager can't go back to his other job until someone fills his position. So if I turn it down he has to continue to keep being the manager. This guy is like in his 40s and just has that mindset of staying with ONE company. Even though he has years of experience, certs and a ts/sci he doesn't even want to test the market because he's comfortable. I think he would even stay if they told him he'd have to take a pay cut. Dude is weird, he's like one of those Dungeons and Dragons / World or Warcraft kids all grown up. How TV shows present IT people. Sketchers shoes, big baggy wrinkled khaki pants he probably wears 3-4 times before washing. Polo shirt and glasses. Anyway... he's a manager that also gets his hands dirty so they would expect the same thing with me, which I prefer actually. So not only would it be sensitive information but going into scifs frequently. He's been here 7 years and he's had the TS/SCI for like close to 2 years now maybe. But you also bring up a good point of are they really going to even get you one. Because no one is giving me straight facts. First I was told I only needed a secret, now I'm being told I'm actually getting a TS with the end game of getting me a TS/SCI. I was fine with a Secret so anymore than that is found money.

I'm not a job hopper btw my resume shows that I've been at places for 3-4 years each, unless you consider that job hopping too. I think they probably think they'll safe with me. Bouncing here would be the first time I would leave someplace right away. The game is the game and I just need to get mine but wherever I go next would be some place I could stay for a few years. I'm fine with that.

You bring up a lot of good points about people coming in here and pulling a "me" also. That's something I didn't think of, I've just been writing down the pros and the cons. I've heard good points on both sides. I'll take the weekend and have a decision by Monday morning.

I'd be cautious breh cause this is like the trifecta of a terrible manager job.

1. Only available cause the current manager wants to go back to his old job, which means something is up with this one that he is trying to pass on to you.

2. Somebody has already turned it down, probably cause they already know how crap it is.

3. You already know you got some suckas on the team so you become manager those guys are going to be your problem. You say one don't know what he doing well when he fukk up they going to be coming to you about it...probably part of the reason the current manager is trying to bounce...

As far as the clearance, if you have had to do eqip then I would think at some point you would have been sent some paperwork that states exactly what the clearance is. If you get to the point that you talk to a special agent though he is going to flat out tell you what clearance it's for. TS and DOD are no joke so I hope you got some strong references in your circle. TS and DOD are the type of clearances where they spend more time finding reasons not to give you one than give you one, especially with all the fukkery Trump was pulling. When I got my DOD renewed last year, Agent pulled it and was just knocking on my neighbors doors asking about me . Neighbors came by my house like "the fukk I just had the MIB pull up knocking on my door asking me if I know you and how many times I see you around, wtf you doing " And I done had mine renewed multiple times. If you working remote that could change to depending on the type of clearance you have. Or the agent is literally going to come into your house and be like "you can't work next to that window cause a spy could be looking through it and steal your log in info". One of my friends hopped to a job with a clearance and that nikka stuck driving 75 miles round trip 5 days a week cause he can't work from home anymore cause of the nature of work he does. They forgot to tell him that part until his 1st day of work of course

 

[duckbutta]

How can I get AWS experience when it’s so expensive to home lab?

You don't homelab aws. You just sign up for free trials and start building shyt. Then you lie on your resume and say you did it at your job.

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