IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[HoldThisL]

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.

I was saying earlier in the thread that I have my cloud practitioner certification, and my solutions architect associate certification but it still has been hard finding a job. I even did some labs, projects, and whatnot. I just don't have that actual work experience and the job market is not too good right now for newcomers to certain fields. Nobody really wants to train anymore and they want people to come in knowing everything while giving them entry level pay. All the entry level jobs for certain positions are starting to become saturated too. It sucks, but that just means I have to learn more additional skills to make myself even more valuable. That is what my whole frustrations is about, it's been hard to get the interview and when I do, I always get denied because of experience even when I explain in technical detail my projects/concepts/and labs I went through. Hardly anyone wants to take that chance anymore on new guys.

I just been thinking about joining a help desk position, or system admin and working my way into a cloud role. That has been hard though to because even these entry level help desk positions are asking for experience and extensive knowledge of different tools.

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

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

Yeah he was in like System Admin stuff before or something. Straight 9-5. Manager here is definitely a... something went down on a Saturday night, all hands on deck type position. He hates having to be on call for stuff like that. Some of our servers went down and I was on site that day. I was on a 6 hour call with people from each department and my manager was on the line too. It was his birthday

• The guy who turned it down, yeah he has no ambition in being a lead or manager and I 100% feel him on this.

• Those suckas would definitely be my problem and I'm thinking about that too. One time the older guy called the manager in the middle of the night, if there was an SOP on xyz and the manager was like... nikka did you look in the SOP folder? Lmao and that interaction haunts me.

• When I was filling out the eQip it said SF86 but those are used for Secret and Top Secret. But I meet with the Special Agent next Tuesday. It was suppose to be the past Wednesday but he had to reschedule. So yeah my plan was to ask him, or just wait for him to say it. Yeah, I have good references also. They already talked to my neighbors and past managers over the phone.

The window shyt got me cracking up

 

[duckbutta]

I was saying earlier in the thread that I have my cloud practitioner certification, and my solutions architect associate certification but it still has been hard finding a job. I even did some labs, projects, and whatnot. I just don't have that actual work experience and the job market is not too good right now for newcomers to certain fields. Nobody really wants to train anymore and they want people to come in knowing everything while giving them entry level pay. All the entry level jobs for certain positions are starting to become saturated too. It sucks, but that just means I have to learn more additional skills to make myself even more valuable. That is what my whole frustrations is about, it's been hard to get the interview and when I do, I always get denied because of experience even when I explain in technical detail my projects/concepts/and labs I went through. Hardly anyone wants to take that chance anymore on new guys.

I just been thinking about joining a help desk position, or system admin and working my way into a cloud role. That has been hard though to because even these entry level help desk positions are asking for experience and extensive knowledge of different tools.

Then I would say you probably want to look at your resume and ask yourself "does it reflect my certifications"

If you got a AWS SA then you should have some stuff that you automated using aws cli 2...some stuff about how you configured cloudwatch or something similar to monitor workloads, uptimes, etc...some stuff about the different types of storages and how and why you implemented them...deployed something using S3 storage because insert reason here why it was the best thing to do...deployed aws storage gateway to access our on prem datacenter so that we could have a true cloud storage solution...

If you haven't actually done it...either lie and say you did or word the resume to get the point across that you understand how to do it. You haven't actually uses aws storage gateway? Ok. Then say "familiar with determining what is the best storage for a hybrid cloud solution, for example using aws storage gateway for on prem datacenters so that storage can be shared between multiple on prim sites which reduced cost of paying for local storage arrays and management."

One thing that always helps with a tech resume is sit down and think about how you would architect a solution for something. Think about if someone comes to you and says "i need to have 30 instances created in aws and i need them backed up and i need monitoring and i need security." Write out how you would accomplish that, then take those points and put it on your resume.

Probably just need to tweak it a bit. Or maybe it's your location. I live in the DFW area and they will hire virtually anyone who has even heard of aws for a tier 1 cloud job out here.

 

[HoldThisL]

Do recruiters even look at the description of the job they reaching out to me for?

They really be wasting my damn time.

Also these companies need to start posting salaries. It should honestly be mandatory. Companies be trying to hire senior level for entry level pay

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

Any brehs here do I.T audits ? Maybe a route I go for next. Looking for something consistent, boring and chill lol. Seems like it wont be that stressful.

 

[Lord Z]

Any brehs here do I.T audits ? Maybe a route I go for next. Looking for something consistent, boring and chill lol. Seems like it wont be that stressful.

What's the word big dawg ?

I have been doing some security compliance audits for the last 3-4 years. It is a pretty diverse field : SOC2, ISO 27001, CMMC, HITRUST... The good thing is that you have a broad range since you have cloud security certs too

Once you have your templates, it can be pretty automated and customers can't bs you since you have actual operations experience . This might sound corny or whatever but you do your work from a position of ''power''. Sure you have a customer, but his job is to show you that he's doing things right. In bigger organizations, auditors have a lot of power. I've seen big 4 audits get whole IT Teams fired so it's no joke depending o n the type of organization getting audited

At the end of the audit, you provide your findings and it usually transforms into some type of action plan. Sometimes, it can be the 18 months to 3 year strategic plan (No DLP, Need for a SIEM, review of cloud subscriptions & controls...)

The downside is that it can get repetitive after awhile. It is an incredible skill to have but doing that full time ain't for me

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

What's the word big dawg ?

I have been doing some security compliance audits for the last 3-4 years. It is a pretty diverse field : SOC2, ISO 27001, CMMC, HITRUST... The good thing is that you have a broad range since you have cloud security certs too

Once you have your templates, it can be pretty automated and customers can't bs you since you have actual operations experience . This might sound corny or whatever but you do your work from a position of ''power''. Sure you have a customer, but his job is to show you that he's doing things right. In bigger organizations, auditors have a lot of power. I've seen big 4 audits get whole IT Teams fired so it's no joke depending o n the type of organization getting audited

At the end of the audit, you provide your findings and it usually transforms into some type of action plan. Sometimes, it can be the 18 months to 3 year strategic plan (No DLP, Need for a SIEM, review of cloud subscriptions & controls...)

The downside is that it can get repetitive after awhile. It is an incredible skill to have but doing that full time ain't for me

I am looking to go that route mainly because I would not mind repetitive work and just chill after. Why cant you see yourself doing this full time? Seems like there will be always a need for auditors.

 

[Lord Z]

Indeed, there will always be a need for auditors. In the near future, businesses will be requiring each other to have 3rd party security certifications or reports (ISO 27001 or SOC 2 type 2 report) in order to do business together and reduce their risk.

I don't want to do it full time as of now because I am still trying to build some other skills. But I can see myself being a full time auditor when I hit my 40s and I got all the infinity stones

 

[Data-Hawk]

I was saying earlier in the thread that I have my cloud practitioner certification, and my solutions architect associate certification but it still has been hard finding a job. I even did some labs, projects, and whatnot. I just don't have that actual work experience and the job market is not too good right now for newcomers to certain fields. Nobody really wants to train anymore and they want people to come in knowing everything while giving them entry level pay. All the entry level jobs for certain positions are starting to become saturated too. It sucks, but that just means I have to learn more additional skills to make myself even more valuable. That is what my whole frustrations is about, it's been hard to get the interview and when I do, I always get denied because of experience even when I explain in technical detail my projects/concepts/and labs I went through. Hardly anyone wants to take that chance anymore on new guys.

I just been thinking about joining a help desk position, or system admin and working my way into a cloud role. That has been hard though to because even these entry level help desk positions are asking for experience and extensive knowledge of different tools.

I would setup a GitHub account, put any scripts you developed, lab setup instructions, network diagrams etc. on there and link it on your resume.

You'll probably also want to add other certifications outside of AWS like the CCNA or a Linux cert, if you are feeling brave, Look into getting a Kubernates(CKA) certification since that's the direction companies are moving into.

You can also try to look for Non-Profit orgs to help with basically no pay, small companies , startups or look for Linux Meetups in your area to network. I wouldn't even try mid-size or big companies since they get tons of applications with years of experience, unless it's a Help Desk position since they have high turn over rate.

But yeah it's going to be hard to jump straight into a cloud position with no IT experience.

 

[Adonai]

Passed my Net+ today brehs. Onto Security+ and ima have the Comptia trifecta down.

 

[cartierhoe]

Last week of my internship starts tomorrow. I have a very good feeling I'm getting a return offer, my manager is super cool. I've done all the goals I set out to do when I came in, networked and connected with a lot of people at the company, made some good relationships with fellow interns, cannot complain about my experience this summer at all. I'm also going to a couple tech conferences within the next few months, just trying to make myself visible, and put my name out there. I don't have anymore time to waste on trying to be the best version of myself. I'm all in. Also can't say enough thanks again for the posts in here and this thread in general, read through this thread many times, so much motivation and inspiration here.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

fukk DNS, fukk A Records, fukk CNAMEs, fukk subnets, fukk networking, fukk certs, fukk https, fukk ports, fukk IPs

 

[Billy Ray Valentine]

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.

I think being unemployed is definitely hurting you. There are too many "now hiring" signs everywhere for companies to not look at you side-eyed. Granted they are dead end retail/service industry jobs but they are jobs. Companies stay looking for reasons to disqualifying candidates for anything.

Another issue is they judge you based on previous job titles more than actual experience. Based on the title alone, I'm thinking a PC technician is just focused on dealing with physical hardware issues. It doesn't speak to any experience with SaaS, RMM, MDM, security, encryption, networking, servers, automation, scripting, BCDR, services, applications, etc. You may have experiences in those areas but the title doesn't convey it

If you don't have those experiences, you may need to consider searching a specialists or junior sys admin role in a place with those solutions. As much as I hate them, I would consider a MSP. Just have an exit plan to possibly leave after 8 - 10 months because they grind you down.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Robinhood announced they're laying off 23% of their staff. It's scary out there.

 

[HoldThisL]

I think being unemployed is definitely hurting you. There are too many "now hiring" signs everywhere for companies to not look at you side-eyed. Granted they are dead end retail/service industry jobs but they are jobs. Companies stay looking for reasons to disqualifying candidates for anything.

Another issue is they judge you based on previous job titles more than actual experience. Based on the title alone, I'm thinking a PC technician is just focused on dealing with physical hardware issues. It doesn't speak to any experience with SaaS, RMM, MDM, security, encryption, networking, servers, automation, scripting, BCDR, services, applications, etc. You may have experiences in those areas but the title doesn't convey it

If you don't have those experiences, you may need to consider searching a specialists or junior sys admin role in a place with those solutions. As much as I hate them, I would consider a MSP. Just have an exit plan to possibly leave after 8 - 10 months because they grind you down.

What kind of sense does that make? I'm not going to take any job just to say I'm employed, and if a company thinks like that then that is not a company I want to work for. They can look at me side eyed all they want, I am living off my savings right now, put myself through a IT bootcamp to gain some additional skills, and doing self studying to get some certifications. I have been doing self projects too, so It's not like I'm sitting on my ass

You hit everything else on the nail though as I tweaked my PC technician duties on my resume and been getting more callbacks since then. I added some numbers and customer service skills too. For the jobs that interview me I have gotten offers recently but I have denied them as the pay is too shytty for me, duties involved, and if the things I learn will be valuable for my career progression. Also no tech job should pay $15-$17, especially in NYC.

$18 should be the minimum, especially considering the things that you are required to know and do. I'm luckily enough to not have to be desperate enough to take on jobs like that where it's high stress, low pay. I will just keep trying until I find the right role that is decent, I'm not jumping into anything just for the sake of experience. Good experience is better than having bad experience.