IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)
- Thread starter fendi_mane
- Start date
Givethanks
Superstar
Does IT fall under control systems and instrumentation?
Rich Spirit
#LeveledUp
Made it to the final round but didn't get the offer 
On to the next one
On to the next one
Is anybody familiar with or have the CIDPRO? It's pretty new certification but it's concerning Identity and Access Management. I think I'm gonna lean in heavy on this and bolster a rep for a career in cyber security. Just copped a book off of Amazon last week. Also, they're holding a webinar Nov. 10th
idpro.org
Home - IDPro
idpro.org
Is anybody familiar with or have the CIDPRO? It's pretty new certification but it's concerning Identity and Access Management. I think I'm gonna lean in heavy on this and bolster a rep for a career in cyber security. Just copped a book off of Amazon last week. Also, they're holding a webinar Nov. 10th
Home - IDPro
Going to look into this just to have in the chamber.
Billy Ray Valentine
Rookie
For anyone interested, Microsoft Learn has a Cloud Skills Challenge running through November 9. They are offering a free exam from 8 different certs based on "completing" the challenges.
www.microsoft.com
www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Ignite | Cloud Skills Challenge
Microsoft Ignite | Cloud Skills Challenge
Billy Ray Valentine
Rookie
It would depend on by what you mean by control systems and instrumentation. Are you talking about the equipment and machines used in plants and manufacturing?
If so, it may be the other way around where certain aspects of the equipment / machines fall under IT, especially if there are networked controllers running the equipment.
When I worked at a MSP, we supported some companies that used industrial equipment. Our duties didn't go past the computers serving as controllers though. We weren't about to fukk with anything that could cost someone a limb.
People working in IT don't have the knowledge of the equipment to be credible beyond the computers used to control and vice versa. Machine operators may not know a lot about networking, computers, etc.
Would love to hear some responses from other ppl that went through it too. I’m in it now, about to power through the sec+. Think imma take a semester off and focus on the aws practitioner cert then hop back in.
Givethanks
Superstar
yes equipment and electro/mechanical instruments. I did a 3 year college diploma in Electrical Engineering Technology and just trying to see what's out there and how everything relates. we did a bit of networking, nothing crazy mostly telecomm. I focused in automation and trying to learn C++ because we started with C and I kind of grasp it. what's really crazy my prof's were telling me they changed the curriculum to include more computer engineering material because that's the way the world is going. Everything and anything has some form of circuity in it.
By the way what do you do? and how did you get there?
currently I do Electrical Calibrations and repair. It's fun but a lot of the guys getting ready to retire are telling us how important IT is especially when dealing with anything electronic now a days.
What degree are you going for with them?
cybersecurity & assurance
Billy Ray Valentine
Rookie
I just target jobs that seem like they have the most potential to expose me to as much high level tech as possible.
My first job was tech support at a software company/service company in 2018. I got tired of helping people in IT who were doing the stuff i wanted to do like working with infrastructure.
I left that job in 2019 for a service desk job at a MSP because I knew MSPs dealt with a variety of high-level tech. I wasn't expecting to be a huge part everything but i thought i could benefit from being around that kind of tech.
I worked with a lot stuff. Firewalls, switches, APs, Windows, MDMs, jamf, Windows, MacOS, Chromebook, G Suite, Office 365, hosted Exchange, on-premise Exchange, spam filters, BCDR, Windows servers, VPNs, cyber security, Hyper-V, VMWare, Citrix, telephone systems, Azure, terminal servers, remote desktop servers, app servers, PowerShell scripting, etc. I'm probably leaving out a bunch of other stuff. It was just about every technology except GCP and AWS.
I was planning to leave in spring 2020. Got my CCNA in early 2020 and 3 weeks later COVID blew up.
I adjusted my plans and started focusing on a cloud path. I had some up and down interviews in early 2021 and settled for a job as a support specialist strictly for the opportunity to get Linux experience with a medical research company. Terrible choice. I had a tech lead I didn't like and overly complicated processes that made everything harder than they needed to be. I left after less than a year
Now I'm a system administrator for an consulting firm. I do everything and too much. Out of the box firewall and switch configurations, setting up BCDR devices in COLOs and a on-premise data center, maintaining backups, managing endpoint security policies and content filters (sorry Coli, you're blocked), some Linux but not enough, managing DLP policies, setting up mailflow rules, app and web servers, email security, managing the company's public DNS records, project management (I built out a couple of web applications), or whatever else comes up.
I'm also doing way more end user facing stuff since our help desk techs are limited and are probably too overwhelmed.
At this point, I going all in for a real cloud role.