IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[yourgod]

What degree are you going for with them?

cybersecurity & assurance

 

[Billy Ray Valentine]

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.

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.

 

[klientel]

Amazon officially announced a hiring freeze Thursday and rumor is most tech companies will follow suit if they haven’t already. The tech market is probably going to dry up soon over the next 12-18 months

Use this opportunity now to secure a decent job or study up for when it opens up and booms again so you will be ready.

 

[Golstrag]

How did WGU work out for ya'll?

Worked out well for me thus far. Finished my Bachelors in Cyber Security and Information Assurance in Sep. Starting the Masters for the same in Dec. Two of the classes from my undergrad will count towards the Masters. From 9 classes to 7.

Brothers, we got this.

 

[semicko82]

Worked out well for me thus far. Finished my Bachelors in Cyber Security and Information Assurance in Sep. Starting the Masters for the same in Dec. Two of the classes from my undergrad will count towards the Masters. From 9 classes to 7.

Brothers, we got this.

How were your job prospects after you graduated

 

[Golstrag]

How were your job prospects after you graduated

They have been pretty good. I’m currently working for one of the larger Cybersecurity vendors, and currently on the 4th (and final) interview with a large telecom next week.

Honestly, I am mostly self taught. I only decided to pursue the degrees because I started a family, and knowing that the deck is stacked against me (being black in this field) I wanted to ensure success.

Glad I made the decision to do it though.

 

[semicko82]

They have been pretty good. I’m currently working for one of the larger Cybersecurity vendors, and currently on the 4th (and final) interview with a large telecom next week.

Honestly, I am mostly self taught. I only decided to pursue the degrees because I started a family, and knowing that the deck is stacked against me (being black in this field) I wanted to ensure success.

Glad I made the decision to do it though.

Dope shyt

 

[null]

Does IT fall under control systems and instrumentation?

control systems: yes, sometimes

instrumentation: ?

 

[klientel]

Meta layoffs start tomorrow, rumor is Q1 2023 is the start of tech winter. The job market is going to be ROUGHHH

 

[NeilCartwright]

Does anyone have any knowledge on AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Solutions Architect certs? From my understanding, the CCP cert is entry level and the Solutions Architect is a step above.

Can anyone speak on the job responsibilities, salary, etc. The VA has a pilot program with different schools around the country, that offer a 16 week program in a few different tech areas, and the goal is to be able to get the cert(s) at the end of it. Some of these schools even assist with landing a job.

 

[Snoopy Loops]

Does anyone have any knowledge on AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Solutions Architect certs? From my understanding, the CCP cert is entry level and the Solutions Architect is a step above.

Can anyone speak on the job responsibilities, salary, etc. The VA has a pilot program with different schools around the country, that offer a 16 week program in a few different tech areas, and the goal is to be able to get the cert(s) at the end of it. Some of these schools even assist with landing a job.

Check this link. Bare in mind, acloudguru is a cloud training company and theyre tryna sell you their courses, so dont get caught up in their marketing.

Solution architect certs aim to give a broad view of the AWS ecosystem. It goes into some depth on each service, but it more so challenges your understanding of how each service fits together to accomplish a specific goal in the most clinical and cost effective way.

As far as job responsibilities, the solution architect role is actually an advanced role in earnest, because on an enterprise level, you need to have strong exposure/skills in different IT domains: coding/software design, databases, networking, data security.

Also the role differs per company. In some companies, it can be a devops centric role which entails working with developers in provisioning the AWS infrastructure(services). For some it can be IT-compliance focused, just making sure the developers aren't designing systems that can get flagged during an IT audit. It can also range from very hands-on work to high level design

 

[NeilCartwright]

Check this link. Bare in mind, acloudguru is the cloud training company and theyre tryna sell you their courses, so dont get caught up in their marketing.

Solution architect certs aim to give a broad view of the AWS ecosystem. It goes into some depth on each service, but it more so challenges your understanding of how each service fits together to accomplish a specific goal in the most clinical and cost effective way.

As far as job responsibilities, the solution architect role is actually an advanced role in earnest, because on an enterprise level, you need to have strong exposure/skills in different IT domains: coding/software design, databases, networking, data security.

Also the role differs per company. In some companies, it can be a devops centric role which entails working with developers in provisioning the AWS infrastructure(services). For some it can be IT-compliance focused, just making sure the developers aren't designing systems that can get flagged during an IT audit. It can also range from very hands-on work to high level design

Thanks for the response. Im starting from square 1 with IT
To even be accepted in the program, they want you to pass a technical video interview, and they suggested to google some definitions/talking points as well as look over Professor Messer's youtube channel.

Aside from this link and professor messer's channel, do you have any other recommendations for how to study some basic concepts with IT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLe7uz-7CM

 

[Snoopy Loops]

Since it’s a cloud program, I wouldn’t bother with that vid. I peeped the video for a couple of secs and it’s too granular. You don’t need to know that level of detail. There’s shyt he was talking about that I don’t know but here I am impersonating a cloud architect

This series isnt on cloud computing per se but it’s a good primer on computers. To be fair it’s pretty granular like the one you posted, I think the presenters explanation is very ELI5 (explain like I’m five). I wouldn’t watch all of them

These are decent intros in cloud computing.
Vid 1
Vid 2
Vid 3

At some point, sign up for the acloudguru aws ccp course, then you should be good.

 

[Snoopy Loops]

Thanks for the response. Im starting from square 1 with IT
To even be accepted in the program, they want you to pass a technical video interview, and they suggested to google some definitions/talking points as well as look over Professor Messer's youtube channel.

Aside from this link and professor messer's channel, do you have any other recommendations for how to study some basic concepts with IT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLe7uz-7CM

My reply is above. Forgot to hit the reply button

 

[null]

Aside from this link and professor messer's channel, do you have any other recommendations for how to study some basic concepts with IT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLe7uz-7CM

watch scishow comp sci series on youtube. watch computerphile - these will give you background.