IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[xXMASHERXx]

Staffing agencies. Usually, but not always, Indian recruiters. They get a hold of your resume and start contacting you about shyt that's barely related. I had to pull my shyt up off Dice

Same. Kept getting calls and emails for helpdesk positions

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Same. Kept getting calls and emails for helpdesk positions

I don't put my phone anymore, really don't like talking on the phone that much and I almost never pick up if you aren't a contact. God help you if you don't leave a voicemail. But I was getting emails about senior Android developer roles, asking 10+ years experience off of a college resume. I shudder to think what they'd contact me about now.

 

[satam55]

Never used them. I stick to Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor. Dice used to be good but got overrun by 3rd party postings. Ain't nobody trying to deal with all that.

What's 3rd party posting?

Staffing agencies. Usually, but not always, Indian recruiters. They get a hold of your resume and start contacting you about shyt that's barely related. I had to pull my shyt up off Dice

Is it normal to be hit up for non-IT jobs even though your resume is targeted towards IT jobs? I just made my ZipRecruiter profile public to employers & had this text message exchange:

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Is it normal to be hit up for non-IT jobs even though your resume is targeted towards IT jobs? I just made my ZipRecruiter profile public to employers & had this text message exchange:

Imagine you're an instathot and recruiters are thirsty ass guys. They don't give a fukk . They gon slide right in

 

[xXMASHERXx]

The N+ is easier but the ccna holds more weight.


I'm really asking the same thing but was told many times that the N+ isn't worth paying for so I'm doing the CCNA study but I agree with you especially with this cybersecurity stuff being all over the place it's like you wasting 3 months doing this and then getting a job that hasn't anything to do with routing or switching so I kinda ask the same question.

I just need a firm grasp of networking and the OSI layer and that should/would be enough, correct?

But doing the CCNA just due to the name recognition and hopefully, it can open up some doors to better.

I get the frustration but there's a lot more to it than you realize. In cybersecurity, networking is one of the fundamental areas to know. You don't necessarily have to be CCNA certified but it helps a lot. The only reason why I would say to aim for the cert is more so to check the box for HR. Unfortunately, a lot of positions well ask for the cert and if you don't have it won't give you a shot.

 

[Scott Larock]

I get the frustration but there's a lot more to it than you realize. In cybersecurity, networking is one of the fundamental areas to know. You don't necessarily have to be CCNA certified but it helps a lot. The only reason why I would say to aim for the cert is more so to check the box for HR. Unfortunately, a lot of positions well ask for the cert and if you don't have it won't give you a shot.

Doing that now, don't mind taking the time to learn it. It can't hurt, only help...

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

I'm not saying you are wrong all I am saying is that its not just a cybersecurity issue. Its an issue with IT and is not new. Pretty much everything I have learned has come from self learning. Any training I have done has come out of my pocket(thankfully I can have my company reimburse me a portion of it). But yeah companies aren't investing in their employees like they should, so until that changes, we'll just have to keep investing in ourselves to progress.

A lot of times you gotta just bite the bullet and so it yourself lol. Dont want them thinking you getting ready to leave.

 

[Splash]

Really enjoying all the Linux/python/security stuff I’ve been doing and plan to get more into that during my free time. I don’t really think networking is for me as I find it to be a bit dry tbh, but there’s definitely some networking concepts that are necessary for security. What I’m trying to figure out is would it be worth it to get the CCNA even though I don’t really have a desire to be a network engineer or would the
Net+ Suffice?

The N+ is easier but the ccna holds more weight.


I'm really asking the same thing but was told many times that the N+ isn't worth paying for so I'm doing the CCNA study but I agree with you especially with this cybersecurity stuff being all over the place it's like you wasting 3 months doing this and then getting a job that hasn't anything to do with routing or switching so I kinda ask the same question.

I just need a firm grasp of networking and the OSI layer and that should/would be enough, correct?

But doing the CCNA just due to the name recognition and hopefully, it can open up some doors to better.

As someone who has both they are literally the same shyt, just CCNA has a little more Cisco specific stuff but its even been a while since I've come across a different device, its all palo alto and f5.

The knowledge is foundational because you come across it all the time without really realising, for example I did a firewall review the other day, we have a jr sec guy who apparently already looked over it months ago, turns out the config was useless because the first rule was allow all traffic
I noticed because I was seeing traffic between two subnets that shouldnt really be communicating so its shyt like that.

In terms of OSI layer you will get the knowledge from both but again its putting into practice you really understand how shyt works

Also for cyber security, the reason shyt is all over the place is because its a booming field and companies dont really know what they want

I've been on interviews where they ask for IT security analyst and half way through I'm thinking yall want an Information Security Analyst instead
Very different roles, different payscales but there is some overlap
The issue is job titles, the same job title can be used for someone making 20k and someone making 200k but when you get down to the details, its quite different its just most HR have no clue

There was a time I was offered a role and i told em look im not taking less than £70k they were like but the market rate is 50k
I basically told em they had no idea how much they were asking for in terms of the role responsibilites

Generally speaking unless you go down like a pentest route, the more hands off you are, the more money you are making.

 

[Serious]

I don't put my phone anymore, really don't like talking on the phone that much and I almost never pick up if you aren't a contact. God help you if you don't leave a voicemail. But I was getting emails about senior Android developer roles, asking 10+ years experience off of a college resume. I shudder to think what they'd contact me about now.

Maybe that's why they always ask for an updated resume

 

[wastedmermaid]

As someone who has both they are literally the same shyt, just CCNA has a little more Cisco specific stuff but its even been a while since I've come across a different device, its all palo alto and f5.

The knowledge is foundational because you come across it all the time without really realising, for example I did a firewall review the other day, we have a jr sec guy who apparently already looked over it months ago, turns out the config was useless because the first rule was allow all traffic
I noticed because I was seeing traffic between two subnets that shouldnt really be communicating so its shyt like that.

In terms of OSI layer you will get the knowledge from both but again its putting into practice you really understand how shyt works

Also for cyber security, the reason shyt is all over the place is because its a booming field and companies dont really know what they want

I've been on interviews where they ask for IT security analyst and half way through I'm thinking yall want an Information Security Analyst instead
Very different roles, different payscales but there is some overlap
The issue is job titles, the same job title can be used for someone making 20k and someone making 200k but when you get down to the details, its quite different its just most HR have no clue

There was a time I was offered a role and i told em look im not taking less than £70k they were like but the market rate is 50k
I basically told em they had no idea how much they were asking for in terms of the role responsibilites

Generally speaking unless you go down like a pentest route, the more hands off you are, the more money you are making.

So what’s the difference between the two bolded besides the pay?

Also,Can you explain what you mean by being more hands off and making more

I always figured the more technical ability you have the more you make.

 

[JT-Money]

No wonder I'm seeing an uptick in Recruiters reaching out for contract work.

Companies Say U.S. Consulate In India Denies L-1 Visas At Alarming Rate

 

[Splash]

So what’s the difference between the two bolded besides the pay?

Also,Can you explain what you mean by being more hands off and making more

I always figured the more technical ability you have the more you make.

So what’s the difference between the two bolded besides the pay?

Also,Can you explain what you mean by being more hands off and making more

I always figured the more technical ability you have the more you make.

OK so IT security analysts are typically doing the work that you are probably thinking of, monitoring, configuring etc.
Information Security is alot higher level and typically feeds into what IT security analysts do, but like i said there are alot of overlap so lets use an example where a company has hired both IT security and infromation security.

So Information security are the ones going to meet with board members, heads of departments etc to define what the security requirements are for the business and the risks associated with the industry etc.

So lets say IS security meet with the board members and say Ok, password cracking is at an all time high, we need to roll out a new 15 character password policy across the entire business because of x y and z, heres how much we are going to need to do this and why we think it is worth it.

The actual implementation of this will be down to IT security to configure (this would be group policy), they set it up, test it and roll it out, they dont care about anything else but ultimately the buck falls with IS security.
If the company gets hacked they wont go to IT security, they will go to IS and say were you complying with industry best practice? What policies do you have in place to protect against this kind of thing? What customer data was affected etc etc.

Thats why “high end” certs like CISSP or CISM are not technical at all, you gotta know all ure industry policies like ISO 27K, NIST, CE+ etc

There are a couple exceptions as i mentioned before:

1) Security architect, quite technical but you gettin paid
2) Pentesting techical by nature no matter what level you are at
3) Contacting, companies will pay alot short term (3 to 6 months typically) to do those IT sec analyst activities

 

[Silky Johnson]

how long should it take to study and pass the ccna? I'm on chapter 7 on the Todd Lamme book but it's alot to memorize.

If I give this 8 hours per day for 2 weeks should that be enough?

This really bugs me and I don't recommend this approach at all. If you really want to take that route as a career, put the time in to learn the material and learn how to apply it to the position you are seeking. Cramming for two weeks will have you as another paper tech in an industry already flooded with those.

 

[xXMASHERXx]

This really bugs me and I don't recommend this approach at all. If you really want to take that route as a career, put the time in to learn the material and learn how to apply it to the position you are seeking. Cramming for two weeks will have you as another paper tech in an industry already flooded with those.

I'm conflicted with this. I agree with you 100% but we both know that other races do this exact thing to get their foot in the door so its hard for me to tell someone not to do it. The only thing that I can say is that if you do choose to go the route of learning how to pass the test and not learn the material, you better make sure you don't put yourself in a position where you are expected to perform task you have no idea about. You will get found out quick and best believe people in this industry talk.

 

[Silky Johnson]

I'm conflicted with this. I agree with you 100% but we both know that other races do this exact thing to get their foot in the door so its hard for me to tell someone not to do it. The only thing that I can say is that if you do choose to go the route of learning how to pass the test and not learn the material, you better make sure you don't put yourself in a position where you are expected to perform task you have no idea about. You will get found out quick and best believe people in this industry talk.

Two wrongs don't make it right. If anything, we have to be even more on point because they tend to indict all of us for the crimes of a few.

I understand cramming for an exam in you are already in the game and you literally need the credentials for a pay bump but not for any other case. Like you said, you will get caught out there either during the interview process or when shyt hits the fan and be even worse off than if you spent a little more time absorbing the material and practicing the skills.