IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Germms]

Stop focusing on title and focus more on duties. Those titles mean the same thing to a lot of companies.

Thank you.. I was racking my brain trying to understand these titles.

 

[Snoopy Loops]

Just reactivated LinkedIn premium, gonna start the job search with my recent bounty of certs. I applied to AWS itself for a solutions architect role and got a next day denial

Now applying to consulting joints like Accenture, Pwc etc and anything reasonable I can stumble upon.

Taking sysops exam at the end of month. Musing on either taking machine learning(ML) cert, solutions architect pro or devops pro afterwards, to really cement this certs shyt.

I feel pro certs will open more doors for typical solution architect roles, but I feel machine learning will open doors to more cutting edge roles, which i fukk with. Been seeing job postings wanting cloud, big data and ML expertise.

The main deterrent for the ML cert is if they're looking for a data scientist first, cloud architect second. If thats the case i dont have really a chance.
Theres also the question on relocation, cuz I have a fairly comfortable setup where im at.

 

[JT-Money]

Can't decide what to do.. I want to go to the infosec side real bad. Security analyst Security engineer.
tffffff

Security Engineer is the better job because it pays more and you generally don't do a ton of busy work.

While a Security Analyst tends to get all kinds of shyt work dumped on them. Companies that I've worked for tend to stick Security Analyst in a SOC triaging thousands of alerts.

I see just as many people abandoning the Cybersecurity field as coming into. After they get a taste of the workload that's expected of them for not much more pay than a regular IT position. Only the senior IT Security people at the top of the food chain are making big bucks. The rest are managing tons of buggy overpriced security equipment while trying to avoid a massive breach. shyt is definitely not all it's cracked up to be unless you can make it into management.

 

[xXMASHERXx]

Security Engineer is the better job because it pays more and you generally don't do a ton of busy work.

While a Security Analyst tends to get all kinds of shyt work dumped on them. Companies that I've worked for tend to stick Security Analyst in a SOC triaging thousands of alerts.

I see just as many people abandoning the Cybersecurity field as coming into. After they get a taste of the workload that's expected of them for not much more pay than a regular IT position. Only the senior IT Security people at the top of the food chain are making big bucks. The rest are managing tons of buggy overpriced security equipment while trying to avoid a massive breach. shyt is definitely not all it's cracked up to be unless you can make it into management.

Not sure what area you are in but that is definitely not true on the Healthcare side. We are hurting for people and the ones who make the hiring decisions are clueless. As for the pay, maybe thats true for a SOC position but forensics, network security, vulnerability management, pentesting, etc are definitely making more than your average IT position. If all they are doing is managing security equipment and reading logs then of course they won't be much. You have to be able to show the value of your contributions to a company otherwise they will pay you as if all you do is hit keys on a keyboard.

 

[klientel]

Have my final interview on Monday for a pre sales engineer role with Cisco. Got past all the technical and scenario based panel interviews, now I just have to get past the regional director and then meet the account managers.

Going to be my first sales position, I’m kinda nervous but the pay and opportunity is amazing.

If I get the job I’ll be in the healthcare vertical which is nice because I have a lot of friends and former colleagues still in healthcare IT. Anyone here doing sales?

 

[ChiefKenji]

Just landed my first it sec job after 1 year and 10 months in desktop support. Fck waiting around for your manager to “give you an oppurtunity”. If he didnt do it when you asked, its a wrap.

Had 3 interviews with 3 different companies and they all did me an offer, 2 of them I directly spoke to the CEO, hr and senior at the same damn time.

When the recruiter from company 3 noticed I spoke with confidence and couldnt keep up with the piff i was spitting, she looked extremely desperate to get into the CEO’s office and get HR at the table asap to provide an offer lol.

Its all about believing in your self and turning the tables around. I even bullied them to raise the pay and they did with no questions asked.

0 direct certs btw but was studying for Security+ and already have a bachelor in it sec.

I also quit my job before I even contacted companies. That leap of faith did me good.

 

[Dre23]

Just reactivated LinkedIn premium, gonna start the job search with my recent bounty of certs. I applied to AWS itself for a solutions architect role and got a next day denial

Now applying to consulting joints like Accenture, Pwc etc and anything reasonable I can stumble upon.

Taking sysops exam at the end of month. Musing on either taking machine learning(ML) cert, solutions architect pro or devops pro afterwards, to really cement this certs shyt.

I feel pro certs will open more doors for typical solution architect roles, but I feel machine learning will open doors to more cutting edge roles, which i fukk with. Been seeing job postings wanting cloud, big data and ML expertise.

The main deterrent for the ML cert is if they're looking for a data scientist first, cloud architect second. If thats the case i dont have really a chance.
Theres also the question on relocation, cuz I have a fairly comfortable setup where im at.

Don't focus on anymore certs after the Sysops until you get experience doing the work. Create a bunch of projects and land a job. Get the pro certs once you get a job so the next move will be your best move.

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

Passed the CISA exam .

CIPM you next . Gave me an L but I wont take one twice.

Then review all my could shyt and taking flight. fukk a soc. I want to do consulting.

 

[JT-Money]

Not sure what area you are in but that is definitely not true on the Healthcare side. We are hurting for people and the ones who make the hiring decisions are clueless. As for the pay, maybe thats true for a SOC position but forensics, network security, vulnerability management, pentesting, etc are definitely making more than your average IT position. If all they are doing is managing security equipment and reading logs then of course they won't be much. You have to be able to show the value of your contributions to a company otherwise they will pay you as if all you do is hit keys on a keyboard.

If you're part of an internal Security team at any medium or small size business your making chump change. So unless Cybersecurity is part of the company's core business they have no incentive to pay huge IT Security salaries. I've left IT Security positions where they paid my replacement 15-20K less than what they we're paying me. I've only seen companies pay a premium for IT Security people when they all start heading for the exits at the same time. Only then will they bump up salaries in IT Security because they have no choice. Otherwise their making the same as everyone else in IT but with much more responsibility. Because now they have to babysit other IT groups and make sure they patch and secure their shyt. You get all that added responsibility for what maybe 5K more per year? I hit the 100K mark last year but that was due to job hopping. But had I stayed put I would be making 10-15K less than I do now and that's with 10 years experience.

Most of these headlines you see about astronomical cybersecurity salaries are in high cost of living areas for the most part. And the people making these exorbitant salaries are the cream of the crop not your average Coli nikka. I talk to recruiters all the time to gauge the market regardless of whether or not I plan on jumping ship. And most senior cybersecurity role salaries haven't budged since last year. Despite this claim of a huge shortage which businesses always do when they want the government to supply them with cheap overseas labor. Whenever a cybersecurity job gets posted there is never a shortage of applicants applying for it. And companies are getting away with much smaller headcounts not only in IT Security but IT in general. Yet the complexity and number of systems keeps increasing year after year.

 

[xXMASHERXx]

If you're part of an internal Security team at any medium or small size business your making chump change. So unless Cybersecurity is part of the company's core business they have no incentive to pay huge IT Security salaries. I've left IT Security positions where they paid my replacement 15-20K less than what they we're paying me. I've only seen companies pay a premium for IT Security people when they all start heading for the exits at the same time. Only then will they bump up salaries in IT Security because they have no choice. Otherwise their making the same as everyone else in IT but with much more responsibility. Because now they have to babysit other IT groups and make sure they patch and secure their shyt. You get all that added responsibility for what maybe 5K more per year? I hit the 100K mark last year but that was due to job hopping. But had I stayed put I would be making 10-15K less than I do now and that's with 10 years experience.

Most of these headlines you see about astronomical cybersecurity salaries are in high cost of living areas for the most part. And the people making these exorbitant salaries are the cream of the crop not your average Coli nikka. I talk to recruiters all the time to gauge the market regardless of whether or not I plan on jumping ship. And most senior cybersecurity role salaries haven't budged since last year. Despite this claim of a huge shortage which businesses always do when they want the government to supply them with cheap overseas labor. Whenever a cybersecurity job gets posted there is never a shortage of applicants applying for it. And companies are getting away with much smaller headcounts not only in IT Security but IT in general. Yet the complexity and number of systems keeps increasing year after year.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Like I said I can only speak on my industry which is healthcare and they are paying a premium for IT security. Not for entry level positions but for people who really know their stuff and do more than read logs/click buttons.

 

[klientel]

We'll have to agree to disagree. Like I said I can only speak on my industry which is healthcare and they are paying a premium for IT security. Not for entry level positions but for people who really know their stuff and do more than read logs/click buttons.

Back when I was in healthcare about 5 years ago, the security architect was making over 150k and all the “admins” were 80-100k. And this wasn’t even a large hospital. So the money is out there.

 

[Artenche]

Jr. Sys Admin interview Thursday.

There is no hoping this will go well.

Hope isn't a course of action.

You have to will it to go well.

 

[thaKEAF]

Just landed my first it sec job after 1 year and 10 months in desktop support. Fck waiting around for your manager to “give you an oppurtunity”. If he didnt do it when you asked, its a wrap.

Had 3 interviews with 3 different companies and they all did me an offer, 2 of them I directly spoke to the CEO, hr and senior at the same damn time.

When the recruiter from company 3 noticed I spoke with confidence and couldnt keep up with the piff i was spitting, she looked extremely desperate to get into the CEO’s office and get HR at the table asap to provide an offer lol.

Its all about believing in your self and turning the tables around. I even bullied them to raise the pay and they did with no questions asked.

0 direct certs btw but was studying for Security+ and already have a bachelor in it sec.

I also quit my job before I even contacted companies. That leap of faith did me good.

what position did you move up to form desktop support?

 

[calixprynce]

So Microsoft is retiring damn near ALL their certs on June 30 . Im jumping on MCSA Windows Server 2016 and MCSA SQL Server 2012/2014 ASAP!! CCNA can wait for right now , i already missed the deadline

 

[Dre23]

So Microsoft is retiring damn near ALL their certs on June 30 . Im jumping on MCSA Windows Server 2016 and MCSA SQL Server 2012/2014 ASAP!! CCNA can wait for right now , i already missed the deadline

It's all about the cloud now