IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

JT-Money

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Calling IT professionals: VA hiring nationwide in multiple specialties - VAntage Point

Calling IT professionals: VA hiring nationwide in multiple specialties
Apply for a temporary IT specialist opening and help VA support our staff and provide the best care to Veterans

VA has hundreds of openings across the nation for IT specialists to help support our ongoing response to COVID-19. These temporary positions are full-time for one year with possibility of extension.

Follow the links below to apply and learn more about how you can help VA use state-of-the-art technology to support our staff and provide the best care to Veterans:

There are more than 600 customer support positions alone at 250 VA locations. In this role, you would assist VA employees who are working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Providing remote desktop support to the countless number of VA employees who are now working from home creates continuity and allows each employee to concentrate on doing their part to ensure each Veterans’ experience is positive,” said Trevor Falnes, national talent acquisition consultant at VA.

Explore VA IT careers
IT professionals are instrumental in improving the Veteran experience by delivering innovative technologies that help VA continue to operate efficiently and effectively.

“Working at VA is more than a job — it’s a mission to serve our Veterans. You’ll join a team of more than 16,000 IT professionals who are dedicated to supporting our health care technology needs,” said Darren Sherrard, associate director of recruitment marketing at VA.

“We are continually evolving and adapting technology solutions to allow us to focus on our mission of providing the best care to Veterans,” he added.

Great careers, great benefits
You’ll enjoy location flexibility, with openings available at 250 VA locations. After working 130 hours per month for three months, you’ll become eligible for federal health benefits as well.

If you convert to a permanent position at VA, there are plenty of other perks, including performance-based salary increases, accelerated raises and higher education support. Other benefits and perks include:

  • Generous time off: Earn up to 26 vacation days each year, accrue unlimited paid sick leave and enjoy 10 paid federal holidays.
  • Robust federal retirement plan: The package includes a defined benefit plan (pension) after only five years of vesting and a 401(k)-type plan with up to 5% in employer contributions.
Work at VA today
 

Rice'N Beckford

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Job offer I received for for the Cybersecurity Analyst position tried to give me $1k less than what I currently make rn. Countered with $11k and they gave me $7k more.

Hoping to flip this position in about 6 months-1yr to hit 6 figs. Im already close. Now that I got a better looking job title recruiters will be thirsty.

Might take a break from studying. Idek what to study for now. Got the Security+ and CySA+. Already IAT II compliant and got a security clearance.

Im not taking anymore CompTIA certs :ufdup: Im currently going through Splunk’s Core User modules and will prob take that cert since it’s cheap.

Looking at studying for the CISSP. Im not interested in pentesting. Trying to stay on the blue team side. Ima try to see if this new company will pay for some SANS certs :youngsabo:
 

JT-Money

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Job offer I received for for the Cybersecurity Analyst position tried to give me $1k less than what I currently make rn. Countered with $11k and they gave me $7k more.

Hoping to flip this position in about 6 months-1yr to hit 6 figs. Im already close. Now that I got a better looking job title recruiters will be thirsty.

Might take a break from studying. Idek what to study for now. Got the Security+ and CySA+. Already IAT II compliant and got a security clearance.

Im not taking anymore CompTIA certs :ufdup: Im currently going through Splunk’s Core User modules and will prob take that cert since it’s cheap.

Looking at studying for the CISSP. Im not interested in pentesting. Trying to stay on the blue team side. Ima try to see if this new company will pay for some SANS certs :youngsabo:
You gonna need that pentesting experience to survive on the Blue Team side. I all but ignored that shyt until a few years ago. And now routinely get quizzed for Blue Team jobs on Red Team tactics and responses. The last two jobs that I interviewed for both gave me timed freaking tests on attacks. And they wanted you to have multiple SANS certifications. I never got asked any shyt like this doing IT Security for the Feds.
 

patscorpio

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I would appreciate some advise. Trying to explore careers.

Security, Devops, business analyst, cloud technologies careers seem to be trending.

I have no experience in any of the above. I'm not even sure what exactly those roles do or where to start.

Can y'all share experience/ advice if you are in any of those0fileds/roles

how you got started?
where is the starting point
prerequisites are needed.
What you day your day to day is.

i was a BA for almost 5 years.

i got because i was a project coordinator before...i was doing training, doing data conversion, and software implementation for a software company..my technical skills..i was writing up requirements and doing sql and crystal reports after a stint of doing help desk..i came across a listing that looked like it was up my alley

basically there is no set path or prerequisite to being a BA....the best thing i can say is as a BA you wear a lot of hats..the above experience made me favorable

my day to day was being in charge of the IT projects of the clients which is the simplified summary of what i did
 

aXiom

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I see a lot of people in here with a grocery list of certs.. If you think this way you're gonna waste a lot of time.. you need to understand which certs complement each other and which combination of certs give give you a leg up over your competition in this game.. especially with the convergence of IT/Could where you're expected to know a bit of everything on top of your specialty..

like there's no need to grab a+, net+, server+ and a ccna.. just go straight for the ccna, spin up a few windows server and centos vms and get a base level understanding of how both OS work.. the time spent studying for that net+ and sever+ would be better spent grabbing a sec+ and an entry level cloud cert to compliment that ccna.. network goes hand in hand with security. Also, script/coding is no longer a suggestion in this field.. pick up python/powershell/bash and learn some loops and string manipulation.. learn some regex/sed... if you really about that 6 figure life you're gonna have to learn how to automate shyt...

You get a combo skillset like Networking+Linux+Scripting+Security or Network+Cloud+Automation and you're basically a god. Don't cert chase just because you think it would look good on your resume.. if you must cert chase, at least do so with relevant/hot technologies..

As a bonus you can try creating a site or a github/gitlab repo and put some of the shyt you've learned on there.. try teaching/explaining what you've learned.. it's the best way to fill any gaps you have in a topic.
 
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EnzoG

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post the job desecription.


I take it you're in Texas. They're having a hiring surge right now.
No I'm in SC I work in internet tech support and I'm trying to figure out if Microsoft might offer the same thing I roughly make around 40k a year I'll be moving to Charlotte in the next year or two
 

GollyImGully

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Job offer I received for for the Cybersecurity Analyst position tried to give me $1k less than what I currently make rn. Countered with $11k and they gave me $7k more.

Hoping to flip this position in about 6 months-1yr to hit 6 figs. Im already close. Now that I got a better looking job title recruiters will be thirsty.

Might take a break from studying. Idek what to study for now. Got the Security+ and CySA+. Already IAT II compliant and got a security clearance.

Im not taking anymore CompTIA certs :ufdup: Im currently going through Splunk’s Core User modules and will prob take that cert since it’s cheap.

Looking at studying for the CISSP. Im not interested in pentesting. Trying to stay on the blue team side. Ima try to see if this new company will pay for some SANS certs :youngsabo:
Congrats breh :wow:

Get that CISSP and keep ya feet on necks :damn::damn::damn:
 

Rhyme n Tekniq

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No I'm in SC I work in internet tech support and I'm trying to figure out if Microsoft might offer the same thing I roughly make around 40k a year I'll be moving to Charlotte in the next year or two

Bruh you'lll be good, That's easily a 55K + a year job. I aint just talkiing outta my ass either because I'm currently in the running for an engineer position with Microsoft. Talent Acquisition lady said the highest they could give me was 61k, which is a paycut for me, but I have to get away from my current job. Microsoft got a shytload of benefits, They 100% pay for all certifications and yada yada.

I would get expose to a metric ton of technologies once hired.

They want to see people progressing getting certs and moving up in roles and responsibilities or you risk being lost in the shuffle or possibly getting bushed.

I'm working on a few of those role-based Microsoft 365 Certs now to get ahead of the game in case I get hired.

There are a bunch of Support engineer roles. The one I really want is the security; Identity and Access Management type of role where you work with AD DS, AD FS, Azure AD, Defender ATP on etc. But I'll more than likely end up with the Azure virtualization roles creating and managing Virtual Machines because of my background with VMware software.

I wouldnt complain though, anything that gets me in the door and away from my current
company
 

Majestic

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I see a lot of people in here with a grocery list of certs.. If you think this way you're gonna waste a lot of time.. you need to understand which certs complement each other and which combination of certs give give you a leg up over your competition in this game.. especially with the convergence of IT/Could where you're expected to know a bit of everything on top of your specialty..

like there's no need to grab a+, net+, server+ and a ccna.. just go straight for the ccna, spin up a few windows server and centos vms and get a base level understanding of how both OS work.. the time spent studying for that net+ and sever+ would be better spent grabbing a sec+ and an entry level cloud cert to compliment that ccna.. network goes hand in hand with security. Also, script/coding is no longer a suggestion in this field.. pick up python/powershell/bash and learn some loops and string manipulation.. learn some regex/sed... if you really about that 6 figure life you're gonna have to learn how to automate shyt...

You get a combo skillset like Networking+Linux+Scripting+Security or Network+Cloud+Automation and you're basically a god. Don't cert chase just because you think it would look good on your resume.. if you must cert chase, at least do so with relevant/hot technologies..

As a bonus you can try creating a site or a github/gitlab repo and put some of the shyt you've learned on there.. try teaching/explaining what you've learned.. it's the best way to fill any gaps you have in a topic.
where can we learn this breh?
 
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