IT Career How I went from College Dropout to 6 figure Security Engineer |
- How I went from College Dropout to 6 figure Security Engineer
- Tossing my coin that hat too... ("I'm a college Dropout making six figures!") -- and some thoughts on advancing your IT career
- Free Training to Update Skills (IBM)
- Going into IT, worried about work life balance.
- What do you guys think? (Another College Dropout)
- Can I get Certs as a highschool? How can I get internships? What should I learn first as a beginner?
- What's better, CCNA or Cloud engineer?
- Honest Opinions for Open University Course Choices
- MS degree in Business Analytics and Information Management - worth it?
- Does private really make more the public sector?
- Technical interview - how to really impress the interviewrer?
- I never liked exams, and I never will
- Put skills acquired thru homelab on resume?
- Is my experience enough to get into Security? (SQL/Programmer/Some Security Experience)
- Lost and new
- Is it possible to get an internship or job shadow at any AWS related role with no experience? How can I gather experience for AWS related Certifications and fields?
- 23 year old seeking advice on a career in IT
- What is YOUR process when it comes to studying for certs?
- A career in intelligence agencies or think tanks for someone in Machine Learning?
- What programming language / skills is best to learn if I wanted to specialize in Azure cloud?
- Senior in college looking to see which certifications I can get a head start on since internships are cancelled this summer
- Certs vs Degree
| How I went from College Dropout to 6 figure Security Engineer Posted: 01 May 2020 02:29 PM PDT Hey y'all, this seems to be a pretty cool trend in this sub. I'll go ahead. I graduated Highschool in 2013 and went straight into College having no idea what I wanted to do. I tried Accounting, Biology, ect. I never really took tech as a possible position. Instead of wasting more time and money, I decided to move back to my home town and applied for a help desk job at a local MSP of about 10 techs. Questions in the interview included managing AD users, Google Admin and networking with Cisco ASA's. We had able 30 customers and over 100 total servers of various flavors. After 2 years of doing helpdesk/light he admin work, I received my Security+501. I thought I could make more money ($15 at the time) and applied as a full fledged sys admin at a govt contractor. I managed about 30 windows 2012-16 severs here and was making about 24 bucks an hour. This is where I started picking up some programming (golang/python) to help with automating boring tasks. I also built some projects including Hashicorp Vault, packer, and vagrant. After alittle under a year, a past colleague called me up and moved me to a small startup of 5 people. I was making 35 bucks at the time as a deployment engineer. I had to learn about Go & bash, Git, more vagrant and securing API's along with AWS,Azure and writing technical documentation. This is where I got the CySA+ certificate as well and really honed i. On the automation. The startup shut down after a few months so I was in the market. A grocer (Top 3) called me up and we're looking for a Devops focused person who wanted to learn Security. That's where I am now. Making about 114 plus bonuses. I work on a small team of 6 cloud development focused individuals! The journey has just begun! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 May 2020 09:27 AM PDT Yep, I see the threads about being a college dropout making six figures, so I figured I'd toss my coin in the hat too and contribute. It took me 2 years, 1 month, and 24 days, from the day I left my first IT job (helpdesk, $16 an hour) to the day I started my current job today (Cloud Solutions Architect, $170,000*) * $170,000 was the salary I started off with the current job. It's actually gone up to about $185,000 (actual number is like $186,245 or something, can't remember) this year. Would have been higher, but you know, recessions. So I only got an 8% raise, but hey, it's better than a standard 3% COLA (cost of living adjustment) or worse, no raise, or worse, getting laid off. Gotta take my wins where I can in these unprecedented pandemic times. But I digress. I will bold parts of the bullet points below pertaining to financial compensation. Warning, this post is long. If you want to skip the story (you'll miss out on some cool pics and videos, fyi), and just want the TLDR protips on your career, go to the bottom of this post labeled Closing Protips. Here goes:
I also cook a lot now to save money, examples here , here, here and here (look guys, we need a shitpost during this toilet paper shortage, okay? don't judge). But yeah in short, I want to close off with some of my advice (non-exhaustive) to the aspiring IT professionals in the community on advancing their IT career strategy and career as a whole: Closing Protips
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| Free Training to Update Skills (IBM) Posted: 02 May 2020 07:30 AM PDT Free Courses !! Most course content is only visible when you log in. If you do not have a login yet, please just create onehttps://www.ibm.com/blogs/ibm-training/free-training-to-update-skills/#IBM%20Cloud [link] [comments]  |
| Going into IT, worried about work life balance. Posted: 02 May 2020 07:54 AM PDT So I kinda did/kinda didn't drop out of college 4 years ago due to some personal issues, and I have spent the time selling, activating and supporting smart phones for a company. I recently got back into school and a surprising amount of my credits transferred, I will be able to graduate with my bachelors by the end of 2021 unless I change my major which right now is IST. I plan on applying to every single internship possible until I get one because I know that experience is very important, I might even try to get my A+ before the fall semester starts to help me do that. Anyways, I've been watching a lot of videos on working in IT and trying to learn more about it, and I'm just a little concerned about the work/life balance. While I am very passionate about technology, I am a firm believer that you should leave your work at work once you're done for the day if possible. Is this hard to do in IT, is it something you personally struggle with? Thanks for the help! [link] [comments]  |
| What do you guys think? (Another College Dropout) Posted: 02 May 2020 05:26 AM PDT Ok I'll try and not make this too long. In the spirit of the past couple posts. I too, am also a college dropout. But after an insane decade of my life I got my act together and got my foot in the door with a help desk position a little over two years ago working for an MSP in a school district. Started just like every one else answering tickets, making sure printers were plugged in, re-adding them to the machines. Creating reservations for the printers on the DHCP server. Luckily I didn't have to sit behind a desk all day I got to go school to school. Fast Forward a couple months and my MSP loses the contract and I get laid off technically. During the transition period with the new MSP I keep working just as hard and on the last day as I'm walking out the new MSP calls me and offers me a job. Seeing as I was so new still, I gladly accepted and stayed on. They paid for me to go and get certified in JAMF(we had all macs and ipads in the school district). I ended up getting a little bump in salary up to 54k a year(I was making 45k when I started). During the transition we also lost a systems guy (so I studied on my own at home and took the vmware associates test and offered to take over that role as much as I could. So I was put in charge of the vmware environment. We were running a Cisco UCS and a Netapp for file storage, while using a Reduxio to host all the VM's(we were running about 81 vm's across 7 hosts). We also had SCCM set up but not too many windows machines so I offered to take over that as well and started to learn how to manage machines using SCCM with a TON of googling and trial and error. I spent all my time there taking on whatever I could learn and might be useful for myself in the future. Fast forward to now. I went back to my original about 6 months MSP cause they needed someone to cover two schools and they gave me another salary bump up to 70k a year. Also the guy who originally hired me and asked me to come back was possibly my favorite boss ever. Who I work with and work for count for a lot. So I've been at these schools for a little over 6 months and one of them offered me a position at the school as the full time Sys Admin with another small salary bump. The school job offers stability that I always worry about while working for MSP's. They offer a pension, better benefits. It's a situation where they are willing to let me jump in a make it my own. They offered tuition reimbursement and really back me on going back to school. While the MSP I work for has been great. We work with all top of the line Cisco equipment, they're very big on moving forward with the industry using automation for networking. So we've been using python and Jinja templates to create configs for our larger projects. Projects I'm only being involved now that the schools are closed though. Before COVID I was not apart of these projects. But still the opportunity to learn is really a big selling point. Well I lied and this was long. But I'm really thinking I'm going to take the school Sys Admin position. I'm getting married and would like to start a family and I think the stability is the most important part to me right now. The people in the school are great, they're down to earth and it's just like hanging out with friends all day. The commute is literally 12 minutes also haha I know the opportunity to learn isn't dependent on where I work, but on me. What do you guys think? [link] [comments]  |
| Can I get Certs as a highschool? How can I get internships? What should I learn first as a beginner? Posted: 02 May 2020 10:34 AM PDT I am currently a high school student and I have 3 more years until a graduate. I know the Moto "experience, education then certs".Would it be beneficial for me to try and get certs now for was azure CompTIA? I am planning on attending university for computer science and I really want to try and get internships preferably now in high school, or at a minimum during freshman year of college. Would this be a worthy time investment? Also, I know that you need hands-on experience and Linux academy has been recommended a lot. Would you guys recommend it? Also, I have access to the GitHub student developer pack. So I have access to two main cloud company programs, AWS education which means I get up to $110 in bonus AWS credits for a total of $75-$150, and I get another 150 dollars on top of that. I also have access to Microsoft Azure so I get Free access to 25+ Microsoft Azure cloud services plus $100 in Azure credit and educational resources. Should I do the certifications for any of those companies? I have read the wiki, but couldn't find anything on where to start, because I don't know how to use AWS free and start up a server, as recommended. In the internship section on the wiki, I couldn't find info on how to get internships while in high school. So any advice or information on that would be greatly appreciated. Also, I know that in the r/itcareerquestions rules it states "Screen out personal information!" However, in this post, I would like to ask the moderators if it's ok for me to post my general location since I live in a moderately sized tech hub, which is Washington DC. I know that Amazon HQ2 is coming here so do you guys think that will bring more internships for high schoolers? Thank you for all the help in advice! I appreciated it so very much! [link] [comments]  |
| What's better, CCNA or Cloud engineer? Posted: 02 May 2020 10:09 AM PDT Hi all, I'm very new into the IT field and wanted to know what's best. Thank you :) [link] [comments]  |
| Honest Opinions for Open University Course Choices Posted: 02 May 2020 08:55 AM PDT Howdy, I posted a couple of weeks back about some career choices I'm looking at making and received some really valuable input. I've decided that I want to pursue a distance-learning degree. Going to a brick Uni is not an option due to family and financial commitments, so I've decided to look into The Open University as a possible option. I'm currently a SysAdmin, but the long term goal is Cyber Security. Working for a company like GCHQ is the true dream for me. I have a fairly decent understanding of PowerShell, but that's about the only scripting language I know at the minute. I can do the basics with HTML/CSS, although I know these are markup languages; not scripting or programming. I've narrowed down two courses which I feel may be the most beneficial to me and would appreciate some feedback from people who are perhaps in the CyberSec industry, or have done IT related courses through Open University. The first course is BSc (Honours) Computing & IT (Software) This is OU's equivelent of a Computer Science/Software Development degree, and I was thinking something like this would be one good option, as I know this can potentially open more avenues and I've heard this is quite heavily relied upon in the Cyber Security field. My two concerns with this are whether the course material is both up to date and relevant, as well as whether it is in depth enough. The other course I have looked at is BSc (Honours) Cyber Security This is a new course for the OU. I feel this could also potentially be a good option, obviously because it is targeted directly at Cyber Security and presumably would give me some really good options. My concerns with this one are whether the course material is in depth enough, and whether it will actually provide me with enough to go into the CyberSec field. The other concern is that the modules for this course are not yet finalised. There are three modules currently pending. Level Two module: Computer security and digital forensics (TM256) – planned for February 2022 Level Three modules: Information security (TM311) – planned for October 2021 Systems penetration testing (TM359) – planned for February 2023 This obviously raises concerns as I cannot view any of the structures of these modules, or what they might entail. Any thoughts/advice or general guidance from you all would be massive. Cheers. [link] [comments]  |
| MS degree in Business Analytics and Information Management - worth it? Posted: 02 May 2020 08:35 AM PDT I have a Bachelors in CIS and have been in the industry for over 20 years as a jack of all trades IT guy (altho more software development and DBA type stuff). I'd like to pivot and get more involved in data (DBA, data science, analytics, and the like). Thinking about going after this degree. The cost would be 30 grand. Worth it or are there better ways to spend the time and money at this stage of my career? [link] [comments]  |
| Does private really make more the public sector? Posted: 02 May 2020 08:21 AM PDT I always hear this, but public sector in cyber security information assurance pays up around 150-200k it seems in senior positions if you're cleared.at least DOD contractors. How much are private sector guys getting paid? Is it really that much more? [link] [comments]  |
| Technical interview - how to really impress the interviewrer? Posted: 02 May 2020 05:19 AM PDT Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. Next week I have an interview for a dream job of mine, and I am working to prepare. The job is an entry-level one, but not in the way you expect. It's for people from outside the tech industry and the job trains the employee up. The most important thing is that we show passion for technology through the discussion. So this is my way to get into an industry I have always admired. I really want to be able to impress them and knock their socks off, however I need ways to show my passion for tech. I am not willing to take any chances and not prepare appropriately, I just want to absolutely ace it. I have plenty of examples of things I have done that demonstrate my passion, however I really want to knock it out of the park, so do you guys know anything that a interviewee has done that has really impressed you? I would like to do a few more things in the lead-up to the interview so that I can **really, really impress** them. Please bare in mind that they assume the only prior knowledge I have is whatever extra courses I have done and my school leaver qualifications. Thank you for reading, I would really appreciate any help. I hope you all have a great day :) [link] [comments]  |
| I never liked exams, and I never will Posted: 01 May 2020 06:24 PM PDT Be it they be technical assessment exams or certifications exams, I freeze up on them. Put me in a room with a broken computer, broken server, broken active directory domain, corrupt user profile, fried routers with no internet working. I can fix it. Ask me stupid questions, like "karen's printer is broken, what is the best way to fix it?" I start internally screaming saying, "F you test, I just try things until it works again!!!" Yet, I have gotten about 20 technical assessments in job interviews asking these types of questions but never a physical test asking me to fix karen's printer as a demo. This would show off my skills much more than picking options of which most of the time, they could all be correct. They are always different and there's no way to prepare for them. I never know how much teams weigh the results of the tests and I never feel 100% confident after taking tests. Even in school. It made things even worse that I had to take this last test in a freaking mask thanks to Coronavirus. Why am I so intimated by these technical assessments and why do I never feel prepared for them? [link] [comments]  |
| Put skills acquired thru homelab on resume? Posted: 01 May 2020 04:54 PM PDT Should one dedicate a section on resume to technologies/skills learned thru homelab/practice? If so, what's the best way to do this? [link] [comments]  |
| Is my experience enough to get into Security? (SQL/Programmer/Some Security Experience) Posted: 02 May 2020 02:00 AM PDT Long story short, I've been at my current job for 1 year, it was my first offer after graduating with my B.S., now I've been trying to get "back" into a Security role before I pigoen hole myself as a SQL developer with some python experience for ever. Idealy, I would like to leverage my skills for Incident Response (I'm very good at parsing data, string manipulation, data validation, dealing with huge datasets), Data Engineering for a Cyber Sec department, or Forensics (I know how to use FTK/EnCase), but I'm at a point where I'll be happy with any Security Analyst or SOC position. Here's a quick breakdown of my education/experience: - B.S. Degree in CIS - Info Sec/Forensics specialty from a well known state tech school - 1 year as a SQL developer, some python, mostly data generation/reporting at a well known health company. - 1 year as a paid intern at the above company developing javascript/NOSQL with a fullstack web framework. - while in school - 1-2 years combined volunteer experience at my university's data center building SSO and 2FA using Active Directory, some linux boxes, and web apps + participated as a Linux player for my school's cyber defense team. - while in school - few months doing IT Audit as a paid intern at some company. - while in school - 2.5 years as a computer tech doing everything a desktop support person can do for customers (virus removals, OS installs, data recover, diagnosing, repairs, everything) - while in school No certs. I don't have my ports/network topologies/and or security methodologies with fancy security framework acronyms memorized but I can understand putting together switches, routers into a whole environment with active directory, other boxes, and configuring a firewall and lock it all down + I don't hate programming as you can tell by my last two rolls + I've played with most penetration testing tools and understand mostly HOW they work not just running them mindelessly, and I'm hungry to learn everything and I show it in interviews. I do have all this on my resume and I roughly maybe get 10% calls back. I have gotten two offers last year for SOC positions but I took my current role instead and now slightly regret it... the only thing keeping me at my current job is that they pay me well and treat me well, but at this point it doesn't matter I want to do what I really enjoy, I'm easily board now and love to keep exploring and learning as most Security minded people are. I've started applying again but I think the current virus pandemic is affecting finding a security job since I've gotten back emails from two positions saying the position was closed/frozen. Is my skills and experience enough? Is certs really the last thing holding me back from getting an entry level security job that pays at least 80k? (I'm from an expensive city/state to live in, would probably a paycut ]: ) Sorry if my grammar is all over the place, I typed this out real fast, I promise my security reports will be written alot better, part of my current job is (ironically) making professional reports... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 08:00 PM PDT Hello to anyone who gets the chance to read this, I've recently been feeling stumped. I got my A+ cert back in November and have been trying to study for my Network+. I work in retail and have been applying to anything and everything I can find in my area (Maryland, DC) to try to break into the IT. However I recently got tuition assistance and now attend SNHU online for a computer science degree. I guess my question is should I continue working and finish my degree in hopes of breaking into IT easier or still apply to help desk jobs and continue to get more certs. It's kinda tough here to break into as it's very competitive. Anything advice would be appreciative. Thank you for your time. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 04:07 PM PDT Title! Currently on route to get a CCNA but I'm confused as to where to start with job shadowing for AWS, I'd love to get more experience and hands on look at what I'd be doing! [link] [comments]  |
| 23 year old seeking advice on a career in IT Posted: 01 May 2020 09:02 PM PDT Hi everyone! I'm sure you've seen this numerous times but what approach can I take into getting an entry level job as an IT technician with a college degree? I've been seeing sites like udemy and coursera but it kinda seems to good to be true in a sense that you pay $59 a month and you can get a certification. Is there any instances that you guys got IT jobs without a college degree? If so....how and what certs do you have? [link] [comments]  |
| What is YOUR process when it comes to studying for certs? Posted: 01 May 2020 12:26 PM PDT Now with the A+ being available to take online, I want to start preparing myself for it. Currently I'm watching professor Messer's videos and trying to soak it all in. I've always been a poor tester. And even worse at studying. I learn through doing, and I can't really afford to set up a home lab at the moment. What are some ways you have found success in studying for certs? I'm looking for some out of the box ways, or just whatever worked best for you. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| A career in intelligence agencies or think tanks for someone in Machine Learning? Posted: 01 May 2020 09:57 PM PDT Hello, I'm finishing my Master's degree in Machine Learning at a top Canadian university and I'm about to start my PhD at a top UK institution. I was previously thinking about working in tech companies or banks, but I was wondering if I could find a job in:
I am interested in these kinds of jobs because I would like to help and make a difference in the world. I don't just see myself doing academic research and publishing articles. More about myself: I'm physically fit, but I'm by no means an athlete. I don't mind putting my life in danger (in a reasonable way), but I don't know how to fight and I don't think I would be good at it. I have no criminal record. I am a Canadian. I can apply for American citizenship. I speak English and French, and I don't mind learning another language. The salary is important to me, but I understand that these jobs will pay much less than working in tech companies or banks. I would like to know more about the opportunities available to me, but I don't know where to start. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| What programming language / skills is best to learn if I wanted to specialize in Azure cloud? Posted: 01 May 2020 09:20 PM PDT I am thinking about going down the Azure cloud certification path. I don't have any certifications at the moment, but about 3-4 years in IT Support. Was thinking about picking up a programming language and was wondering what's best to learn if I am trying to get into Azure cloud? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 09:17 PM PDT Pretty much the title. I'm a senior IT major who is starting senior year in the fall and I was planning on getting an internship this summer but due to COVID it appears everything's cancelled. I thought I'd make use of my time and work on some certifications this summer. My concentration is mainly in the area of data analytics and I also enjoy programming in Java. I was wondering what certifications I can get in the mean time that could get me noticed and hired quickly after grad. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 05:17 PM PDT What would my time best be spent on? My employer (not IT) is willing to pay for a degree in Information Management Systems, though I'd have to pay for any certifications myself. Which would be more valuable to me when trying to get an entry level job? [link] [comments]  |
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