IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

Mirin4rmfar

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Once interviewed someone who couldn't tell me what the CIA triad was.
Literally the first question, I watched his soul leave his body

Lol these questions are honestly kinda garbage. The average security professional can easily forget what this stands for. Someone can easily say authentication.

Port numbers, definitely not. If u deal with networking n security, you deal with port numbers like 80/443/53 on a daily basis.
 

Splash

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Lol these questions are honestly kinda garbage. The average security professional can easily forget what this stands for. Someone can easily say authentication.

Port numbers, definitely not. If u deal with networking n security, you deal with port numbers like 80/443/53 on a daily basis.

Going into an interview? That's poor.
 
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:dead:@ not knowing any port numbers. I interviewed at a place and they asked me about PKI (public key infastructure) i didn't even know wtf that meant i just made some shyt up and interviewer said "so you don't know much about PKI". I got an offer letter anyway and worked there for 1 year and half

In my defense, I did learn them when I took the Security+ exam but I never had a job were I had to deal with them, so the information left my brain completely. So when I was interviewing for a Vulnerability Analyst position I figured I wouldn't need to memorize them again and took the time to working on other things. So when this was the VERY FIRST QUESTION yes, my soul left my body. There are certain things I will NEVER forget now. Certain port numbers are one of them!
 

CopiousX

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I was on helpdesk for 4 years until I finally got a chance to move into a Sys Admin role and then left for a Sys Engineer position. I doubt you find anybody who's gonna trust you with more than break/fix and password resets with just 6 months of helpdesk experience.

If you are in a solid environment then being on helpdesk might not be that bad. The desktop guys at my job work with office 365, AD, VDI, SCCM, Backups, McAfee ePO/Web Gateway, and tons of other shyt. Almost everything gets offloaded to them at some point.
What i find hilarious about this is that help desk itself doesnt give skillsets that can get you an engineer/admin role. Certainly not at the depth an employer cares about. So its amusing to me that an employer treats 4yrs on the phone any better than 6months on the phone if you got those certs in both cases. From a cursory reading of this thread, it seems like you could knockout sec, net, ccna in a year. Maybe half a year more for the msce stuff. But none of that gaurantees you a good job.


Rather than busting your ass for 4yrs doing irrelivant work while sitting on certs that you recieved
many years prior, it seems more benefitial to just go the traditional cs route while peacefully enjoying student life or pursuing better paying employment until you graduate. Such a graduate is still elligible for that sys admin, net admin, cloud admin role. I mean most of yall in this thread seem smart, studious and motivated enough to to finish traditional college corsework (in Cs or Eng) if you can manage to teach yourself the dry subject matter in those certification tests. So it shouldnt be an issue.


It seems like employers have a strange antagonism with their IT help desk people, thats frankly bizzare both internally within a company and externally. You rarely see this in other industries, except maybe airline pilots. Compare that to how Employers are generally welcoming of fresh CS grads and willingly give them internal internships or accept external interns with nothing but theoretical book knowledge. And with less than 6months doing actual work they are qualified for the 100k+ gigs yall are seeking in this thread.
 
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I had an interview last Friday afternoon, they said next steps were interviewing one more person this week and they will get back to me with the decision. It's Wednesday and I'm sitting here checking my email every hour or so. Leaving out to check my phone for missed calls and voicemails. Man my current job they hired me within an hour of the interview. All this waiting is killing me!
 
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I had an interview last Friday afternoon, they said next steps were interviewing one more person this week and they will get back to me with the decision. It's Wednesday and I'm sitting here checking my email every hour or so. Leaving out to check my phone for missed calls and voicemails. Man my current job they hired me within an hour of the interview. All this waiting is killing me!

YA BOY GOT THE JOB! 37K Salary increase. I'll do at least 2 years here probably to gain experience. I'll try to get my CISA this year also since it will help me get more money for the next job. I'm excited, this is exactly the raise I needed. I'm about to pay off this car. :blessed:
 
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Reppin
Crenshaw P's Coat Hangers
Finally started my tech journey... Earned my first certification.
Pretty much useless, in terms of getting a job (CompTIA ITF+), but a good start in terms of learning how this cert thing works.
Hope to work in more software development and automation, but as long as I can break in... I'll take it.

Next is the A+ cert at the beginning of next month and go from there.
 

BaggerofTea

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Currently in a 4 month bootcamp right now to get my Sec+ and Pentest+. I dont have any background in IT but im breaking into cybersecurity

Excited to lurk this thread and contribute soon


build a home lab around pfsense

its the greatest practice tool you can have

you will learn networking, security and engineering in one
 

BaggerofTea

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Finally started my tech journey... Earned my first certification.
Pretty much useless, in terms of getting a job (CompTIA ITF+), but a good start in terms of learning how this cert thing works.
Hope to work in more software development and automation, but as long as I can break in... I'll take it.

Next is the A+ cert at the beginning of next month and go from there.
:francis: certs do not hold the value people think that they do.
 

Burned Verses

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Got the CCNA coming up in a couple weeks

I've been using Udemy, alphaprep, & bosom to study for about 8 - 9 months. I also learned some exam tricks like drawing out the subnet table.

Anything else I should be looking out for?
 
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:francis: certs do not hold the value people think that they do.
In my eyes certs are just tools for gate keepers to utilize to make sure they do/don't get particular people, or if they can underpay or overpay someone. I've got all my experience experience from work or trying things on my own at home. Never have I got a job based on JUST having a cert. Certs just put me ahead of other people or gave me the requirements to get a position.

Basically it's like a degree.

Speaking of certs, anyone have the CISA? Any suggestions on study materials? I want to get this one by end of summer.
 

Mirin4rmfar

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In my eyes certs are just tools for gate keepers to utilize to make sure they do/don't get particular people, or if they can underpay or overpay someone. I've got all my experience experience from work or trying things on my own at home. Never have I got a job based on JUST having a cert. Certs just put me ahead of other people or gave me the requirements to get a position.

Basically it's like a degree.

Speaking of certs, anyone have the CISA? Any suggestions on study materials? I want to get this one by end of summer.

Just get the official cisa exam bankm youtube and cisa exam notes by madunix
 
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