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I believe my current path based on jobs that I'm looking at in my area... Sec+ and A+ will be the certifications I need to focus on
This would put me in a great position to get a Helpdesk job to start cutting my teeth in the industry.

I believe a job as a GRC or SOC Analyst is an option as well, given my skillets. Sometimes and we all know this, You got to reevaluate and then reengage.
 


This is the discounted website

Basically it takes off about $20 depending on the test




Tech Gee a real one, that’s where I been getting my study materials for the Security+.
 
So my Job trying to move me to a different team as a Senior Information Specialist. They dont know that I know they make 40k more than my current position. They been having me in their meetings preparing me and transitioning me for the switch, but I aint seen no offer yet for the title change. I aint going over there if they don't pay me more.
 
Good morning fellas,

I've been reading some articles the past couple of days about zero trust.. With regards to protection strategies and plans. Never trust always verify is essentially what it comes down to. Makes a lot of sense, Many components to it though.
 
Fellas, watch the first 23m of the video



Person says you don't need certs to get in the door for a help desk job. I will ready my resume and apply.


There’s people who try to steer others from help desk but fuck it, it’s a foot in the door and it doesn’t have to last forever.

Also for those trying to get Security+ (like me), the current version of the exam is being retired July 31st. So get in where ya fit in now. I literally dropped everything I was doing to start studying for that shit today once I heard that.
 
There’s people who try to steer others from help desk but fuck it, it’s a foot in the door and it doesn’t have to last forever.

Also for those trying to get Security+ (like me), the current version of the exam is being retired July 31st. So get in where ya fit in now. I literally dropped everything I was doing to start studying for that shit today once I heard that.
Facts, I was like a busy bee studying all the cybersecurity courses, but yeah I'm rerouting. My interview skills are much better as my confidence has grown. I know what I want to tell the hiring manager.

The job I'm looking at is at a children's hospital, which hospitals always need "front end" tech support. This may be a good opportunity, can't wait to hit submit
 
Just started this new job that isn’t IT related but I would be traveling regularly but making a good amount of money and I know a help desk job wouldn’t pay me that much. I desperately need the money so I’m gonna be going that job and still going for a few certifications
 
There’s people who try to steer others from help desk but fuck it, it’s a foot in the door and it doesn’t have to last forever.

Also for those trying to get Security+ (like me), the current version of the exam is being retired July 31st. So get in where ya fit in now. I literally dropped everything I was doing to start studying for that shit today once I heard that.

Nothing wrong with help desk, just dont get stuck there and it will wear you down. I started in HD and used that experience to move to Sys Admin and eventually Cyber. Technically you can go straight to Cyber, but getting people to take a chance is the hardest battle.

I got my job to start looking for Help Desk and Sys Admins experience for the Junior Cyber Analyst jobs because i know they can do it.
 
I retired from the IT/Cyber grind but I still got young folks reaching out to me, wasting their time trying to learn "skills" because old timers still wanna gatekeep because they had to do it the hard way. Languishing in the Help Desk or the SOC for 10 years before reaching the big boy jobs.

There are varieties of the Hard Way

The traditional hard way = Help Desk to System Administrator to Network Engineer to Information Security Officer or Cybersecurity Analyst

This takes about 10 years, imagine the time you are wasting. Imagine the salary you are forgoing. A Cybersecurity Analyst makes about 80K a year? You gonna wait 10 years to get 80K?

The SOC Analyst Hard Hard Way = Help Desk to System Administrator to SOC Analyst to Information Security Officer or Cybersecurity Analyst

This might take you 8 years. So you get to the money faster but you gonna go spend bulk of your time in the SOC. You don't wanna be in the SOC. It's a low budget, low vibration environment, with no windows and 12 hour shifts.

Now there are some SOCs, where you make 100K a year on a 4 Days/ 10 Hour schedule. Most are not like that. On top of that, you don't learn shit in a SOC besides more networking, incident response, threat hunting and these are not high paying skills in 2024 and beyond.

We want the fucking money as fast as possible.

So, you can do what I call, the Six Figure Hard Way.

Six Figure Hard Way = Help Desk to System Administrator to DevOps Role (SRE, Infrastructure, Platform or whatever) to Cloud Security Engineer

This way is still hard, but the goal is to get out of the Help Desk fast as possible because fuck the Help Desk. To do this, don't waste your time on the A+, you'll get the Network+ and Security+ first because the content goes together. A+ is two tests and a waste of fucking time.

Six Figure Hard Way Certification Path = Network+ to Security+ to RHSCA to AWS Solutions Architect Associate to AWS Solutions Architect Professional to CISSP

(You have to renew your Security+, get CASP+ or Pentest+ or CySA+ but these certs don't add to your salary. CISSP does and we only care about certs that leads to money.)

This will take you about 8 years, but by the time you reach DevOps Role, you should be making six figures in a MCOL area. Then you jump to Cloud Security Engineer for a better quality of life. This is why you get your CISSP to prepare you for a manager role, working from home, sitting in meetings, avoiding layoffs because you know where all the bodies are buried. You are doing contracting on the side, running it up.

If you are 30 something right now, you should be doing it the Six Figures Hard Way. If you are taking the A+ in your 30s and looking for a Help Desk job, you are doing it the wrong way. By the time you get to your cybersecurity role, you'll have bare minimum technical skills and foregone thousands in salary because you are stuck on "cybersecurity".

Get your Network+ and Security+ out the way and focus on system administration and cloud certifications. You need to learn a technology to survive in the industry.

Cybersecurity isn't a technology, it's a discipline. All the cybersecurity certifications don't mean shit if you are useless on a keyboard. A Help Desk job should be something you do for six months to a year. You use that year to study and network. You should be getting a new industry leading certification year.
 
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In addition.

The two most important technical skills in cybersecurity field is system administration and software engineering because cybersecurity is all about securing systems and software.

So when you are looking at your certification path...if you are not picking up system administration skills or software engineering...then what are you actually doing? You are delaying your pathway to the fucking money.

A clear example of this is deciding between the OSCP, which is a network penetration certification and the OSWA, which is a web application penetration certification.

There's a greater demand for web application and mobile application security than network at this point. If you want to be a good mobile application penetration tester, you have to know about computer programming, software engineering and secure coding practices.

So in order to pass OSWA, you will pick up Javascript, CSS, Node.JS and etc. The best thing for you to do would be to create your own web application and secure it and then break it. Create something, put it on GitHub.

You'll pick up computer programming and software engineering, which is a higher paying skill than networking, in order to pass OSWA. You

But if you go about your career and skill development, just studying for certs that don't require high technical skill, you'll look like someone that is just wasting their fucking time on a resume.

You'll have a better return on your time, learning how to build web applications than studying for Security+. You'll have a better return on your time, getting a BS in Computer Science than getting the CISSP.

The time you take to study is money forgone. You are thinking to yourself, "Well the certification is only $400 and the books is $30." Yeah but if you are the type of person that takes 6 months, starting and stopping to get a fucking cert, you might as well go to college. You might as well spend your weekends building web applications. At least you have something to show for it.

It's either you have a cert or you don't have a cert. When you spend 6 months getting a CS degree, you have projects. When you spend 6 months learning web development, you have projects. You spend 6 months studying for a cert and you don't pass or you never take the test because your 6 months of studying, equate to 50 total of hours of bullshitting, you have nothing.
 
If you are trying to transition into cyber and IT and you are spending more time reading the study guide for a cert, instead of doing labs and projects to add to your GitHub and writing blog posts, you are doing it wrong.

Trust me.

You can get a job faster by just having a good project and good communication skills.

It isn't the 2000s anymore.
 
If you are trying to transition into cyber and IT and you are spending more time reading the study guide for a cert, instead of doing labs and projects to add to your GitHub and writing blog posts, you are doing it wrong.

Trust me.

You can get a job faster by just having a good project and good communication skills.

It isn't the 2000s anymore.


I keep forgetting about GitHub. I’m gonna get on that once I buy a new laptop
 
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