Weekly thread for any and all career, learning and general guidance questions. Thinking of taking a training or going for a cert? Wondering how to level up your career? Wondering what NOT to do? Got other questions? This is the time and place to ask!
I’ve been interested in getting into cybersecurity. so far I’ve completed an IT support and Data analytics professional certificate programs along with about 10 other classes on Coursera. I’m currently about halfway through the cybersecurity certificate program. I plan to complete an intermediate program that focuses on networking as well. a goal I have this year is to get my Security+ cert. additionally, I think I can get a couple certifications from Microsoft Learn as they are less expensive. I’ve been dabbling with the lessons on Hack the Box and Try Hack Me too. I’m interested in getting experience with AWS, Azure, and GCP. I’m not sure if that would be too much though. I’m very limited financially and live in a rural area, so my options are limited.
my question is: what could I do different to aquire the skills & experience needed for employment?
For folks in your position, I typically share this post I wrote on getting into infosec. https://shellsharks.com/getting-into-information-security. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions after!
wow, great resource! thanks! it seems like I’m generally on the right track, which is a good feeling. I’ll continue working on my foundational skills and get my sec+ this year. I’m lacking when it comes to networking with others. being a noob, I don’t really have anything to contribute to the community. I’ll use your guide to address that. thanks again!
Do you currently work in IT?
no. I’m a carpenter. I worked from home briefly in IT support but found better wages in the trades.
I would also recommend the homelab or self host communities. There, you can get ideas for running software on very small or cheap systems. If you’re into trades, I wonder if you are a hands on learner? There’s tons of ways you run some of the things you’ll be learning at home and for free with open source.
bumping this - labbing is the way to go. get some lenovo tinys or dell optiplex micros - minimum 3 if you want to experiment with clustering and HA/failover scenarios. you can sometimes find them at recyclers or being sold as lots on ebay. anything with an i5 6th gen or better for lower power consumption, minimum 8GB ram/machine, maybe 256GB SSD.
build out a sick *arr server to replace your streaming subscriptions.
build a pihole container to cut down ads and unknown telemetry data from your smart devices.
build everything - learn linux, containerization, spin up Windows Server VMs using the evaluation copies - the world is your oyster. :-)
my dad was a carpenter, god rest his soul - i hope you find the same passion for technology as that man did for a power tool.
that sounds very interesting! I’ll look into that. thank you