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Could really use some advice
sabreghost
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
Please forgive the length, I figure for the best advice a little background is probably in order.
I spent just under 8 years in the military, half of that working in communications. While the majority of the work consisted of working with radios, there was some basic networking involved. The other half, I worked as recon and gained quite a bit of skill with physical security, and assessing it. Afterwards I moved on to Vegas where I consistently doubled my paychecks (from a job as security) with my skills reading (and playing) people in poker games, then to a school which appeared to have a pretty good degree program geared towards network security.
I tested out of some basic classes, such as an A+ oriented class, and talked my way past the prereqs of others (such as social engineering). By the end of the second semester having participated in the DC group and working with some of the seniors, it became clear that the school wasn't going to teach me all that much, at least not until around the 4th year and that they were teaching some things which were completely incorrect (which I believe has to do with the fact that a few former students were previously involved in some high profile breaches). When comparing the relative knowledge I'd obtain at the school vs the cost to attend (the amount of debt recommended an average salary well above industry averages) I decided it would be a better idea to move on, and if need be pick up a lower end job while I work on my own to obtain some certifications.
So I enrolled for eLearnSecurity's cert shortly before leaving, and landed a job at a help desk doing some troubleshooting, malware removal, network config, etc. It didn't pay much, but it definitely would have enabled me to afford to pay for a few certs which I could then hopefully use to land something better. Unfortunately shortly after I began working the job the largest contract decided to cut the services we were providing. In response the company I was working for canned ~300 of us with absolutely no warning so that they could replace us with untrained employees both here and abroad for under $10/hr. All the money I'd been putting aside for certs etc ended up having to be used to cover rent while I looked for work that could keep a roof over my head - but in the end I wound up getting evicted anyway as work is pretty hard to come by in this area, much less work that actually pays a decent wage.
So now here I am trying to get by on ~$160/week from unemployment. I'm lucky enough to have a place to stay until I land some work... but so far that search has been pretty fruitless. My resume is pretty solid, and typically when I apply I use OSINT to determine who I should address with my resume and cover letter. So far the only response I've gotten was for an entry level position at Tenable. They wrote back and said I'd be a great employee for someone, but that the position had already been filled.
Unfortunately this is the only feedback I've gotten thus far, so I'm pretty much stuck. I'm pretty sure the lack of certs and not having that fancy degree is hurting me. At the same time though being unable to find work that pays enough to put a roof over my head and actually have something left over prevents me from throwing down on expensive certs. My time for the eLearnSecurity exam has run out (was a little preoccupied with all the job drama & job searching), so regardless of the direction I go I'm looking at a minimum amount which exceeds my income - by a lot. I did however happen across the certs at security tube, the WiFi Security Expert and Metasploit Framework Expert, both of which are a lot more affordable (and actually doable given the circumstances), but I'm not sure whether or not being able to list those would be beneficial or not. Given that I have a lot of time on my hands I've been diving into videos and books like crazy - and occasionally considered writing some simple tools like pw cracking, sql injection, etc... but I'm really not sure how much that will help for landing a job. Likewise, outside of people contracting with Uncle Sam, I'm not sure whether mentioning the military experience is harming or helping. I've heard quite a few stories of HR employees being intimidated thinking all vets have extreme news worthy levels of PTSD, and as a result skipping over people who are obviously vets. I'm not sure if this is a factor or not.
Anyone have some advice on what I could do to land a job in the industry? I'd like to get some certs, but most are out of reach, at least for the time being. Quite honestly, at this point anything is better than nothing. I've even looked at other help desk type jobs - and every single one (in this area) requires multiple certs. I'd love nothing more than to be able find my way into pentesting (especially using SE), but at this point I'm having trouble even getting a response from... well even minimum wage call center tech support.
I spent just under 8 years in the military, half of that working in communications. While the majority of the work consisted of working with radios, there was some basic networking involved. The other half, I worked as recon and gained quite a bit of skill with physical security, and assessing it. Afterwards I moved on to Vegas where I consistently doubled my paychecks (from a job as security) with my skills reading (and playing) people in poker games, then to a school which appeared to have a pretty good degree program geared towards network security.
I tested out of some basic classes, such as an A+ oriented class, and talked my way past the prereqs of others (such as social engineering). By the end of the second semester having participated in the DC group and working with some of the seniors, it became clear that the school wasn't going to teach me all that much, at least not until around the 4th year and that they were teaching some things which were completely incorrect (which I believe has to do with the fact that a few former students were previously involved in some high profile breaches). When comparing the relative knowledge I'd obtain at the school vs the cost to attend (the amount of debt recommended an average salary well above industry averages) I decided it would be a better idea to move on, and if need be pick up a lower end job while I work on my own to obtain some certifications.
So I enrolled for eLearnSecurity's cert shortly before leaving, and landed a job at a help desk doing some troubleshooting, malware removal, network config, etc. It didn't pay much, but it definitely would have enabled me to afford to pay for a few certs which I could then hopefully use to land something better. Unfortunately shortly after I began working the job the largest contract decided to cut the services we were providing. In response the company I was working for canned ~300 of us with absolutely no warning so that they could replace us with untrained employees both here and abroad for under $10/hr. All the money I'd been putting aside for certs etc ended up having to be used to cover rent while I looked for work that could keep a roof over my head - but in the end I wound up getting evicted anyway as work is pretty hard to come by in this area, much less work that actually pays a decent wage.
So now here I am trying to get by on ~$160/week from unemployment. I'm lucky enough to have a place to stay until I land some work... but so far that search has been pretty fruitless. My resume is pretty solid, and typically when I apply I use OSINT to determine who I should address with my resume and cover letter. So far the only response I've gotten was for an entry level position at Tenable. They wrote back and said I'd be a great employee for someone, but that the position had already been filled.
Unfortunately this is the only feedback I've gotten thus far, so I'm pretty much stuck. I'm pretty sure the lack of certs and not having that fancy degree is hurting me. At the same time though being unable to find work that pays enough to put a roof over my head and actually have something left over prevents me from throwing down on expensive certs. My time for the eLearnSecurity exam has run out (was a little preoccupied with all the job drama & job searching), so regardless of the direction I go I'm looking at a minimum amount which exceeds my income - by a lot. I did however happen across the certs at security tube, the WiFi Security Expert and Metasploit Framework Expert, both of which are a lot more affordable (and actually doable given the circumstances), but I'm not sure whether or not being able to list those would be beneficial or not. Given that I have a lot of time on my hands I've been diving into videos and books like crazy - and occasionally considered writing some simple tools like pw cracking, sql injection, etc... but I'm really not sure how much that will help for landing a job. Likewise, outside of people contracting with Uncle Sam, I'm not sure whether mentioning the military experience is harming or helping. I've heard quite a few stories of HR employees being intimidated thinking all vets have extreme news worthy levels of PTSD, and as a result skipping over people who are obviously vets. I'm not sure if this is a factor or not.
Anyone have some advice on what I could do to land a job in the industry? I'd like to get some certs, but most are out of reach, at least for the time being. Quite honestly, at this point anything is better than nothing. I've even looked at other help desk type jobs - and every single one (in this area) requires multiple certs. I'd love nothing more than to be able find my way into pentesting (especially using SE), but at this point I'm having trouble even getting a response from... well even minimum wage call center tech support.
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Optionsbhoops
Member Posts: 41 ■■□□□□□□□□
If you have a car, computer, and time to figure things out - why not go in to business for yourself? Maybe develop a "security review" that you can do for small businesses for $299. Get your first clients though vet networks. Focus on wealthy independent business owners like plumbers and dentists.