Changging Carreer - Need Advice

Kawaxi

Hello guys


Its me ... Im a electronics engineer and telecomunications from México, I had CCNA modules at school, I did some C++ and emsambling progamming.

Since I live in an oil industry based city it was fairly easy for me to get a job in Oil Industry but I guess some of you might know the currenty oil bussiness`s situation , rite now Im laid off, 2 months now So I figured I would try to do what really passionates me something about Computers but I dont wanna start from scratch mainly cuz Im just to certain level for a living $$$.


believe or not when I was about 5 yrs and not knowing how to read I was using MS-DOS to start playing a game in my brothe´s computer, Wolfestein! ... back then it was Win 3.1 if Im not mistaken, Always liked technology and computers, when I was about 14 and finally got my own computer, I started trying to learn how to hack and did some very basic stupid like some craks and mainly using trojans, also sniffing and old school stuff.

So I figured I could start studying on android app develpoment Im taking a "certification" with NextUniversity, so now I know little more about java, mainly because I read its demand is growing and because I have some ideas I could try to market, then I Read about certifications so I discovered PEH and PTE and what their salaries were, and I thought it could be a starting point its not a bad salary and you can start at a certain level.

I did a search in Linking and basically there is a position called PEH and other for PET but they all request the certification wich is fine with, of course some others request experience in other stuffs but some dont mention it.

back then there was not youtube and google, only astalavista and altavista so learning was really hard specially for a kid like me,so I was a little skeptical when I read the course is only 40 hours long, and then I read some of your comments about being useless or obsolete.

I still dont know if this could be a solution for me to find a decent job, I Dont know if the fact of having mile2 PEH will be enough for a company to hire you and start a carrer even if you dont have formal experience as an IT guy, Could anyone pls provide some guidence ????.

For sure I dont plan to take only PEH and Im also planning on getting PET and also getting the CCNA and maybe CCNP or even CCIE who knows there is no limit, I like to learn and this is what passionates me . I hope I explained my self and you can help me.



Thanks in advanced.

Kawaxi

Really??? Can´t anyone give me his honest input?

UncleB

Hello Kawaxi, I have never heard of PEH or PET until you mentioned it, but some Googling gives me the impression this is a Professional Ethical Hacker for PEH although I cannot easily find what PET is.

Given that these do not rank on the search engine results and no-one has replied to the thread I get the impression this is not a widely known or adopted set of certifications therefore will not get you any traction in the jobs market.

The industry leader which any employer will recognise is the EC Council certifications for Certified Ethical Hacker and Licensed Penetration Tester, although they are expanding their range of security related certs all the time.

I sat the CEH back in 2008 and it was interesting with some useful skills and tools thrown in but was expensive (something like £400 to register then another £2,000 for the 5 day course).

It gives a good understanding of what the vulnerabilities and attacks are used, the principles behind them (so you need to have a solid understanding of networking and operating system basics to get your head around then) and resources to use when you start the real learning after the course is complete.

Given the massive scope of the field you only touch on the surface of it and need to spend thousands of hours to dig deep into some aspects to be really effective in the role (not that you can't wing it with less experience, but you are going to be like a green recruit in a battle zone and more of a liability than help for some time).

I also found that unless you are focused on security (which is much more boring than you may imagine) then employers often think the CEH is a amateur hacker piece of paper and dismiss it as a hobby - not good for an expensive cert. Before committing a lot of time and money to this route, speak to some people who do it for a living and see what they say.

Where I have hired penetration testers they come in, use their own computer and pretty much sit at their desk for days at a time watching scripts run and writing reports - really dull stuff. They have to sign a lot of non disclosure paperwork to ensure they do not pass on info on our vulnerabilities and in some cases are barred from working with our competitors for a period of time so it can also be restrictive.

When there is an outbreak then we get consultants in from larger companies like Capita who have whole teams of similar experts behind them to come up with as effective a solution as possible in the shortest possible time. We would not consider hiring a local guy with a no-name cert to do this sort of thing as the stakes are too high.

I hope the feedback is of use even if it isn't what you hoped to hear.

thanks
Iain

Kawaxi

Thanks for your time and the answer.

In deed , PEH is the same as CEH and PTE stands for Penetration Testing Engineer, the name varies depending on the school wich will certificate.

My main goal here is getting a job in a new Industry, in this case is IT, the second objetive is to be available to get a decencent salary that is, well Not earning the same as a fresh graduate, so I thought about getting some certs, I found out that with CEH you could earn a decent salary. Ive been working for 8 yrs now and start over in terms of compensations would be quite annoying.

But I guess My biggest question is ... taking CEH will allow me to be hired even if I dont have much of a experience?, Of course the main goal would be to become a great asset but I just need to start somewhere.

I did not realize this path could be some how boring, thanks for pointting that out, but like I said Im just trying to earn some money.

Hope you write back with your comments.

Thanks.

Kawaxi

Also.... I guess Im asking a way of achieving those goals not necessarily through CEH, could be aswell through CIsco maybe achieving CCIE, I dont really know thats why Im asking for advice....