From Helpdesk and A+ to six figures and VP, my personal path, plus some advice (long)

ypark

Thanks for the inspiring write up TheFORCE and congrats on the new job!

I will get there one day and reading about your journey definitely is a big motivation! I hope to post something similar in a few years. Now back to studying..

anhtran35

Great post. Hopefully others will see this path and be inspired to follow. I had a similar path.

kclav

very inspiring. congratulations

UnixGuy

Great story and congrats! You work hard and you deserve this!

Question, what's the difference between Security Officer and Security Officer VP? what does VP entails? (honest question, I really don't know)

fullcrowmoon

beads wrote: »

National average for a CISSP is still little over 120,000 a year. You've encouraged me to stay at the architect role and make the additional, well, more than $110,000.

Congrats on the title!

- b/eads

Hmm. I'm underpaid.

TheFORCE

UnixGuy wrote: »

Great story and congrats! You work hard and you deserve this!

Question, what's the difference between Security Officer and Security Officer VP? what does VP entails? (honest question, I really don't know)

VP(Vice President) is the corporate title that is assigned to the functional title.

dmoore44

fullcrowmoon wrote: »

Hmm. I'm underpaid.

You and me both, apparently.

I wonder how much of of the national average is skewed by the DC area...

UnixGuy

TheFORCE wrote: »

VP(Vice President) is the corporate title that is assigned to the functional title.

Nice so does having the VP title means more money? I'm asking because I want to understand if this is a step up towards management or just a different naming convention?

My understanding of VP is that it's usually associated with finance and executives but I have a very narrow understanding of this so I'm trying to get better handle on how it all works

TheFORCE

UnixGuy wrote: »

Nice so does having the VP title means more money? I'm asking because I want to understand if this is a step up towards management or just a different naming convention?

My understanding of VP is that it's usually associated with finance and executives but I have a very narrow understanding of this so I'm trying to get better handle on how it all works

It varies by company, in many companies VP's are the ones that have teams reporting to them and are considered management, though you can be a manager without a VP title or you can be a VP without having anyone reporting to you, like in my case, but generally yes, a VP is considered a step up towards management. VP's are also paid differently in many companies in terms of bonus, they would be the first to receive a bonus from the allocated pool and whatever remains is then divided to the rest of the employees.

E Double U

@TheForce - I want to be just like you when I grow up.

mzx380

Congratulations on your achievements
I hope to be where you're at one day

TheFORCE

E Double U wrote: »

@TheForce - I want to be just like you when I grow up.

I hope to have your certs when i grow up

beads

TheFORCE wrote: »

VP(Vice President) is the corporate title that is assigned to the functional title.

The real difference between a title and an executive, in all seriousness is D&O insurance. Executives are put on Directors and Officers policy plans so if you screw up the insurance company accepts the liability. The rest of us are merely titled managers with or without supervisees. Also depends on if you have budgetary responsibilities or not. Generally, your assumed to be budget responsible at the Director and above level.

- b/eads

D&O not E&O.

UnixGuy

@Beads/TheFORCE ok I'm sold, I want to be an executive too.

instant000

TheFORCE wrote: »

...

I took the liberty of showing your salary progression in a quick bar graph. I hope you approve.



Combined with your screenname and this thread, you've earned this meme:




Keep up the good work!

Mike7

Congrats and very inspiring.

Totally agree with you on CISSP that it provides a good all-round perspective on infosec and you should do it after gaining some experience.
I really like that "sunscreen" song. Here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

nisti2

Really inspirational history! Thanks for sharing!

And that's the prize of hard working! Congrats!!

echo_time_cat

This is a fantastic thread, and I, like others see some similarities in the things that have "worked".

---
*Investing in yourself

*Choosing the path that will yield experience vs short term financial gain

*Gaining experience in whatever way you can, and using that experience to branch out and get that next job.

*Continually educating yourself
---

There was a time when I was offered a non-technical job that would have paid me more, but I really wanted to stay in the IT field, so I took a pay cut to get experience. I wondered if I would regret that decision, but within a year I was making more in IT anyways (and were talking ~37k here, so nothing great).

Three years later I was able to jump from ~45k to ~65k by pushing myself to learn beyond the boundaries of my role, and gain experience in areas that others around me would take a look at and shrug their shoulders. I took that added experience, applied for another job, and received an offer that still excites me 1 month into the new gig (for a lot of reasons, not just pay). My former co-workers ask me how they can get a job where I am at now... and I don't know how to answer because I like them as people but technically they were the lazy type who wouldn't dig into anything and would make 1 line ticket updates involving complex networks.

Anyways.... it's nice to see a trend and from what others have posted, I can't wait to see what happens with my own career progression 2-3 years from now.

Cheers to you TheForce!

superbeast

Normally, if I see a long post. I tend to skim key words and then get bored and click out of it. Your story though was very captivating though. Being 32 and figuring out IT was the industry I wanted to pursue(decided at 2, your story is one that will stick with me. I've finally landed my first IT Support Role and left an insurance claims position at a big insurance provider to work as an IT Support position for an office that has 11 people(myself included). The growth isn't there for me to move up since I am basically the IT dept for this company, but for an industry where "entry level" is obsolete and most job postings require some sort of experience/certs/degree, I found this as a golden opportunity. Just like yourself, I am soaking up as much information as possible to expand my knowledge in this position.

This post was extremely motivational to never stop working for your goals no matter what obstacles stand in your way. I appreciate how you were rehired at company 2 but did not try to negotiate your salary despite earning a degree. That shows that no job is beneath you and your work no matter what position will show your true sense of character. Thank you again for sharing your story.

--chris--

beads wrote: »

The real difference between a title and an executive, in all seriousness is D&O insurance. Executives are put on Directors and Officers policy plans so if you screw up the insurance company accepts the liability. The rest of us are merely titled managers with or without supervisees. Also depends on if you have budgetary responsibilities or not. Generally, your assumed to be budget responsible at the Director and above level.

- b/eads

D&O not E&O.

Not to diminish OP's position or other VPs, but I felt posting this would help illustrate how absurd titles can be....anyways:

I know the VP of Citrix personally. The VP of Citrix at a bank in Detroit...lol. Every department manager and lead engineer is called a "VP" for some reason. EVERY SINGLE ONE. They have dozens of VPs.

Trucido

--chris-- wrote: »

Not to diminish OP's position or other VPs, but I felt posting this would help illustrate how absurd titles can be....anyways:

I know the VP of Citrix personally. The VP of Citrix at a bank in Detroit...lol. Every department manager and lead engineer is called a "VP" for some reason. EVERY SINGLE ONE. They have dozens of VPs.

Yeah, I work at a bank and it seems instead of "manager" or "director" they prefer to use "Vice President" its kind of silly really.

TranceSoulBrother

To dogpile gently @ TheForce, I leave you with this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cISYzA36-ZY

Linguistics

--chris-- wrote: »

Not to diminish OP's position or other VPs, but I felt posting this would help illustrate how absurd titles can be....anyways:

I know the VP of Citrix personally. The VP of Citrix at a bank in Detroit...lol. Every department manager and lead engineer is called a "VP" for some reason. EVERY SINGLE ONE. They have dozens of VPs.

Yeah but there is a difference in VP of the poker club and VP of an IT company.
Op, where are you living, approximately, not exact.
The issue here is that living in the southern US isn't going to exactly net you that income no matter what unless you have certain qualities that others are looking for that have nothing to do with education or experience, i.e. kissing butt, race, and sexual orientation.

YesOffense

Yeah but once you have that title, you have it. Banks do the titling like that all the time. I've seen folks build on that smaller role VP position to much larger ones with fortune 500 or other large IT companies.

pinksj

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience.

dizzy_kitty

Well worth the read. Very encouraging! Thanks for sharing your story

Mike-Mike

this just confirmed to me that I need to go ahead and get my CISSP, congrats