Ended up in non-technical security, how to hands on stuff

infoscrub

I'll try to keep the backstory short and sweet, I finished with a liberal arts degree while in the national guard. I did a mix of helpdesk, compliance and patching with the guard during the summer/once a month. I do tech related things as a hobby.
I got a job with my base after I graduated and have a nice "cybersecurity" title but I mostly do paperwork, act as a middleman and provide guidance in the form of searching through NIST, DoD and vendor documents to spit out relevant information to the hands on side of the house. I get to do some work with active directory and PKI but I'm limited.

I've been doing self study for CISSP because it is a job requirement but I feel like I am drifting farther and farther away from what I want to do- create, fix, learn, design and implement. I feel like I keep adding to the list of things I know of but don't know how to do.

When I first graduated I had the odd experience where helpdesk/junior IT roles wouldn't respond to my applications but I had a fairly steady stream of jobs with security in the title calling me back- even ones I was woefully under experienced for. This hasn't seemed to change and I am worried because I can see a clear career path where I never get to the tech side of the house.

I am considering my options for getting out of the management/policy role and getting the knowledge and experience to get the type of work I want. I am considering going back to school for CS to do software dev, transferring guard units(would lose my job) and retraining to "cyberwarfare" or even sequestering myself for a year of self study and looking for a job when I have some certs and a great lab. Every option feels like I'd be starting over and its very conceivable I'd need to take a pay cut after accomplishing these. Any advice or suggestions?

Cyberscum

infoscrub wrote: »

I'll try to keep the backstory short and sweet, I finished with a liberal arts degree while in the national guard. I did a mix of helpdesk, compliance and patching with the guard during the summer/once a month. I do tech related things as a hobby.
I got a job with my base after I graduated and have a nice "cybersecurity" title but I mostly do paperwork, act as a middleman and provide guidance in the form of searching through NIST, DoD and vendor documents to spit out relevant information to the hands on side of the house. I get to do some work with active directory and PKI but I'm limited.

I've been doing self study for CISSP because it is a job requirement but I feel like I am drifting farther and farther away from what I want to do- create, fix, learn, design and implement. I feel like I keep adding to the list of things I know of but don't know how to do.

When I first graduated I had the odd experience where helpdesk/junior IT roles wouldn't respond to my applications but I had a fairly steady stream of jobs with security in the title calling me back- even ones I was woefully under experienced for. This hasn't seemed to change and I am worried because I can see a clear career path where I never get to the tech side of the house.

I am considering my options for getting out of the management/policy role and getting the knowledge and experience to get the type of work I want. I am considering going back to school for CS to do software dev, transferring guard units(would lose my job) and retraining to "cyberwarfare" or even sequestering myself for a year of self study and looking for a job when I have some certs and a great lab. Every option feels like I'd be starting over and its very conceivable I'd need to take a pay cut after accomplishing these. Any advice or suggestions?

Try and switch over to sys admin while using your clearance as leverage. I had the same route as you by starting guard. I hated GRC work and found a nice sys admin job that I enjoy.

Last week we installed and tested a VTC/VOIP combo to include switch, fiber, router and all configs in a secure environment and I will tell you that the gov is very limited in finding people to do this work that are cleared.

You should be able to snag an admin job with your exp but you might need to work contract work first.