Next Steps of career

Z0sickx

Thought I'd post this topic here, I'm in Government Contracting and have my SEC+,CASP, CEH, and working on my CISSP. for the most part these are just checkboxes for what is a requirement for a lot of contracts here in the DC region. Did I learn getting these certs, yes its definitely opened up different views, do i actually get to use any of them on a daily basis? No, just a very small 1% to my particular line of work. Once i get my CISSP, i'm a little stuck as what "mountain" i should climb next, i eventually want to get out and do something different technical wise, since I've been using the same Vulnerability tool at varying levels, Tech support, engineering the architecture solution, and daily maintenance of the enterprise. Basically i've been in technical position the last 6 years with this year being the first as Senior Engineer

What I am looking to get from the community is what advice or tips can i do or ask (end year review is coming soon) to evolve my Security Career that will help me grow, i don't see certifications as great path for ROI after CISSP, so i'm looking for other avenues

Thanks

Verities

I'm already starting to hear about security positions within the DoD for AWS GovCloud.

kiki162

There's plenty of avenues you can travel after CISSP. The bigger question is where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Do you want to continue what you are doing or transition into a different area of IT. Getting into SANS courses would be a good next step for you, and since you have a SA background, you could get into RHCE if you have Linux experience.

Z0sickx

I'd love to go the Penetration Testing route first thing i wanted to tackle to get to that point was CISSP then OSCP but i don't want to take a pay cut and work my way up (I understand that would potentially have to be a sacrafice to get in the business). It would be awesome to have RHSA/RHSE but when i was studying for my Linux+ I though the material was bland and i got bored. If the pen testing route doesn't open up then i would not mind going a more technical management position, definitely willing to travel anywhere around the united States or OCONUS to get what i want since i have no committements