Systems admin or Information security analyst?

Hey Guys,

I post this here coz i am a systems admin right now but within our dept there is a information security analyst position open.

I am a computer science engineer and have a masters in Information technology with Infrastructure assurance as my major. They know that and are kinda giving my hints to move to their team.

Its a medical organization (really HUGE! and has only 3 IA people) and are looking for a 4th one who wud be a jr guy but considering my masters i dont think so.

the problem is due ot my varied knoweldge i am not sure about which to choose. I am good at learnign new things and systems and servers but also i think IA is cool with all the forensics, seminars and teachings and paperwork, assuring the architecture and learning laws and all.

pay is atleast 3k perannum higher than the systems admin job.

What do i do.

I havebeen a sys admin for almost 6 months here now.

pls advice, i am tryign to see which is more beneficial for my future path.. like not havign trouble to find jobs down the line kind

Thanks
RJ

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RTmarc

What interests you more? It's usually just that easy.

ranjitcool

RTmarc wrote: »

What interests you more? It's usually just that easy.

Thanks for the reply RTmarc, well i like working with diff stuff like the other day i was loading up a website on a linux servers and once done i was slapped a zenoss project. I learned a lot as i was doing all these like looking back a month ago i didnt even know what zenoss was..!

but then i kinda debate it out saying i ve never actually worked in IS/IA and may be donno how interesting that might be.. but i know i wont be doing all the cool stuff liek loading up servers and all.. IA is more half security half public relations makes sense? all those seminars and all kinda interest me anad they do scans on network and all.. but wud u say it cud get boring?

RJ

skrpune

is there a way you could convince them to let you shadow one of the current IS/IA folks for a little bit to see what the job entails? Or can you talk to them to see what their average day/month/week is like? That would give you some better insight into whether it's something that you'd like to do long term. It would suck if you go for it, got the job, hated it, and couldn't move back to your old position because they hired someone else...

ranjitcool

skrpune wrote: »

is there a way you could convince them to let you shadow one of the current IS/IA folks for a little bit to see what the job entails? Or can you talk to them to see what their average day/month/week is like? That would give you some better insight into whether it's something that you'd like to do long term. It would suck if you go for it, got the job, hated it, and couldn't move back to your old position because they hired someone else...

Hey skrpune, you are right, but from your knowledge what do u think? which one fares better?

skrpune

ranjitcool wrote: »

Hey skrpune, you are right, but from your knowledge what do u think? which one fares better?

I honestly couldn't say. But if I had to guess, I'd go with security-related positions as being more desirable. Security is becoming quite the buzz word...