M.S. in Information Assurance

Brain_Power

What is your opinion on obtaining a security position, once a M.S. in Information Assurance has been achieved?

If someone graduates from a prominent M.S. Information Assurance program, will a security position be difficult to acquire?

What is expected job outlook for 2012 & 2013 for security specialists and security engineers?

idr0p

I think its hard to say, it depends on your experience and things such as certifications. I feel it is sorta of hard to not get a entry level job without experience now-a-days.

the_Grinch

Experience is going to be the largest factor in getting a position. That being said, I feel that if you had a Masters in Information Assurance and a couple of years of general IT experience (as a Systems/Network Admin) you wouldn't have a problem getting a position. I see a lot of posting that prefer security experience, but make IT experience the minimum. I'm interviewing for a forensics position based off of IT experience and my college degree, so it does happen.

Brain_Power

What is your opinion on a M.S. in Systems Engineering degree?

Do you think a M.S. in Systems Engineering would have a different outcome?

universalfrost

with an MS in IA you still need some experience in the security related field and some certs really help. I have a buddy (we both started working for the DoD at the same time and same agency) and he has an MS in IA and about 20 years of basic IT experience, but no IA certs or background.... ME, I have an MS in Information Systems Engineering, at the time I had 8 years IT and about 4 or it was directly IA related.

I ended up working on IA related programs (leading teams that did red and blue team, hardening systems, running scans such as gold disk, retina, using nessus, etc...) . My buddy got stuck doing generic interoperability testing and 6 years later he still is barely scratching the surface of teh IA realm. This is due to the fact that he just doesn't want to get the certs (I even gave him my sec+ books , and a cissp book) and he doesn't think that you need to have anything more than a degree.

moral of the story is get a degree in either field, get the certs and then apply the knowledge from the degree and certs. If you work DoD, then get the cissp and/or cism then move on to the ethical hacker.. If you are in the private sector still get the cissp, but go for your SANS courses and certs and look at the forensics side of IA....

For me, I wish I was back in teh IA realm (switched jobs and it was a bad decison) and I am moving back that direction but getting more certs along the way. I think the systems engineering degree would be better used as a generalist in the IT/IS world and you can always use your certs to get you into the deeper end of IA. plus the engineering degree would allow you to go after a broader market of jobs and careers, both now and in the future.

Brain_Power

universalfrost wrote: »

I think the systems engineering degree would be better used as a generalist in the IT/IS world and you can always use your certs to get you into the deeper end of IA. plus the engineering degree would allow you to go after a broader market of jobs and careers, both now and in the future.

If you had a choice between M.S. in Information Assurance and M.S. in Systems Engineering, which one would you choose?

universalfrost

on my own personal experiences i would get the MS in systems engineering and then get the IA certs. that way you have both fields covered and nowadays they are looking for senior system engineers with an IA background to properly design or rebuild the networks or systems with the IA aspect in mind.

here is another viewpoint. the IA section at my organization is full of folks with IA related degrees and certs, but the boss is an engineer with his CISM and CISSP and previous work experience in the IA realm....

Devilry

universalfrost,

with a M.S. in IA, 3 years sys admin exp, CISSP and CISM, what do you think salary range is getting into the security field in the southeast?