Financial analyst with interest in tech

DanteA · July 2016

Hello,
This might sound weird but I am a "lawyer turned chartered financial analyst" who wants to move into tech industry. Let's put my previous career disappointments on a side

.

Back in high school I used to do some basic programming (ansi C, PHP etc.) and I am relatively compute-literate (I used to run Linux at home, play around with rasp-pi etc.).

I was hoping to boost my CV, make it more tech-friendly, and I thought that collecting a few certifications wouldn't hurt. The question is, though - which ones?

I have read through this forum and it seems like lots of people do Sec+, MCSA and CEH. However, MCSA is discontinued (from what I understand) and CEH is unavailable to people without 5y of IT experience, which would mean that I can only do Sec+. Having skimmed through the book, it seems like I could pass it within a few weeks.... let's be more ambitious!

Thus, I would appreciate if you could advice me on general network administration / security / other certificates which are respected in the industry and which could be a good addition to the CV of a business person who is hoping to land a job in tech industry (probably in client engagement / management / etc. role).

Best,
Dante

DanteA · July 2016

[Correction (I can't edit my own posts?): I have just found out that you can do CEH approved training and then take the exam without any professional experience. But the main question still stands.]

kiki162 · July 2016

Can you be a little more specific on the "client engagement / management" type of role. If you are looking for more of a IT governance, risk, and compliance role, you could go for CISA, CISM, CISSP etc. However since they all have a experience requirement take a look at this page

https://www.isc2.org/cissp-professional-experience.aspx
How to Become CISA Certified

Not sure how many years experience you have between being a lawyer and financial analyst, but you may or may not be able to pull it off.

If you want to start at the bottom... try this route first Sec+ >MCSE > SSCP > GSEC

636-555-3226 · July 2016

CEH is good for resumes, but I'd avoid it as a move to learn more about cybersecurity. People here have an either love it or hate it relationship with EC-Council, most on the hate side.

If you want to do client engagement it sounds like sales/sales engineer might be a good start. Pick a technology and get really really good at it.

DanteA · August 2016

Hi,
Thank you for your replies.

I think what I am looking for is not something necessarily role-specific, but something which would indicate my interest in, and dedication to, the field of IT - to differentiate myself from other people in my field.

@635: I think your advice is spot-on and gaining understanding of the technology I would be selling/working with/etc. would probably be most useful. The problem is that, apart from the biggest/product-focused places (Microsoft, Salesforce etc.), and unless I know precisely to which company I will be moving, it is difficult to choose and master one particular technology. I think that a lot of tech startups (where I know I can find some good opportunities, given my diverse/weird background) focus on big data, the internet of things and and/or security, which is why I thought about gaining some certifications in those.

The route Sec+ -> CCNA -> SSCP seems to be quite popular/standard (CISSP would be out of reach, because of the experience requirement). Am I on the right track? Anything else worth pursuing? It is a pity that MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) does not exist any more, as it seemed to be a nice, generalist certification.

Kyrak · August 2016

DanteA wrote: »

Hi,
Thank you for your replies.

I think what I am looking for is not something necessarily role-specific, but something which would indicate my interest in, and dedication to, the field of IT - to differentiate myself from other people in my field.

@635: I think your advice is spot-on and gaining understanding of the technology I would be selling/working with/etc. would probably be most useful. The problem is that, apart from the biggest/product-focused places (Microsoft, Salesforce etc.), and unless I know precisely to which company I will be moving, it is difficult to choose and master one particular technology. I think that a lot of tech startups (where I know I can find some good opportunities, given my diverse/weird background) focus on big data, the internet of things and and/or security, which is why I thought about gaining some certifications in those.

The route Sec+ -> CCNA -> SSCP seems to be quite popular/standard (CISSP would be out of reach, because of the experience requirement). Am I on the right track? Anything else worth pursuing? It is a pity that MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) does not exist any more, as it seemed to be a nice, generalist certification.

If you have done a bit of research (which it seems you have) you know that the MCSA has been resurrected as the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (which has the same abbreviation and a lot of the same type of content that the old MCSA had). I just obtained my MCSA in Windows Server 2012 a few months ago. If you are just looking for something for tech "street credibility" in your current career and not trying to move all the way into a technical role, I think CCNA or MCSA / MCSE would do the trick. CCNA is definitely easier (1 or 2 exams instead of 3 or 5) and you may want to do Network+ before the CCNA since it will ease you into a lot of the fundamentals you will need to know.

If you want to get into Big Data, then check out the MCSE Business Intelligence or Data Platform (which is a SQL Server based cert track).
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/sql-certification.aspx

Security is a different beast as well, but I think the path you have would work (although you may want Network+ in there if you don't have the fundamentals down)

The problem of differentiating yourself is real since there are tons and tons of people that have the A+, N+, and S+. So while I think those might be important if you don't already have the skill sets, adding your CCNA then your MCSA / MCSE would be the way to go. The most critical thing is to start getting relevant experience as soon as you can because the certs don't mean much without some experience to go with them.

Financial analyst with interest in tech

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