One Man Show

Anyone have any experience being the one guy for a medium sized business?

My supervisor is quitting and he was also their compliance officer, so that leaves just me to manage all Security and their entire infrastructure until they hire someone else. I'm a bit intimidated so I'm curious if anyone else has gone through this. I will definitely need to hire another guy to do what I do, so I wouldn't be opposed to hiring a fellow TE member.

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MeanDrunkR2D2

I have no doubt in my mind that you'll find something new in a heartbeat. I just ended week 2 of my job search and have a final interview with a good company that should be great and will pay me nearly 30k more than I get now. I nailed the technical so now I just need to use my normal personality and I'm sure I got the job.

It's not info sec, but it's definitely right in my wheelhouse and alot of directions to grow.

markulous

Congrats! That's quite a pay raise.

On a side note the owner calls me into his room and lets me know he hired someone and they start Monday. Oh of course it can't be that easy...The guy is working in a remote office and has zero IT experience but supposedly is "network certified", whatever that means.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Yikes. Probably the best employee that 25k can present I'm sure. He's probably one of those guys who thinks IT stuff is easy and only morons work in it. Wait until the new guy takes down everything and creates a loss of alot of money.

markulous

Part time call center part time IT I would assume 25k. Somehow me hosting goto meetings and babysitting this guy 1100 miles away increases productivity

EnderWiggin

Well there you go, someone else to have admin rights. No more guilt!

markulous

Lol. I just found out they are breaking FISMA compliance by not separating his duties so this is going to be fun.

TechGromit

EnderWiggin wrote: »

If I were you, I wouldn't even tell them I quit, I'd just stop showing up on day one at the new job.

Funny you should mention that, when i worked for Teksystems and I got hired by the client full time, I just stopped filling out my time sheets. When they questioned it, I just told them I'm no longer filling out time sheets, that was my notice, I hated them so bad.

markulous wrote: »

Lol. I just found out they are breaking FISMA compliance by not separating his duties so this is going to be fun.

Is this a federal agency, or Federal contractor, can't see how this would apply otherwise.

markulous

Yes, we're a federal contractor.

markulous

Had a 2nd interview for a Junior Security Analyst role. 3rd interview won't happen until a week or two, but I'm almost positive I will be invited. It'd be mainly monitoring SIEM alerts and responding to malware remediation. They say that they want to train someone up, so I think I'm in a good spot since I have a good base knowledge and I'm passionate about security. 25% raise and way more benefits to boot.

EnderWiggin

Nice, good luck bud!

markulous

Lol. So now I heard that they want to replace me. They get pissed that I leave "on time" despite me coming in early, taking no breaks, and working weekends. I'm not going to work 70 hours a week when they need to hire 3 other people.

scaredoftests

Seriously, what a bunch of asshats. Sending more positive vibes your way.

markulous

Thanks.

I don't understand their line of thinking. I think what they want is a rockstar senior level net/sys/infosec admin to work for 50k a year (with no benefits) and work 65 hours a week. I have to get out of here quickly.

scaredoftests

short-sighted sons of bitches. grr

GreaterNinja

scaredoftests wrote: »

Seriously, what a bunch of asshats. Sending more positive vibes your way.

My advice, keep looking for a job now...and if you can...let them lay you off so you can collect lots of unemployment. This will give you a buffer to get more certs or school done too :P. Invest in yourself brother.

markulous

Isn't the cap only like $500 a week? Definitely better than just quitting with nothing, but I'd definitely like to avoid unemployment if possible.

Edit: Just got a call for a 3rd interview with this place. It's tomorrow and I'd have to leave an hour early, I'm not sure how to get out of it. Either I just bounce early without telling anyone (although they won't like that) or I just call in.

Edit2: Just got an email for a 2nd interview for another job. Looks like I may be under the weather tomorrow.

EnderWiggin

markulous wrote: »

Looks like I may be under the weather tomorrow.

Oh no, that's terrible, I hope you feel better soon!

scaredoftests

Yes, I hope you feel better REAL soon.

markulous

Thanks. I'm competing against 1 other guy for this role, so I'm guessing I won't know tomorrow, but it'd be nice if I was so sick that I took the rest of the week off because of some good news.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Hope you get over your illness soon. And hopefully we both get some good news on new positions soon. I had my 2nd today which was all behavioral and I felt went well. Should know by the end of next week at the latest, possibly this Friday depending how the other interviews work out.

Good luck hope you can escape soon. And make sure you use up all the PTO you can before you leave because they will make sure you cannot use it. That's one bridge I would be fine with burning and not giving them any notice.

markulous

Good luck to you too. Hopefully you find out this week also.

I don't know if I even have PTO. I think I get a week after I've been there a year.

PJ_Sneakers

Good luck, hope you get outta there soon

MeanDrunkR2D2

So fill us in on today's illness. Hopefully you feel MUCH better and everything went great. (I had a phone interview that went great this morning and already have a 2nd interview scheduled on the 29th.)

BuzzSaw

I stumbled on this thread. I feel like I need to pop some popcorn!

Did things work out?

FWIW: you gotta bounce man. I was in a similar spot once, and it wont get better. Glad you are aggressively pursing other opportunities

stryder144

He hasn't been to the "doctor" yet, so it might be a bit before we find out if the illness will heal quickly or not.

This has, indeed, been one wild ride that I am hoping resolves quickly. Working in such an environment is way too unhealthy.

MeanDrunkR2D2

The word "Toxic" definitely comes to mind. I couldn't imagine working in a place that was like that and luckily have not been a part of such a "dis" Organization. I just hope that when he gets his "cure" that he can make sure that he really makes sure that he can cut his ties in his own way by leaving them high and dry without any sort of help.

markulous

Well they ended up sending me several emails then called me from several different numbers. I'm curious what they are going to say to me tomorrow. The owner isn't afraid to yell, cuss, and put is foot in his mouth.

First interview actually was just a written exam. I think I did well. I forgot a couple ports and didn't know a couple specific PCI items but the cryptography questions were easy.

Other one was awesome. This was my 3rd interview and he said I was ahead of everyone else technically. He said I'd hear from them soon. There could be one more round with their networking guy so potentially a couple weeks before I know but I'm confident.

MeanDrunkR2D2

If you're "sick" you are "sick" and there are laws that prevent them from pulling that kind of shenanigans when they know you aren't feeling well. Be ready to prepare a list of lawyers to contact when they try to break laws to try to find out how "sick" you were. And turn on the recorder on your cell phone when he pulls you aside should he go a bit crazy on you so you have some evidence. (Depending on what the recording laws are in Colorado it could be nicely used in a lawsuit)

Nobody expects anyone to be perfect on those exams, so a few mistakes are cool. I'm sure you did great.

And even better about that last one. Sounds like you should hopefully get an offer on your plate soon. Good luck and hope you know by the end of the week so you can end this madness at your current employer and regain some sanity. I ended up landing 2 more interviews, one on Friday and another a week from monday, and both sound fairly promising.

markulous

Well my direct supervisor was good this morning and didn't ask any questions, but his dad (i.e. the owner) probably is going to be silly. I believe Colorado has only a one person consent for recordings, but honestly I just want to get out of here and move on.

I hopefully should get an offer soon. Their network guy may quiz me on port numbers or firewall experience, but not sure what else they need from me. I interviewed with the IT/Infosec director and the Security Engineer (which would essentially be my whole team) and I got good vibes from both. Hopefully they let me know by end of next week.

Good luck! I hope we both get some good news in the next couple weeks.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Thanks! At least your first interaction went better than probably your later one with the owner. And I don't blame ya for just wanting to get out of there.

And that's awesome when you got those vibes from the others. As long as you pass the sniff test with the last guy you should be golden. And probably at this point I'd assume that they should know that you know your stuff and more so want to go light on the tech and heavier on the behavioral just to make sure that they can deal working with you.

Hopefully the good news comes quickly for us both!