Woohoo! I made it.

Graduated today with my B.A.S. in Network Security and Forensics!

Now I just hope I can find a job and start paying off the student loans and credit cards I used to make it through!

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Forsaken_GA

Do yourself a favor, and read this book:

Amazon.com: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (9780785289081): Dave Ramsey: Books

jamesleecoleman

Hey congratulations!!!

networker050184

Congrats and good luck!

7lowe

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Do yourself a favor, and read this book:

Amazon.com: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (9780785289081): Dave Ramsey: Books

LOL Sadly, I own and have read that book. I worked and went to school and paid cash as long as I could until I finally had to quit due to scheduling conflicts with school. But, I figured that the amount I owe is only 50% of the salary increase I expect to get over what I was making before making it a worthwhile investment. Assuming I can find a good job soon I should be back to debt free within a year and earning double what I was before I went back to school.

Until I actually find a job this is all theoretical of course.

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thomas130

Nice one

Good luck with the job hunt

ipconfig.all

seraphus

7lowe wrote: »

Graduated today with my B.A.S. in Network Security and Forensics!

Now I just hope I can find a job and start paying off the student loans and credit cards I used to make it through!

7

Congrats!

Nice work.

dynamik

That's a phenomenal accomplishment. Congratulations!

nel

Congrats man!

Kaminsky

Security and forensics .. Nice. Well done. Wish they had sexy courses like that when I was young.

What you need to do now, before you can get into the big security consultancy stuff, is get a 2-3 year gig with a major company, government/police preferably. I am surprised your course wasn't affilaited with one of these types of organisatiopns already as they usually sponsor and head hunt from these courses. A friend of mine's son did a forensic course and there was a police college nearby and he would go on pretend raids with them and had to secure the computer equipment, etc. Some of the stuff that young guy can do is scary and I have been doing IT for 20 years.

You will learn a lot but probably won't get paid that much. It won't be shop assitant or office clerk money but it won't be brilliant either. However, it will look really good on the resume and the sorts of procedures you will learn will be what you end up selling down the line. Then maybe another 2-3 year gig in a different environment (corporate preferably to learn your potential customer base) and you should be well set up to go out on your own and start making very big bucks.

That is, if the criminal fraternity don't get their hands on you first.

mikej412

Congratulations!!

And Good Luck!!

sharptech

Nice job, congrats!

msteinhilber

Congrats! I should be making a similar post in a short amount of time

7lowe

Kaminsky wrote: »

Security and forensics .. Nice. Well done. Wish they had sexy courses like that when I was young.

What you need to do now, before you can get into the big security consultancy stuff, is get a 2-3 year gig with a major company, government/police preferably. I am surprised your course wasn't affilaited with one of these types of organisatiopns already as they usually sponsor and head hunt from these courses. A friend of mine's son did a forensic course and there was a police college nearby and he would go on pretend raids with them and had to secure the computer equipment, etc. Some of the stuff that young guy can do is scary and I have been doing IT for 20 years.

You will learn a lot but probably won't get paid that much. It won't be shop assitant or office clerk money but it won't be brilliant either. However, it will look really good on the resume and the sorts of procedures you will learn will be what you end up selling down the line. Then maybe another 2-3 year gig in a different environment (corporate preferably to learn your potential customer base) and you should be well set up to go out on your own and start making very big bucks.

That is, if the criminal fraternity don't get their hands on you first.

The best I'm hoping for in this arena is the fact that the school is designated by the NSA as a "Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education" and have applied with them their CNO development program. I had a 4.0GPA so I'm hoping that'll be enough to get me an interview.

One of my classmates graduated a semester earlier and got flown to DC to interview with the NSA and offered a Network Engineering job for $80k. But, he didn't want to move to Ft. Meade and turned them down. Of course, he's retired from the Air Force and has like 20 years experience administrating and performing IDS not to mention previous security clearance. But, he said there were other people fresh out of school their interviewing as well that had no experience. I at least have a little bit.

Kasor

R u suppose to get a job before graduate? Get the job first, experience with come and salary will get increase. Don't be greedy... OK

Xcluziv

Congrats man!!!! I'll be in your shoes next year

Dr_Atomic

7lowe wrote: »

LOL Sadly, I own and have read that book. I worked and went to school and paid cash as long as I could until I finally had to quit due to scheduling conflicts with school. But, I figured that the amount I owe is only 50% of the salary increase I expect to get over what I was making before making it a worthwhile investment. Assuming I can find a good job soon I should be back to debt free within a year and earning double what I was before I went back to school.

Until I actually find a job this is all theoretical of course.

7

Ok, now for the big question - do you have any experience?

Just kidding - good luck with your job search. I hope you get the job you've always wanted.

pipemajor

Congrats! Grinding through a degree program isn't the easiest thing to stick with - that's why employers will always value degree-holders over non degree-types.

I was one of those who started working after HS, got into data processing then jumped back into school to complete 2 AA degrees, a BBA and graduated with a USAF ROTC commission. I came out of college debt free. Uncle Sam let me work with notable IT giants such as Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn. Earned an MBA while on active duty.

There "will" be bumps in your career but they tend to be much softer with that diploma and experience in hand.