Need help and guidence for future career!

Hello! My name is Kevin. Currently I am a computer sales consultant at Best Buy. I have finally decided what I want to do. My ultimate dream is to be an ethical hacker/penetration tester. Now, I have no idea what to do. I don't star school until the fall. I have no certifications, or education so far in this field. I was thinking in the fall I would start going for an Applied Sciences degree with a speciality in Networking & Cybersecurity. What else do I need or should I get? Any certifications? Courses? Programs to start working with? I want to make a good living off it. So anything to increase my salary? Also anybody have knowledge of starter jobs? To start to get my foot in the door and get some experience? Thank you to all who assist!

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DigitalZeroOne

I know this isn't helping (yet). What school will you attend for your degree?

jerseyIT92

You work at Best Buy. My advice is to not get into Geek Squad. They will teach you every possible thing that's wrong to do.

Since you have some time to kill, and seem like you enjoy it, start learning the basics.
- Start with your A+ to learn the fundamentals.
- After you read your A+, read the Net+. This is the fundamentals of networking.

Reading those two, along with messing around on the computer, should get you through the summer.

thomas_

jerseyIT92 wrote: »

You work at Best Buy. My advice is to not get into Geek Squad. They will teach you every possible thing that's wrong to do

What types of things do they teach that are wrong?

jerseyIT92

thomas_ wrote: »

What types of things do they teach that are wrong?

Enjoy this video. This should pretty much sum up your question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCRPI-1dHQw

NetworkNewb

lol, kind of funny. I think computer techs can be like mechanics to people, never know if you actually trust what they say. Just have to hope you get a good one.

thomas_

jerseyIT92 wrote: »

Enjoy this video. This should pretty much sum up your question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCRPI-1dHQw

Wow.

I have to say I'm kind of speechless after watching that. I didn't really like the way the one employee was handling the RAM. I don't think I want them going anywhere near the inside of my computer. I wonder if Geek Squad employees have ever heard of ESD?

My sister had her computer break a couple of years back, it wouldn't turn on. I kept on telling her it was probably the power supply that went bad. I couldn't physically inspect it since she lives in a diffferent state and she didn't believe me and took it to a computer repair shop who told her the power supply was dead.

BlackBeret

School - Right now, focus on school! You'll learn the most there. Plenty of people will tell you that you can get a job without school, it's true, but what you learn in school will be a lot more well rounded than someone go got an entry level cert and slowly worked their way up. A lot of employers are looking more and more for degrees, especially advanced degrees when you start moving up. Get it now and you wont be struggling with it like a lot of people later on in your career.

Certifications - Keep in mind certifications expire, and are expensive. Most of what they test you will learn in school and you don't want them to expire before you graduate and actually need them for a job. My advice on certifications is to wait until your junior/senior year to pay for any exams. You'll know a lot more from school and the certs will be easy, plus they wont expire before you graduate. If something in particular is interesting to you, see if one of your classes will cover it, or study the books/materials without taking the exam until you're close to graduation.

Experience - When it comes to certifications they can help get you in the door, but most places want experience. So while you're in school, try to get an internship or move in to the geek squad since you already work at best buy. Yes, some people in the geek squad are idiots, but what you CAN learn there will go a long way in giving you the experience companies want to see when you graduate. ANY experience is better than none. Don't let people put you off of best buy and geek squad, a lot of good people start there. If you can get an internship in something more network or security related do it, but take the geek squad if you can until then.

jerseyIT92

BlackBeret wrote: »

School - Right now, focus on school! You'll learn the most there. Plenty of people will tell you that you can get a job without school, it's true, but what you learn in school will be a lot more well rounded than someone go got an entry level cert and slowly worked their way up. A lot of employers are looking more and more for degrees, especially advanced degrees when you start moving up. Get it now and you wont be struggling with it like a lot of people later on in your career.
Quote
Certifications - Keep in mind certifications expire, and are expensive. Most of what they test you will learn in school and you don't want them to expire before you graduate and actually need them for a job. My advice on certifications is to wait until your junior/senior year to pay for any exams. You'll know a lot more from school and the certs will be easy, plus they wont expire before you graduate. If something in particular is interesting to you, see if one of your classes will cover it, or study the books/materials without taking the exam until you're close to graduation.

Experience - When it comes to certifications they can help get you in the door, but most places want experience. So while you're in school, try to get an internship or move in to the geek squad since you already work at best buy. Yes, some people in the geek squad are idiots, but what you CAN learn there will go a long way in giving you the experience companies want to see when you graduate. ANY experience is better than none. Don't let people put you off of best buy and geek squad, a lot of good people start there. If you can get an internship in something more network or security related do it, but take the geek squad if you can until then.

You learn the most in school? No, you learn theory. You learn one way that something can happen. What school doesn't tell you is the millions of other ways something can happen. School is great for the theory, that's it.

nelson8403

Right, school definitely is theory, it's nice to know what you can potentially do, but you get into an environment that has been setup completely different than what you're taught, you have to be able to use that knowledge to adapt and experience comes into play there.

Stick with the schooling though, you'll definitely need a bachelor in your field or more without experience. Look at linux certifications, most penetration testers and ethical hackers work exclusively in linux. You will still need to know how the Windows operating system works, but most of your toolsets will be Linux based.

If you're serious about becoming a penetration tester look into the OSCP certification. This is a hands on certification and coupled with your schooling may be able to get in you the door with little to no experience. OSCP is about 1000 dollars and you have to actually hack and gain access to machines, it's not just study and take a test, it will be a true test of your skills and will be a good bearing to see if you have what it takes to get into the field.

jerseyIT92

nelson8403 wrote: »

Right, school definitely is theory, it's nice to know what you can potentially do, but you get into an environment that has been setup completely different than what you're taught, you have to be able to use that knowledge to adapt and experience comes into play there.

Stick with the schooling though, you'll definitely need a bachelor in your field or more without experience. Look at linux certifications, most penetration testers and ethical hackers work exclusively in linux. You will still need to know how the Windows operating system works, but most of your toolsets will be Linux based.

If you're serious about becoming a penetration tester look into the OSCP certification. This is a hands on certification and coupled with your schooling may be able to get in you the door with little to no experience. OSCP is about 1000 dollars and you have to actually hack and gain access to machines, it's not just study and take a test, it will be a true test of your skills and will be a good bearing to see if you have what it takes to get into the field.

No, you need experience to adapt to different scenarios, not schooling. School is important, but not for the reason that you're specifying.

NetworkNewb

I think you misread his comment Jersey

he said "you have to be able to use that knowledge to adapt and experience comes into play there. "

jerseyIT92

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I think you misread his comment Jersey he said "you have to be able to use that knowledge to adapt and experience comes into play there. "

How will school prepare you for all the different scenarios? What school did you go to that they taught you about that?

NetworkNewb

I'll shorten the comment even more "and experience comes into play there."

He is agreeing with you

nelson8403

Right, I'm saying schooling can show you how to do one thing, experience helps you adapt that knowledge to do many things.

I have my Masters and I'll say I did learn a lot from it, just not necessarily much technically. Experience definitely carries you further though technical fields.

jerseyIT92

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I'll shorten the comment even more "and experience comes into play there."

He is agreeing with you

Sorry, guess I read it wrong. I probably should read my carefully while this forum is in a little Ubuntu VM lol. Flipping through while working with a miniature screen for the VM