Taking Security+ this weekend...

This will be my first IT cert. If I pass, I want to line up another goal to get started on right away. I'm planning on going for CCENT, which I can follow up with CCNA Security.

I have a little experience in IT, but it's all from the late 90's, and is so outdated I can hardly put it on a resume. All of my recent job experience has been in teaching (not IT-related). So my goal is to pick up a few certs that will hopefully help in landing an IT job in security, or at least an IT job that can lead to security in the future.

I'm hoping I've got a reasonable plan here, but if anyone has suggestions or other ideas, I'm open to hear them.

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LeisureSuitLarry

No suggestions, eh? Well, I was hoping for some input, but I guess I'll take the lack of input as a silent approval for my plan

I took the Security+ test today and passed. The questions were harder than I expected, with a deeper level of subtlety than the ones I found on practice exams. I really didn't think I was going to pass, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

In any case, time to start studying for CCENT and then CCNA Security.

Best of luck to everyone else.

Tongy

Congratulations on your pass!

I never replied because I had nothing really to add - I'm not a Cisco person. good luck with your next step, I'm sure that you'll choose the right path and that the knowledgeable folks here can steer you right with some good advice!

laborer1

Congrats on passing. I'm taking a bootcamp this month. I hope I pass. Studying for this cert has been very stressful.

LeisureSuitLarry

Thanks guys. I know it's just one step, but hopefully I'll be able to transition into a new career soon--being unemployed as of last month gives me extra motivation.

Good luck, laborer1. My best advice is just try to keep calm on the test questions. Several of them I felt shaky on, but I think if you prepare well, you'll do well.

Congrats!

Congrats!

Congrats!

Security+ is a good solid fundamental course to start with. If you're going to focus on security & you're leaning CISCO, I would focus on network security. Security is multifaceted.

Consider this path;
CCENT - CCNA - CCNA Security- Wireshark, then maybe Juniper and Palo Alto, then on to CCNP & some SANS courses and the CISSP.

You really want the CCNA R&S. It teaches you border gateway protocols & WAN related stuff. If you want to do security with a focus on networking you'll want that. Stay focused on the network side of it but you may need to get into the straight up networking side of things first.

Others may disagree with me, but generally a good security guy was either a good generalist or focused on a specialized practice, got good at it, then incorporated security into it.

LeisureSuitLarry

Chinook wrote: »

Security+ is a good solid fundamental course to start with. If you're going to focus on security & you're leaning CISCO, I would focus on network security. Security is multifaceted.

Consider this path;
CCENT - CCNA - CCNA Security- Wireshark, then maybe Juniper and Palo Alto, then on to CCNP & some SANS courses and the CISSP.

You really want the CCNA R&S. It teaches you border gateway protocols & WAN related stuff. If you want to do security with a focus on networking you'll want that. Stay focused on the network side of it but you may need to get into the straight up networking side of things first.

Others may disagree with me, but generally a good security guy was either a good generalist or focused on a specialized practice, got good at it, then incorporated security into it.

Thanks everyone. And I think you're probably right, Chinook. I don't know if I'll end up going into security. I best just focus on the fundamentals for now.