Career Path / Resume Suggestions

mamoreno89mamoreno89 Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
Good evening everyone!

I have been browsing through the forums and have seen some great suggestions within the community. What would be some suggestions for me for getting into digital forensics? Or should I be looking at building some professional skills in an IT/Help Desk-based job? The only experience I have in IT is independent work that I have done since April 2010.

Furthermore, I posted my resume so that some feedback can be provided:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7m0orj22ma93ac/demo.pdf?dl=0

Thank you everyone, in advance! Definitely looking forward to the discussion.

Comments

  • techfiendtechfiend Member Posts: 1,481 ■■■■□□□□□□
    With 3 months of help desk, I think you're better off targeting a help desk/desktop support type role at this time. This is what I'd do with the resume to begin with:

    1. Change the profile to a summary section and have it summarize what you bring to a company, not what you are trying to obtain
    2. Remove all but the 2 most recent jobs, there's some very good transferable experience from them (customer service and problem solving) was your last position a contract? If so mention it, 3 months on your first IT job is a red flag otherwise.
    3. Change technical skills to a skills section and magnify your previous customer service and problem solving experience, put it after the summary
    4. Remove independent experience and affiliations
    5. Remove years from certifications section
    6. Fit it on 1 page by changing fonts, m argins, shortening experience section and education section (keep MCL and GPA)

    So you'd have; Summary, Skills, Education, Certificates, Experience. I'd give that a try and see what kind of luck you have. 3 months of recent but not current experience still applies for a functional resume in my opinion.

    Other than finding a position and school I would definitely focus on security related certifications. A BS in CIS and masters in forensics is a great start! It's kind of a general thing, that I mostly agree with on these forums, that security is after you master systems, networks, databases, or development. Lately I've been seeing some security positions that aren't necessary looking for much experience but the right certs and education.
    2018 AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (Apr) 2017 VCAP6-DCV Deploy (Oct) 2016 Storage+ (Jan)
    2015 Start WGU (Feb) Net+ (Feb) Sec+ (Mar) Project+ (Apr) Other WGU (Jun) CCENT (Jul) CCNA (Aug) CCNA Security (Aug) MCP 2012 (Sep) MCSA 2012 (Oct) Linux+ (Nov) Capstone/BS (Nov) VCP6-DCV (Dec) ITILF (Dec)
  • mamoreno89mamoreno89 Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Thank you so much techfiend. That advice definitely goes a long way :) Will keep you posted.
  • digitheadsdigitheads Member Posts: 39 ■■□□□□□□□□
    first, you need to repeat the header (name address, bla bla bla) on the top of every page, also number them at the bottom 1 of... 2 of.... and so on.

    on your education, you don't tell us what school. on college get rid of the footnote, if you want that in, put it by the college name.

    with your employment: on the left side of the date on the same line as your title, what is that about ? get rid of it...

    if you PM me with your address, I will send you mine...
  • mamoreno89mamoreno89 Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
    digitheads wrote: »
    first, you need to repeat the header (name address, bla bla bla) on the top of every page, also number them at the bottom 1 of... 2 of.... and so on.

    on your education, you don't tell us what school. on college get rid of the footnote, if you want that in, put it by the college name.

    with your employment: on the left side of the date on the same line as your title, what is that about ? get rid of it...

    if you PM me with your address, I will send you mine...

    digitheads, I do not see an option to sent you a PM.
  • aderonaderon Member Posts: 404 ■■■■□□□□□□
    If you don't mind me asking, are you going through UCF's digital forensics program?

    Also, I would skip help desk if I were you and look for internships or entry level digital forensics positions. Search for things like:

    associate digital forensics
    junior digital forensics
    entry level digital forensics
    intern digital forensics
    etc, etc.

    EX) https://www.ziprecruiter.com/jobs/file-retrieval-llc-cee38993/entry-level-digital-forensic-investigation-intern-wanted-607eb336?mid=fc916b12&source=cpc-nf-simplyhired

    With a master's specifically in the subject and some certs, I feel like you have the ability to skip general IT without any issue.
    2019 Certification/Degree Goals: AWS CSA Renewal (In Progress), M.S. Cybersecurity (In Progress), CCNA R&S Renewal (Not Started)
  • mamoreno89mamoreno89 Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
    aderon wrote: »
    If you don't mind me asking, are you going through UCF's digital forensics program?

    Also, I would skip help desk if I were you and look for internships or entry level digital forensics positions. Search for things like:

    associate digital forensics
    junior digital forensics
    entry level digital forensics
    intern digital forensics
    etc, etc.

    EX) https://www.ziprecruiter.com/jobs/file-retrieval-llc-cee38993/entry-level-digital-forensic-investigation-intern-wanted-607eb336?mid=fc916b12&source=cpc-nf-simplyhired

    With a master's specifically in the subject and some certs, I feel like you have the ability to skip general IT without any issue.

    Actually, I am enrolled in the program at Champlain College.
    Thanks for the heads up aderon, I will try that. There was only one that I saw in my area.

    Since on the topic on certs, what other ones should I look at?
  • aderonaderon Member Posts: 404 ■■■■□□□□□□
    I'm not intimately familiar with digital forensics, but I'd say your best bet is to gather a list of popular digital forensics certs (EnCE, GCFA, etc) and search for those on job hiring sites (Such as simplyhired.com and indeed.com). If any certification in particular has a substantially larger amount of job postings related to it, then I would imagine it's more in demand by employers and is worth pursuing.
    2019 Certification/Degree Goals: AWS CSA Renewal (In Progress), M.S. Cybersecurity (In Progress), CCNA R&S Renewal (Not Started)
  • mamoreno89mamoreno89 Member Posts: 32 ■■■□□□□□□□
    aderon wrote: »
    I'm not intimately familiar with digital forensics, but I'd say your best bet is to gather a list of popular digital forensics certs (EnCE, GCFA, etc) and search for those on job hiring sites (Such as simplyhired.com and indeed.com). If any certification in particular has a substantially larger amount of job postings related to it, then I would imagine it's more in demand by employers and is worth pursuing.

    Found a great source for computer forensics certs; this serves as a good start! :)

    Computer Forensics Certifications - TechExams.net IT Certification Blogs
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