Career Path / Resume Suggestions

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.

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Comments

techfiend

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.

mamoreno89

Thank you so much techfiend. That advice definitely goes a long way

Will keep you posted.

digitheads

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...

mamoreno89

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.

aderon

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.

mamoreno89

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?

aderon

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.

mamoreno89

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