Selected to Facilitate at SANS Orlando

Put my application in last fall before I had any GIAC certs. I was stunned when I got the email inviting me a couple of weeks ago, knowing a couple of people who also applied that have far more experience and certifications than I that weren't invited. Fresh meat, maybe?

Employer is paying my way even though I would do it out of pocket if I had to. I won't reveal the class I am facilitating for privacy reasons, but suffice to say it was my first choice, which is nice. Also nice to get the free OnDemand and GIAC certification attempt out of the deal, too.

The schedule looks brutal and I'm sure it's going to be a tough week with the expectations given in the contract, but I'm looking forward to it. It would be nice to hear from others who have facilitated at an event the size of SANS Orlando to get an idea of what it will be like....

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NetworkNewb

LWB250 wrote: »

I won't reveal the class I am facilitating for privacy reasons

there are privacy concerns about what class your facilitating?

Gratz on getting selected though! Just applied last night to do event in my area later this year. Crossing my fingers

cyberguypr

Also scratched my head at the privacy thing. I look forward to meeting TE peeps every time I facilitate.

I only facilitate small SANS events, but from what I've read here the consensus is that you may lose a good chunk of class time. That may not be a big issue, since you have OnDemand access, but still, can make you lose your bearings real quick. TBRAYS, YFZBlu, JojoCal19, and others who have done Vegas and Orlando can chime in with specifics.

JoJoCal19

Hey LWB, congrats on getting selected to facilitate! My first time facilitating was SEC401 (GSEC) at SANS Orlando 2015. Man that was baptism by fire. I'm guessing by your post that's the class you're facilitating. Not going to lie, it was rough, and to top it off I fell seriously ill during the event and had to be carted to the hospital (unrelated to the crazy stress). Sunday will be setup day and you will help the other facilitators break down all of the pallets of materials and inventory all of the books, then load them into bags. That's not too terribly bad and you should be done I think it was late afternoon or early evening. I call Monday "hell day". Because registration starts at 7am, you'll have to be there no later than 6am. Where it was rough was SEC401 runs till 7pm every night. At the end of the day you then have to tabulate all of the evaluations (you'll do these every day). So Monday went from 6am-8pm for me. The rest of the days I think you'll have to report in at like 8:30am.

I had read cyberguypr's thread about facilitating small events so my second time was SANS Virginia Beach 2015 which had like 8 classes or something like that. It was CAKE. On setup day we got done and were released at noon. Also I did SEC503 (GCIA) and was done tabulating evals and out of there at like 6 each day. I had to withdraw from Orlando this year because I will end up only being in my soon to be new job for a couple of weeks and didn't want to ask off a whole week that soon. If you have any questions or feel you'd rather PM me, feel free to ask away.

LWB250

No SANS issues with privacy - I prefer to protect my identity online.

JoJoCal19, thanks for the offer, I may take you up on that.

I was wondering, once you facilitate a SANS event and do a good job, is it that much easier to get selected again?

Thanks to all for the responses!

NetworkNewb

Well in your profile you say your working on GSEC, so my deep investigation skills will lead to me believe we have solved that mystery.

Best of luck there

LWB250

NetworkNewb wrote: »

Well in your profile you say your working on GSEC, so my deep investigation skills will lead to me believe we have solved that mystery.

Best of luck there

Heh. Sorry, but wrong. I'm facilitating a different class. I never expected to be chosen, so my choice was something different than GSEC.

Thanks!

cyberguypr

Doing a good job facilitating is extremely valuable and puts you very close to the top of the list for the next round. I've been accepted to facilitate 5 times but had to decline one. Hoping to do it again this year.

LWB250

cyberguypr wrote: »

Doing a good job facilitating is extremely valuable and puts you very close to the top of the list for the next round. I've been accepted to facilitate 5 times but had to decline one. Hoping to do it again this year.

That's what I was wondering. I plan on busting my ass and I'll worry about the course content later.

I've worked similar situations in a previous career, so I have a pretty good general idea of what to expect. I plan on making myself indispensable to my instructor, which I would hope would help my chances at getting invited back.

Thanks for the insight!

NetworkNewb

LWB250 wrote: »

Heh. Sorry, but wrong. I'm facilitating a different class. I never expected to be chosen, so my choice was something different than GSEC.

Thanks!

So you say...

So how far down your list did they choose? Hoping others answer this too who have gotten chosen, how far down the list would they go? Has anyone ever got like their 6th or 7th choice?

Just surprising to me if they select people for something that isn't towards the top of their list.

LWB250

NetworkNewb wrote: »

So you say... So how far down your list did they choose? Hoping others answer this too who have gotten chosen, how far down the list would they go? Has anyone ever got like their 6th or 7th choice?

Just surprising to me if they select people for something that isn't towards the top of their list.

I got my first choice - I'm just saying that it wasn't a class for the GSEC, as I chose something else I was interested in, making the assumption I wouldn't be considered. I was planning on doing the GSEC no matter what, so it would be better to choose another area I was interested in so I wasn't duplicating effort was my way of thinking...

TechGromit

LWB250 wrote: »

Put my application in last fall before I had any GIAC certs. I was stunned when I got the email inviting me a couple of weeks ago, knowing a couple of people who also applied that have far more experience and certifications than I that weren't invited. Fresh meat, maybe?

Congratulations. I'm planning to be there, well the one in March Anyway, still waiting for approval to take SANS SEC504.

Robicus

Congratulations on your selection! Please let us know how it goes afterwards.

Cheers,

LWB250

Robicus wrote: »

Congratulations on your selection! Please let us know how it goes afterwards.

Cheers,

Thanks, will do.

elorion

Just got my email last night too that I was selected to facilitate 2 classes. 1 two day class and 1 six day class. This will be my second time facilitating and am really looking forward to it again. Lots of work no doubt, but well worth it.

TBRAYS

I've facilitated both large and small events. Honestly, I prefer the smaller events because it gives you more class time and you're more recognized for your work ethic from the SANS staff versus the larger events. I've turned down invitations because I'm not interested in the larger events anymore.

Iristheangel

LWB250 wrote: »

No SANS issues with privacy - I prefer to protect my identity online.

No problems with that at all and respect. I was very much in the same boat when I first came on the forums, but please be aware that if you're super cautious about people knowing your real name or your identity, you have to remember that you have a rather unique combination of certifications + a general region that you are located in on your public profile here. It wouldn't take a very smart person to find you through Linkedin and you should be aware of this. Again, respectful to your wishes to maintain your privacy and you may choose to do whatever you would like... but please be aware that given the specific information you've shared about yourself, people can find your identity.

TBRAYS

JoJoCal19 and I facilitated at SANS Orlando last year until he caught the bubonic plague, we had a pretty good group of facilitators and some developed friendships.

cyberguypr

Iris brings a good point. The exercise she mentions reveals way too much personal info which is contrary to your desire for online privacy. You may want to reconsider details you put here and on LinkedIn. By the time you add public records the dossier is just too detailed.

funbagfanatic

I'll just leave this here, apropos of nothing... https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-penoff-3a771119

636-555-3226

funbagfanatic wrote: »

I'll just leave this here, apropos of nothing... https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-penoff-3a771119

::laughing::
Security person who lists what tools their company may use on linkedin loses some of my respect. Knowing your name and where you work, how about I call as a ?new support engineer? from your siem provider and mention (insert random topic here, like how we're having an update issue with some of our recent patches and would like to schedule some out-of-band maintenance at whatever time works best for you). i'm fine with people listing names, where they work, certs, skills, but at some point you need to stop giving out ammo for social engineering or system exploitation.

TBRAYS

636-555-3226 wrote: »

::laughing::
Security person who lists what tools their company may use on linkedin loses some of my respect. Knowing your name and where you work, how about I call as a ?new support engineer? from your siem provider and mention (insert random topic here, like how we're having an update issue with some of our recent patches and would like to schedule some out-of-band maintenance at whatever time works best for you). i'm fine with people listing names, where they work, certs, skills, but at some point you need to stop giving out ammo for social engineering or system exploitation.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-irving-63581229

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aileen-owens-b385845a

alias454

scoundrel

Iristheangel

Oh well... so much for privacy...
Anyways, OP, what class are you running?

TBRAYS

Iristheangel wrote: »

Oh well... so much for privacy...
Anyways, OP, what class are you running?

He's facilitating Bryan Simon's SEC401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style class

Iristheangel

How did you find that out?

...and that's unfortunate that he's teaching "security essentials." Opps.

cyberguypr

Post #7 says it not SEC 401.

TBRAYS

cyberguypr wrote: »

Post #7 says it not SEC 401.

Oops, my bad lmao