Current Events > I left education to work for corporate America

(+) Yeah! (+)

And now have nearly doubled my salary, and get discounts on my cell phone and internet bills, stock options, a 401k, a $1000/year wellness stipend for gym/yoga/health monthly fees. Oh, and its entirely remote, and I only work 4 days a week(10 hour shifts).

Making a career change can be scary, but god damn was this worth it. Im 1000 times happier and finally have free time again. No more 70 hour work weeks for shit pay.

Praise be! Praise be!

What did you get Warned for last time? You're the guy who was obsessed with another CE User right?

Flockaveli posted...

What did you get Warned for last time? You're the guy who was obsessed with another CE User right?

didnt get warned, not sure what youre referencing

Glad to hear the boot camp stuff worked for you. IT security or something?

emblem-man posted...

Glad to hear the boot camp stuff worked for you. IT security or something?

yeah, working as a SOC analyst now

Is selling my soul worth all this extra money?

ya I think so

I mean people don't work in education for the money. You're either passionate about it or you aren't. Funny enough, there's a common trend I've noticed where men in IT tend to be married to teachers. IT guy makes the money while the teacher enjoys their passion career.

Oooh, you did a cybersec bootcamp? Which one did you do?

Currently going through one right now myself. Any tips?

geshkigal posted...

Oooh, you did a cybersec bootcamp? Which one did you do?

Currently going through one right now myself. Any tips?

Fullstack academy. My instructors told me to get the security+ before I even graduated the bootcamp, then get CySA+ shortly after. So I did that lol. Made a goal to apply to 100 jobs once I graduated, and landed a job within 3 weeks of graduating actually.

pretty sure thats fairly rare. No one else in my class has a job yet, and I graduated September 16 from my bootcamp. To be fair, none of them listened about getting certs. The only other person to get sec+ just got it like 2 days ago.

Was it very expensive or time consuming? I need to get my shit together and start making real money but I cant really afford ridiculous time or money costs

I left education in the UK to teach abroad. It was the right move.

rexcrk posted...

Was it very expensive or time consuming? I need to get my shit together and start making real money but I cant really afford ridiculous time or money costs

the bootcamp was expensive, yes. But its nothing compared to the salaries you make in cybersecurity. I did a full time bootcamp, so it was 3 months straight of 5 hours a day class.

Glob posted...

I left education in the UK to teach abroad. It was the right move.

Ive heard teaching abroad is nice. Teaching in the US is very very awful.

What do you do for corporate? How does one get a corporate job

VampireCoyote posted...

What do you do for corporate? How does one get a corporate job

work as a cybersecurity analyst. SOC analyst specifically. I applied for the job, a technical recruiter hit me up, and I demolished that interview. 10 minutes or straight content related questions and I missed 1 question out of everything.

know your shit and youll land a job anywhere.

MFBKBass5 posted...

the bootcamp was expensive, yes. But its nothing compared to the salaries you make in cybersecurity. I did a full time bootcamp, so it was 3 months straight of 5 hours a day class.

Hmmm might be worth looking into. Do you know if there are alternatives two five hours a day for three months? I definitely cant afford that kind of time

Nice! Nothing worse than dealing with dumb shithead kids. Glad to hear it!

rexcrk posted...

Hmmm might be worth looking into. Do you know if there are alternatives two five hours a day for three months? I definitely cant afford that kind of time

Yeah the one I did had part time options that were 6 months long night classes 2x a week. I needed a new job faster so I did full time.

NeonOctopuses posted...

Nice! Nothing worse than dealing with dumb shithead kids. Glad to hear it!

Honestly I loved the teaching aspect. My students were awesome. I taught 8 years and students were NEVER the issue. Was always idiot administrators and coworkers.

Glad to hear you got lucky with that >_> Yeah, workplace politics are always stupid, no matter where you are

MFBKBass5 posted...

Is selling my soul worth all this extra money?

ya I think so

Lol it's funny when a troll doesn't get the response he was hoping and puts it out there themselves

I work in education and it's dope and I love it.

geshkigal posted...

Currently going through one right now myself. Any tips?

One tip I gave TC in his last topic. Make sure you know more than just what your scanning tools are telling you. That's the difference between a good CyberSec/InfoSec/IT Auditor and a terrible one. You need to know a little bit about a lot of different fields like networking, database, servers, and cloud to know how important the issues in your report actually are.

For instance, I've had security people hand me a list of vulnerabilities and told me I was required to fix every single one of them.
Me: "OK in order to fix this one vuln, I have to disable smb1 protocol on the server but we can't because a couple of our legacy applications require that protocol in order to run."
Security person:"I don't care. The report says it needs to be fixed"
Me: "But these applications and servers are not accessible to the public internet and they are on a locked down portion of our network so the risk of that vuln being exploited is very small."
Security person:"I don't care. The report says it needs to be fixed."
Me:"Go talk to the devs then"

We can't always fix all the things but there are exceptions and changes that can be done to minimize the "blast zone" if a bad guy tries to exploit those vulns. My current InfoSec guy is great. He knows about our old crusty servers I'm stuck with. He knows what are reasonable asks to tighten up security. I reach out to him when I build new things so they are built correctly from the start. The more you know, the more alternatives you can recommend to help others secure their environment. The more you'll be seen as a valued coworker and not some roadblock telling the other tech guys no.

billcom6 posted...

I work in education and it's dope and I love it.

I loved the actual work. Didnt love the 70 hour work weeks and extremely limited compensation, plus the lack of incentives to suddenly work harder.

if America valued education more then I would have loved the job

I should stop putting off on getting my sec+ and just study for it. I like what I'm doing now but I feel like I can nearly double my salary in 3-5 years if I make the right moves and get a different job. As far as the CySA+ how integral was that in you getting your current position? I don't know much about the cert so curious if it's worth pursuing as well.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

One tip I gave TC in his last topic. Make sure you know more than just what your scanning tools are telling you. That's the difference between a good CyberSec/InfoSec/IT Auditor and a terrible one. You need to know a little bit about a lot of different fields like networking, database, servers, and cloud to know how important the issues in your report actually are.

For instance, I've had security people hand me a list of vulnerabilities and told me I was required to fix every single one of them.
Me: "OK in order to fix this one vuln, I have to disable smb1 protocol on the server but we can't because a couple of our legacy applications require that protocol in order to run."
Security person:"I don't care. The report says it needs to be fixed"
Me: "But these applications and servers are not accessible to the public internet and they are on a locked down portion of our network so the risk of that vuln being exploited is very small."
Security person:"I don't care. The report says it needs to be fixed."
Me:"Go talk to the devs then"

We can't always fix all the things but there are exceptions and changes that can be done to minimize the "blast zone" if a bad guy tries to exploit those vulns. My current InfoSec guy is great. He knows about our old crusty servers I'm stuck with. He knows what are reasonable asks to tighten up security. I reach out to him when I build new things so they are built correctly from the start. The more you know, the more alternatives you can recommend to help others secure their environment. The more you'll be seen as a valued coworker and not some roadblock telling the other tech guys no.

Yeah one of the things Ive made a main focus has been to make myself as well rounded as possible with my skill sets. This first job I landed is definitely entry level, but gives me a HUGE amount of exposure to tons of different tools, logs and environments.

I work for a SOC thats an MSSP for about 281 customers of all different sizes. I think we monitor like 250 TB of data. So seeing tons of different types of firewall logs, EDR tools, stuff like that has been awesome so far

NinjaWarrior455 posted...

I should stop putting off on getting my sec+ and just study for it. I like what I'm doing now but I feel like I can nearly double my salary in 3-5 years if I make the right moves and get a different job. As far as the CySA+ how integral was that in you getting your current position? I don't know much about the cert so curious if it's worth pursuing as well.

sec+ really isnt hard. I passed my first attempt with this being my first job in IT. I just scheduled to take my CySA+ on the 20th of this month, but started studying once I passed sec+. CySA+ is specifically for analyst jobs which is what I wanted first. Studying for that for sure gave me the knowledge necessary to do well in the technical interviews I had.

Was the bootcamp online?

HornyLevel posted...

Was the bootcamp online?

yep fully online

MFBKBass5 posted...

Ive heard teaching abroad is nice. Teaching in the US is very very awful.

Teaching in the UK is bad and has been getting worse all the time Ive been doing it. I get the impression that the US is even worse than that. Teaching in Vietnam now and working about half the hours for over double the money.

Our education system is all fucked up but theres no good fix unfortunately. And alot of kids do get left behind.

Dan_Haren- posted...

Our education system is all fucked up but theres no good fix unfortunately. And alot of kids do get left behind.

there is a fix. Teachers need to get paid more. Schools need more money and resources, and need to get rid of standardized tests and horrible metrics that dont actually teach children.

MFBKBass5 posted...

This first job I landed is definitely entry level, but gives me a HUGE amount of exposure to tons of different tools, logs and environments.

That's what you want in a first job. I was very lucky that my first IT job wasn't just a basic helpdesk position. I was the single IT person for a factory so I was doing helpdesk, server work, phone systems, networking, security keycard systems, project management. It was a lot but by the time I moved onto a new position, my experience far outweighed my years. Made it easy to move onto Sysadmin roles and beyond.

MFBKBass5 posted...

sec+ really isnt hard

It really isn't. I was about 3-4 years into my IT career and had to take it for a gov't contractor position. I got about half way through the study material before realizing 80% I either knew or was just common sense. Honestly all of those CompTIA + certs are beginner level exams and I'd recommend skipping over them unless they are required for a position like the Sec+ one was. There are other certs that are more impressive that you should be spending your time on. For example, getting Cisco's CCENT or CCNA cert instead of Network+

rexcrk posted...

Hmmm might be worth looking into. Do you know if there are alternatives two five hours a day for three months? I definitely cant afford that kind of time

Just wanted to mention, a bootcamp isn't the only avenue. They are great cause they're teacher led and cram a lot of knowledge in you in a short amount of time. Of course they are also expensive and you can't go at your own pace. There are plenty of IT training sites that have exam prep courses with videos and practice exams you can do at your own pace. Some of these sites are subscription based while some you can outright purchase the course.

my mom taught for 13 years and just took a position at corporate, she works 30 hours less each week and makes like 30k more, teaching is probably the worst position you can go into in america

BlazinBlue88 posted...

That's what you want in a first job. I was very lucky that my first IT job wasn't just a basic helpdesk position. I was the single IT person for a factory so I was doing helpdesk, server work, phone systems, networking, security keycard systems, project management. It was a lot but by the time I moved onto a new position, my experience far outweighed my years. Made it easy to move onto Sysadmin roles and beyond.

It really isn't. I was about 3-4 years into my IT career and had to take it for a gov't contractor position. I got about half way through the study material before realizing 80% I either knew or was just common sense. Honestly all of those CompTIA + certs are beginner level exams and I'd recommend skipping over them unless they are required for a position like the Sec+ one was. There are other certs that are more impressive that you should be spending your time on. For example, getting Cisco's CCENT or CCNA cert instead of Network+

yeah I feel super lucky to have landed this job. Hoping to stay here and just work my way up to a threat hunter within a year or two.

sec+ gave me a great start and baseline amount of knowledge. I wanted to dive deeper into working in an analyst position which is why Ive been studying for CySA+. Im thinking about what to do next, and Im wanting to dive more into coding/Python. But was told cloud stuff would be good too, so I was thinking of doing an Azure essentials cert.

Those Cisco ones def seem harder. Ill need to look more into the CCNA. Is there a requirement for years or experience before you take it or anything?

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Just wanted to mention, a bootcamp isn't the only avenue. They are great cause they're teacher led and cram a lot of knowledge in you in a short amount of time. Of course they are also expensive and you can't go at your own pace. There are plenty of IT training sites that have exam prep courses with videos and practice exams you can do at your own pace. Some of these sites are subscription based while some you can outright purchase the course.

agreed. I knew NOTHING about the routes in cybersecurity, so having a dedicated teacher who worked in the industry is what I wanted. But really, I signed up for a bootcamp to get access to the career services. My career coach is a professor at Columbia, and helped craft my resume, LinkedIn, cover letters, and gave me soooo much advice on how to land my first job.

but stuff like Udemy are super cheap and can prepare you for the certifications specifically. They just dont give you hands on experience like a bootcamp will.

Nightmare_Luna posted...

my mom taught for 13 years and just took a position at corporate, she works 30 hours less each week and makes like 30k more, teaching is probably the worst position you can go into in america

good for your mom! That makes me happy to see. About 10 of my teacher friends have left education in the past year alone. Its currently a wildfire of shortages, and I dont blame anyone for getting out. In fact I recommend it to most who are even slightly considering leaving lol

I can't imagine teaching grade school. That's gotta be a nightmare. I don't exactly make bank teaching college, but it's enough.

MFBKBass5 posted...

yeah I feel super lucky to have landed this job. Hoping to stay here and just work my way up to a threat hunter within a year or two.

sec+ gave me a great start and baseline amount of knowledge. I wanted to dive deeper into working in an analyst position which is why Ive been studying for CySA+. Im thinking about what to do next, and Im wanting to dive more into coding/Python. But was told cloud stuff would be good too, so I was thinking of doing an Azure essentials cert.

Those Cisco ones def seem harder. Ill need to look more into the CCNA. Is there a requirement for years or experience before you take it or anything?

Yeah stay at your job if you feel you're still learning a lot. Once it starts becoming a little repetitive or you get that new cert, hop to a new job. General rule in IT is to job hop every 2-3 years. It's easier to get that better job title at a different company with a 30% salary bump than convince your current company to promote you and they'll probably only toss an extra 5-10% on top of your salary. Plus a new job opens you to new experiences. Different companies won't manage their environments the same way. Being exposed to those different environments introduce you to new policies and ways of handling issues or implementing new stuff. Someone that's worked at 3 places during their 10 year career looks better on paper than someone that's worked at 1 place during their 10 year career.

Python and cloud aren't unrelated to each other. Many of my coworkers use Python scripts to interact with our AWS environment. They don't log into the GUI unless they have to. Powershell scripting is very important in the Azure world.

CCNA used to be the entry level cert before they introduced CCENT a few years ago. Most will recommend saving time and just studying for the CCNA. The years of experience are just recommendations. I'm not sure if there are actual requirements for taking any of the Cisco exams like you need to have this lower cert first before taking this other cert. That might be the case for some of the higher level ones though. The ones that guarantee you a $175k job. lol I'm not a networking guy so I'm not super knowledgeable on Cisco certs.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Yeah stay at your job if you feel you're still learning a lot. Once it starts becoming a little repetitive or you get that new cert, hop to a new job. General rule in IT is to job hop every 2-3 years. It's easier to get that better job title at a different company with a 30% salary bump than convince your current company to promote you and they'll probably only toss an extra 5-10% on top of your salary. Plus a new job opens you to new experiences. Different companies won't manage their environments the same way. Being exposed to those different environments introduce you to new policies and ways of handling issues or implementing new stuff. Someone that's worked at 3 places during their 10 year career looks better on paper than someone that's worked at 1 place during their 10 year career.

Python and cloud aren't unrelated to each other. Many of my coworkers use Python scripts to interact with our AWS environment. They don't log into the GUI unless they have to. Powershell scripting is very important in the Azure world.

CCNA used to be the entry level cert before they introduced CCENT a few years ago. Most will recommend saving time and just studying for the CCNA. The years of experience are just recommendations. I'm not sure if there are actual requirements for taking any of the Cisco exams like you need to have this lower cert first before taking this other cert. That might be the case for some of the higher level ones though. The ones that guarantee you a $175k job. lol I'm not a networking guy so I'm not super knowledgeable on Cisco certs.

that all sounds like great advice, thanks man! Ive been told similar things from the few people I know who work in tech/cyber. In depth network knowledge seems really important to me at the higher end of these roles for sure.

Its wild to me just how much pay is in this industry. Amazing and so different coming from working in public education

MFBKBass5 posted...

there is a fix. Teachers need to get paid more. Schools need more money and resources, and need to get rid of standardized tests and horrible metrics that dont actually teach children.

As a parent I agree. I cant believe the amount of time the kids have to take this test or that test for god knows what reason. So much learning time is lost.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Honestly all of those CompTIA + certs are beginner level exams and I'd recommend skipping over them unless they are required for a position like the Sec+ one was. There are other certs that are more impressive that you should be spending your time on. For example, getting Cisco's CCENT or CCNA cert instead of Network+

Interesting. This program I'm doing is giving us a CompTIA voucher upon graduation (in two months) and they recommend going for the Sec+, which is my plan.

MFBKBass5 posted...

But really, I signed up for a bootcamp to get access to the career services. My career coach is a professor at Columbia, and helped craft my resume, LinkedIn, cover letters, and gave me soooo much advice on how to land my first job.

Same here. Now if I could only get off my ass and redo my resume the way they want it so I can finally talk to a career coach lol.

geshkigal posted...

Interesting. This program I'm doing is giving us a CompTIA voucher upon graduation (in two months) and they recommend going for the Sec+, which is my plan.

Security+ is the most useful one because the Gov't requires all their IT contractors have it whether you can prove you're beyond that cert or not. CompTIA heavily markets their certs and tries to partner with places to get their cert names out there.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Security+ is the most useful one because the Gov't requires all their IT contractors have it whether you can prove you're beyond that cert or not. CompTIA heavily markets their certs and tries to partner with places to get their cert names out there.

Cool, good to know.

gonna read this topic tomorrow