** Official IT Thread ** - Come in for some tech!

[devilbones]

Boys, need some advice.

I started this job about one year ago, work from home with some travel (I was told no travel, but that changed after I hired...whatever I can deal with it...). Ive had a few job offers since starting, but nothing I would consider serious other than two. I turned the first down because it would require weekly travel, which I am not a fan of. I had one come out of the blue last week, which is less travel than I do now and 30-40% more cheddar than I make now. Its for a fortune 100 company, work from home, good beney's and way more money than I make now working with cutting edge equipment in a sales engineer capacity. I have two friends that work there now and both say its a great place to work.

BUT I feel bad when I think about leaving the place I am at now because A) I feel like its too soon, 2) I have good relationships with everyone I work with and C) I am literally the only one that knows how to complete a major project that runs through the end of this year. I would be leaving them with a mess, without a doubt.

wat do bruhs?

I would take the new job. If something came up within the company they wouldnt think twice about laying you off. Look out for yourself first.

[dcbone30]

Boys, need some advice.

I started this job about one year ago, work from home with some travel (I was told no travel, but that changed after I hired...whatever I can deal with it...). Ive had a few job offers since starting, but nothing I would consider serious other than two. I turned the first down because it would require weekly travel, which I am not a fan of. I had one come out of the blue last week, which is less travel than I do now and 30-40% more cheddar than I make now. Its for a fortune 100 company, work from home, good beney's and way more money than I make now working with cutting edge equipment in a sales engineer capacity. I have two friends that work there now and both say its a great place to work.

BUT I feel bad when I think about leaving the place I am at now because A) I feel like its too soon, 2) I have good relationships with everyone I work with and C) I am literally the only one that knows how to complete a major project that runs through the end of this year. I would be leaving them with a mess, without a doubt.

wat do bruhs?

I would take the new job. If something came up within the company they wouldnt think twice about laying you off. Look out for yourself first.

I agree with dbones on this one. I would never set myself back because I thought something was too soon and I felt bad leaving a project, that's simply the way it goes and the company should not have had a single point of failure. #1 is #1 for a reason.

[Cheap5.0]

I would take the new job. If something came up within the company they wouldnt think twice about laying you off. Look out for yourself first.

I agree with dbones on this one. I would never set myself back because I thought something was too soon and I felt bad leaving a project, that's simply the way it goes and the company should not have had a single point of failure. #1 is #1 for a reason.

Thanks for the input boys.

I just wrapped up a two hour call with the hiring manager, I asked questions - he asked questions, we both shot the sht for awhile. He said he thinks I am good fit and likes my back ground. Can't believe it, feel like its too good to be true. I still have "3-4" more calls to do, one is a technical interview, one is a call with the sales guy this positioned would be partnered with and one more with a couple other SE's.

Salary range starts at double what I make now and that is before the commission, bonus & equity options. Just about sht my pants when he said that.

[Criollo]

Boys, need some advice.

I started this job about one year ago, work from home with some travel (I was told no travel, but that changed after I hired...whatever I can deal with it...). Ive had a few job offers since starting, but nothing I would consider serious other than two. I turned the first down because it would require weekly travel, which I am not a fan of. I had one come out of the blue last week, which is less travel than I do now and 30-40% more cheddar than I make now. Its for a fortune 100 company, work from home, good beney's and way more money than I make now working with cutting edge equipment in a sales engineer capacity. I have two friends that work there now and both say its a great place to work.

BUT I feel bad when I think about leaving the place I am at now because A) I feel like its too soon, 2) I have good relationships with everyone I work with and C) I am literally the only one that knows how to complete a major project that runs through the end of this year. I would be leaving them with a mess, without a doubt.

wat do bruhs?

if the only reasons you have for staying are those 3 i would take the new job brah. Look out for yourself.

[SynapticCleft]

Thanks for the input boys.

I just wrapped up a two hour call with the hiring manager, I asked questions - he asked questions, we both shot the sht for awhile. He said he thinks I am good fit and likes my back ground. Can't believe it, feel like its too good to be true. I still have "3-4" more calls to do, one is a technical interview, one is a call with the sales guy this positioned would be partnered with and one more with a couple other SE's.

Salary range starts at double what I make now and that is before the commission, bonus & equity options. Just about sht my pants when he said that.

Nice brah sounds awesome!!! Are SE's architecting solutions for the customer? Sorry I'm not familiar with Sales Engineering, I do know they make bank.

[Cheap5.0]

Nice brah sounds awesome!!! Are SE's architecting solutions for the customer? Sorry I'm not familiar with Sales Engineering, I do know they make bank.

They do the designing and proof of concept for solutions, transition the design to post-sales engineering (or pro. services) and assist the sales guy/gal in all technical matters pre-sales.

I feel like its a long shot, but the hiring manager likes me and I have an employee referral so 'fuk it why not' is my mind set right now. Im super rusty on my FortiOS, Fortigate,etc....and can't go to deep on the L2/L3 networking concepts anymore either (LOL, I don't retain sht after a few years). I am going through Chris Bryant's Udemy CCNP course now on 1.5x speed, making notes of things I don't remember well then tomorrow I will start studying the FortiOS stuff again to prep for the technical interview which could cover those two items plus anything else they sell (sandbox, analyzer, switches, APs, mail, cloud, fortiguard labs, etc...). Definitely a long shot on the technical side.

Compare/contrast IPsec vs SSL, NGFW vs UTM, capwap limitations, 802.11_ flavors, why use one over another....I am scouring the internet to find other questions asked during the interview as well.

[Cheap5.0]

I just updated my resume for the first time in awhile, if anyone needs a good base/template to start from or wants to do some review let me know...ill take a look.

[InfiniteCurry]

Can you recommend a PC setup for me?
I use Premiere Pro & other video editing softwares religiously!

[jerzyfit]

if the only reasons you have for staying are those 3 i would take the new job brah. Look out for yourself.

This. I understand the feeling of leaving things behind, projects, people, etc. However, at the end of the day, it's just business.

[arabianvenom]

what was your path to get here?

Sorry bro barely saw your post now haha.

I'm 21, but I've been in the hacking scene for as long as I remember. I first got into it in like 2008 - so I was still in elementary school. I had access to Darkcode and was a frequent poster, just to give you an idea of how active I was at the time lol. Then I got away from that chit and became a Vulnerability Researcher for a few years: Netflix, few Airlines, Verizon, Pfizer, BoA, etc were my "trophies" so to speak, and I helped them bandage those security holes. A big new opportunity popped up outside of cyber security and I was moved to a new state as a result. I put in a few years there and in 2018, joined one the big 3 in a non-cyber security role. I tried to like it but couldn't. I started developing that itch for cyber security again so here we are. FireEye hit me up again about a different role they thought would appeal to me: Malware Analysis. I thanked them but politely declined, wished them the best of luck and told them I took up an offer already. It's important to preserve those relationships.

I'm enjoying this Sr. Incident Response Engineer role so far - still laying the groundwork, so there are a lot of challenges. I like that, because I'll be the first set of fingerprints on a lot of things.

First day here, manager pulled me in and drew a diagram on the whiteboard in his office outlining the procedures and responsibilities of the department, and said he wants me to be responsible for vulnerability management in the WebApp sphere. They also want code reviews, so I had a meet and greet with the developers as well. Enjoyed it

Are you in cyber security as well?

[SynapticCleft]

Sorry bro barely saw your post now haha.

I'm 21, but I've been in the hacking scene for as long as I remember. I first got into it in like 2008 - so I was still in elementary school. I had access to Darkcode and was a frequent poster, just to give you an idea of how active I was at the time lol. Then I got away from that chit and became a Vulnerability Researcher for a few years: Netflix, few Airlines, Verizon, Pfizer, BoA, etc were my "trophies" so to speak, and I helped them bandage those security holes. A big new opportunity popped up outside of cyber security and I was moved to a new state as a result. I put in a few years there and in 2018, joined one the big 3 in a non-cyber security role. I tried to like it but couldn't. I started developing that itch for cyber security again so here we are. FireEye hit me up again about a different role they thought would appeal to me: Malware Analysis. I thanked them but politely declined, wished them the best of luck and told them I took up an offer already. It's important to preserve those relationships.

I'm enjoying this Sr. Incident Response Engineer role so far - still laying the groundwork, so there are a lot of challenges. I like that, because I'll be the first set of fingerprints on a lot of things.

First day here, manager pulled me in and drew a diagram on the whiteboard in his office outlining the procedures and responsibilities of the department, and said he wants me to be responsible for vulnerability management in the WebApp sphere. They also want code reviews, so I had a meet and greet with the developers as well. Enjoyed it

Are you in cyber security as well?

Damn nice brah!!! What programming languages do you primarily use in your line of work?

[arabianvenom]

Damn nice brah!!! What programming languages do you primarily use in your line of work?

Thanks brah! Python, Ruby and C++ are always in demand. I think having a rudimentary fluency in others never hurts either.

What do you do brah, and what are your goals for the future?

[SynapticCleft]

Thanks brah! Python, Ruby and C++ are always in demand. I think having a rudimentary fluency in others never hurts either.

What do you do brah, and what are your goals for the future?

Python is my go to at work. I know beginner level javascript, java and ruby. Im trying to pick up Go but I dont have the time.

Current goal is to become a Site Reliability Engineer, it's going to be a long road to get there but I just need to grind and learn.

[arabianvenom]

Python is my go to at work. I know beginner level javascript, java and ruby. Im trying to pick up Go but I dont have the time.

Current goal is to become a Site Reliability Engineer, it's going to be a long road to get there but I just need to grind and learn.

What's your job currently bro?

Saw your name a few times when I dug back into this thread to get a feel for what everybody's doing, and you're certainly on the right track. Drive is there, knowledge is there, potential is infinite. You got this boyo

This is an awesome thread srs. Will definitely be posting in here frequently

[SynapticCleft]

What's your job currently bro?

Saw your name a few times when I dug back into this thread to get a feel for what everybody's doing, and you're certainly on the right track. Drive is there, knowledge is there, potential is infinite. You got this boyo

This is an awesome thread srs. Will definitely be posting in here frequently

I'm a cloud engineer, I manage VMs, DBs, networks, and applications on Azure and AWS.

Yeah man this thread is great to see what others are working on.

[Cheap5.0]

@arabianvenom, what part of the US are you in? Make it to any cons?

Going to meet up with the sales director and engineering director for the midwest at 3 this afternoon at the Marriot down in 'teh city. My wife asked if I was stressed....and honestly I am not. The roads have dried off and we don't have any snow, so Ill be driving my car for the first time in awhile and I love cruisin' so no matter how the meeting goes Ill get a solid 3 hours of driving. I know this meeting is simply to find out if I have face tattoos or some other reason why I should not be presented to clients.

[niospecv]

Man you guys blow me out of the water.

I'm only A+, Network + and CompTIA Operations Specialist certified.

All this cloud business sounds great but I have 0 experience in that since my area isn't very tech heavy. I'd like to get started with AWS but I can't afford to uproot my family. Thankfully I have my online businesses but it doesn't hurt to bring in more income through my main job.

Any advise on AWS, Azure and/or Google cloud certifications? Thanks.

[SynapticCleft]

Man you guys blow me out of the water.

I'm only A+, Network + and CompTIA Operations Specialist certified.

All this cloud business sounds great but I have 0 experience in that since my area isn't very tech heavy. I'd like to get started with AWS but I can't afford to uproot my family. Thankfully I have my online businesses but it doesn't hurt to bring in more income through my main job.

Any advise on AWS, Azure and/or Google cloud certifications? Thanks.

Go with the 800lb gorilla (AWS). Their certs are the most mature and desired right now. Azure is getting there, it's definitely the #2 cloud provider right now, but not yet quite ready to take AWS' throne. Also Azure just updated their azure certifications to mimic AWS certification, I'm waiting for udemy, linux academy, and acg to create training videos for the Azure Solutions Architect Professional certification.

[Cheap5.0]

Go with the 800lb gorilla (AWS). Their certs are the most mature and desired right now. Azure is getting there, it's definitely the #2 cloud provider right now, but not yet quite ready to take AWS' throne. Also Azure just updated their azure certifications to mimic AWS certification, I'm waiting for udemy, linux academy, and acg to create training videos for the Azure Solutions Architect Professional certification.

Im sure AWS has this, but I have used Azure to extend on-prem infra on an as-needed-basis ("bursting").

As for your experience/location...lets rewind 6 years. I was unemployed, just got my A+ and ITIL Foundations cert and got my first (paying) IT job for $15/hour. I changed jobs about every two years, which some cringe at but I kept getting more $$$ and more importantly more responsibility in more complex environments.

If you keep at it, always look for opportunities, work hard and study hard you can move up VERY quickly from where you are now. My current job and potential job I am interviewing for I could work anywhere with decent internet. Location is becoming irrelevant for the right people and businesses know this.

edit: A mistake I made often was feeling like "I need to get this knowledge/skill/cert asap before I lose my chance...". The skill defecit is not going away over night, next year or in five years. You have plenty of time to hone your skills, build up knowledge and work on certs. Don't burn yourself out working on that stuff, study things that tickle genuine curiosity.

[jerzyfit]

Im sure AWS has this, but I have used Azure to extend on-prem infra on an as-needed-basis ("bursting").

As for your experience/location...lets rewind 6 years. I was unemployed, just got my A+ and ITIL Foundations cert and got my first (paying) IT job for $15/hour. I changed jobs about every two years, which some cringe at but I kept getting more $$$ and more importantly more responsibility in more complex environments.

If you keep at it, always look for opportunities, work hard and study hard you can move up VERY quickly from where you are now. My current job and potential job I am interviewing for I could work anywhere with decent internet. Location is becoming irrelevant for the right people and businesses know this.

edit: A mistake I made often was feeling like "I need to get this knowledge/skill/cert asap before I lose my chance...". The skill defecit is not going away over night, next year or in five years. You have plenty of time to hone your skills, build up knowledge and work on certs. Don't burn yourself out working on that stuff, study things that tickle genuine curiosity.

Agree with this 100%. This career is a marathon, not a sprint. Truck along and you'll get there. Allocate 4-5 hours a week for testing purposes. AWS certs are definitely in demand, along with the inner workings of AWS. We have at least 5-10 more years that "cloud" is the big thing. Even after that, everything will be "in the cloud" and whatever the next big thing is will take time to migrate to. I'm a cloud engineer now and planning on staying in this path for a while.

[GODLE]

Has anyone taken the GSEC exam here? If so, any tips?

[Barcode120x]

Didn't want to make a thread on this, but is there a way to remove twitch video/trailer ads that pop up every now and then when you watch any streamer? It's weird cuz just maybe like 3-4 months ago I NEVER saw any of these stupid video/trailer ads. Then it hit, but then it went away for a few weeks about a month ago, but now it's back and very frequent. Super annoying. Not sure if ublock or adblock can block em, but I had them running and I still see these stupid video/trailer ads. Annoying to see the Apex and Metro Exodus video ads every freaking day and more than once every hour whenever I pop twitch open to watch someone for a short bit or switch streamers.

[Cheap5.0]

Has anyone taken the GSEC exam here? If so, any tips?

401 right?

I have not but I know a few who have, they all said the same thing. The class and book were more than enough to pass.

[jerzyfit]

Has anyone taken the GSEC exam here? If so, any tips?

I have a few acquaintances that took it. They did the SANS boot camp and passed.

[GODLE]

401 right?

I have not but I know a few who have, they all said the same thing. The class and book were more than enough to pass.

yup, im in the bootcamp this week. ok sweet. thanks bro

[GODLE]

I have a few acquaintances that took it. They did the SANS boot camp and passed.

Awesome. I'm currently in the bootcamp. Thanks man.

[Cheap5.0]

Remember that meeting I had yesterday with the midwest management team? It must have went well, I have a technical interview Friday morning We 'hit it off', the interview was super relaxed and took place in a marriot lobby. I hate posting things about myself, so Ill make this a post about how to interview better.

1) Its a skill, it takes time to build. The more you do the better you get.
2) If your desperate or have doubts about the job, it will show. Sometimes your desperate because you need the job, but outside of those times...just relax, treat the interview as a skill building exercise and a chance to get out of your comfort zone. Nothing more.
3) Be YOURSELF. I have made this mistake, trying to get jobs that I wanted so I do what I think the interviewer wants to hear or see and I always regret it. If your have faults, don't gloss over them. Stand on them, nod and accept them. If its a deal breaker, its better to find out now instead of getting the job and sweating it out every time that fault is tested.
4) Bring a copy of your resume, ask ahead how many people are attending and bring a copy for each. Arrive at least 15 minutes early. Trim your nails, hair and shave. Skip the drinks on the drive there. Zero cologne/strong smelling anything.
5) Have a way to take notes (I do pen & paper, but you do you). Bring some questions, but avoid the 'canned' questions you find on google. Spend some time thinking through the position, come up with your own but dont ask them if you have already skirted the topic and you can guess the correct answer. You will look dense.

Good luck BOYOS!

<---- Reviewing resumes still if anyone needs some help....

[Tobiasm3]

Has anyone taken the GSEC exam here? If so, any tips?

Took it a couple years ago. I had made an index similar to this https://tisiphone.net/2015/08/18/giac-testing/. I think the new SANS books already come with an index now, they didn't back then. Either way making the index helped me retain the information better then just reading. The practice test are a pretty good gauge of the real tests. I took screenshots of questions I wasn't sure of on the practice test and reread why it was a certain answer. The labs helped also so if you have time do them more then once. If I remember right in the class there will be some Ipv4 packet decoding might wanna make sure you get a good grasp on that, I kinda blew it off because I figured I will never see it. This site might help with that https://itgeekchronicles.co.uk/2014/...-ipv4-packets/

[GODLE]

Took it a couple years ago. I had made an index similar to this https://tisiphone.net/2015/08/18/giac-testing/. I think the new SANS books already come with an index now, they didn't back then. Either way making the index helped me retain the information better then just reading. The practice test are a pretty good gauge of the real tests. I took screenshots of questions I wasn't sure of on the practice test and reread why it was a certain answer. The labs helped also so if you have time do them more then once. If I remember right in the class there will be some Ipv4 packet decoding might wanna make sure you get a good grasp on that, I kinda blew it off because I figured I will never see it. This site might help with that https://itgeekchronicles.co.uk/2014/...-ipv4-packets/

Damn nice. awesome stuff man. Thanks. May I ask what your position is?

[devilbones]

Took it a couple years ago. I had made an index similar to this https://tisiphone.net/2015/08/18/giac-testing/. I think the new SANS books already come with an index now, they didn't back then. Either way making the index helped me retain the information better then just reading. The practice test are a pretty good gauge of the real tests. I took screenshots of questions I wasn't sure of on the practice test and reread why it was a certain answer. The labs helped also so if you have time do them more then once. If I remember right in the class there will be some Ipv4 packet decoding might wanna make sure you get a good grasp on that, I kinda blew it off because I figured I will never see it. This site might help with that https://itgeekchronicles.co.uk/2014/...-ipv4-packets/

I did the GPEN last year and it had an index.