General discussion
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Topic
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How I got an entry-level cybersecurity role.
Hello everyone,,,
So I spent a lot of time on Cybersecurity ITcareerquestions and HomeLab for the past year and a half as I’ve tried to break into security and I just landed an entry level role as a Security Analyst. I thought I’d share my story here as I was in the same boat as a lot of you two years ago (no relevant degree/certs, no real IT experience, vague idea of security, lots of discouragement from negative people on forums, etc.) .I had a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and about 3 years of job experience doing technical writing, operations management, and other roles but I knew that I wanted to go into IT. I decided to apply for a Master’s in Information Systems Operations Management to get that technical skillset/street cred. Towards the end of my degree I pretty much had my sights set on security. I loved the classes and it just seemed like a badass field (hacking, secrets, cryptography, etc.) so I decided to dedicate the next year and a half to making myself the ideal candidate for a security position.
As my first step, I applied for a desktop support role at the university I was studying at and got the job. Here’s what factored into that:
-the nature of my degree
-even though my most recent role was not officially IT related, I helped on a ton of IT projects and pushed that as much as I could in the interview
-tried to push the fact that even though I did not have an extremely intensive IT background, I had a lot of customer service/people skills which is invaluable in a desktop support environment when dealing with difficult situations/people
-researched desktop support interview questions and just general good interview preparation
(the fact that I was a student in the university which the job was held did not factor into me getting the job so don’t be discouraged about that. The hiring manager didn’t know I attended school until my first day of work).
From my literal first day, after meeting anybody with a vaguely IT related role I would ask “do you do anything security related?”. From there, I got bits and pieces from everybody as time went on and learned about security from an actual IT environment. I cannot overestimate how much this helped my understanding of security. This extra step is what will make the most of your desktop support role.
After a few months on the job, I delved into a bunch of security projects at home. I started watching Security+ cert training videos and built a home lab. I made my own pentesting kit.
