I currently work as Helpdesk analyst for a company that produces projectors. I am on the NOC that field technicians call into for any assistance. I would describe my job as having some elements of network, software, and hardware troubleshooting. Ultimately with my end goal I want to get into cybersecurity and be on a SOC somewhere. To achieve that I am working on my Net+ and building a home lab with some hardware I have to practice building a virtual network. Eventually I want to develop my coding skill and get my Sec+ and other certs. What are the opinions of those who are in both industries and any advice?
I just kinda “fell” into IT. In terms of college, I hold an Associates Degree in Math/Science from a community college; so, slightly more than nothing, but only just. I was very lucky in that my father spent an insane amount of money in the early 80’s to buy a computer and then turned me loose on it. I was doing simple programming in GW-Basic by the time I was a teenager and got pretty good at making boot disks to play games. I just became that kid who “knew computers”. After leaving college, a friend of mine convinced me to put a resume in at the company he worked for. They needed a computer tech and I fit the bill. From there it was a long sequence of job hops every 3-5 years until I ended up as a sysadmin dealing with mostly Windows systems, Active Directory, Exchange and SQL. Plus, anything else which just needed someone to “figure it out”. That eventually landed me at a gig working as a sysadmin at a US FedGov site (which is why I got my CISSP). There I often worked closely with the cybersecurity team, as they would need stuff done on the domain, and I would get it done. When they had an opening on their team, they did everything short of drag me into the office to apply for that spot. I worked in cybersecurity for that site until a bit after the COVID pandemic when I got a message on LinkedIn about a “FULLY REMOTE” (yes, the message put that all in caps) position. I was curious and applied. I now work from home, reading other peoples’ email and trying to keep the network secure for a Fortune 500 company.
The best advice I can offer is: keep learning and never be afraid to just try.
A lot of my career is based around “oh shit, it’s broke. Here sylver_dragon, you figure it out.” I loved logic puzzles as a kid and now I basically do them for a living. I would also recommend nurturing professional relationships and don’t burn bridges you don’t need to. That friend, who got me my first IT job was also pivotal, about a decade later, in getting me to apply to a different company he worked for at the time. When I put my resume in, it passed through the hands of several different people, people whom I had worked with at that first job. Between my performance and them knowing what type of person I was, everyone one of them said, “yup, hire this guy”. Having good working relationships now can pay a lot of dividends in the future.
I see, that honestly sounds like a pretty natural way get into IT. I have basically had a computer since I was in kindergarten and one parent had a MacBook while I had a windows computer. I am thankful for that because I’ve noticed that I’ve always been a bit more savvy than average people. Hearing stories like yours definitely makes me confident that I can still get really far without a CS degree.
Thankfully I’ve kept in good touch with all my past colleagues so hopefully it will work for me like it did with you.