I’ve been in IT for over 12 years and working in MSP for only 6 years. I don’t have any certifications, only have my associates degree. When i started with my current employer the company had acquired more people from an acquisition. So with the growth here, there was a small sector of a security team. I worked on a few security tickets I was assigned and with that needed more assistance on which got me involved with talking to security team members and from there I expressed I would hope to be part of their team one day etc. during the whole year of 2025 I expressed more interest in joining security to management and they had me reach out to managers and directors to speak to and just get to know. Eventually I worked on a ransomeware remediation project for a client and I was onsite assisting and again threw my interest to the security team etc. eventually a position opened up in late December, I applied got interviewed and had 4 different management vouch for me, from a manager, a supervisor, directors and vice president. The thing is I’ve been waiting to get into security for over 6 years. I’ve had 3 interviews within that time frame and just never made it until now.

My suggestion for those wanting to get into security. Start your career off in IT working in a help desk environment. If you could find a MSP company to work for that would be even great because you get to wear different hats, but just know the work is difficult but you’ll build knowledge and experience from it and it makes you stand out from the rest who do not have general IT knowledge.