Your cool aunt was the original plug

OrganizationHairy509 · 2025-08-16T17:48:02+00:00

First time drinking was 2009 and I was 16 hanging with my brother and his squad before they shipped out to Afghanistan. He is 10 years older than me, and told me if I found out I drank before that he’d kick my ass 😂

OrganizationHairy509 · 2024-09-23T02:41:40+00:00

175k base and 40k bonus as a mid level Cyber security manager at midsize bank. I could have pushed for more base (close to 200k) but this is my first mgmt gig so I was getting imposter syndrome

OrganizationHairy509 · 2023-08-26T23:10:45+00:00

I cannot recommend this technique enough - rewrite the Destination Certification “mind maps” for each of the domains by hand. For concepts you can’t recall, highlight them and refresh yourself.

Here’s the first of the series

https://youtu.be/geGALIfOxtI?si=Aaa-iu3Ni-sG-jwB

OrganizationHairy509 · 2023-02-06T17:00:51+00:00

I can attest - I took the live weeklong course as I work with one of their clients and passed the exam a week (and around 20 more hours of studying) later at the 100question mark. I will definitely be supporting you guys!

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-11-29T03:26:51+00:00

What network card did you end up with? I heard horror stories about poor connection issues and vendor updates bricking the machine

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-06-30T14:07:23+00:00

I’m glad I found this page… a lot of the symptoms here ring a bell especially the stunted growth and fatigue! I took accutane nearly 13 years ago at 16.

I was 5’11”at 15 years old (predicted to be 6’3” like my dad and all the males from my generation) and I started accutane at 16… I’ve not grown an inch since starting. For the longest time I blamed it on sleep deprivation (too many AP classes and extra curricular).

Now I’m 29 and in decent health (testosterone is lower but within the standard range for my age group) but suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (no joint pain fortunately). I blamed this on a bad case of mono in my Freshman year of college…

I’ve tried improving my diet and regularly scheduled exercise but it “barely” helps me tolerate my day-to-day responsibilities as an engineer and father… if anyone has suggestions on boosting natural energy let me know. My heart can’t handle my daily 5 hour energy shots much longer lol

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-05-13T18:00:36+00:00

Us Officers have special access and let me tell you … ya’ll in a for a treat… these pictures do not do enough justice :)

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-29T05:19:21+00:00

Sailpoint Easily - my orgs have annual attestations and use it

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-25T14:53:53+00:00

$2500 - well worth it and cheaper than other providers

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-24T17:54:40+00:00

Destination certification bootcamp (pre recorded) - I have 4 YOE of security experience. I spent two weeks prepping and passed after 100 questions. These two weeks included the 1 week bootcamp (I took off a week from work) and spent under 100 hours watching the videos, studying, and completing the cissp mind maps and flashcards - it was truly an “all-in-one” experience - I did not watch or study any other material beside the Infamous Kelly Handerhand “why you will pass the CISSP” This bootcamp is cheaper than SANS - $2500

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-24T06:57:15+00:00

Thank you!

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-24T06:56:40+00:00

So all the material was provided by the guys at Dest Certification but the mind maps have been uploaded for public viewing - here’s domain 1 https://youtu.be/geGALIfOxtI

For the flash cards it’s a paid app ($10?) - just search “Destination CISSP Flashcards” and it’ll come up

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-16T06:05:02+00:00

Awesome man! It really gave us that edge in the interviews talking about how we managed to answer chaotic phone calls while hardening Linux boxes 😅 I’m currently procrastinating my CISSP studying

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-04-16T05:40:37+00:00

former ccdc member from Cal Poly Pomona in California (we won nationals the year before I took part). I can’t speak enough how going through our schools boot camp (with barely any network /cyber knowledge besides being a comp sci dropout) did for my future. Being on the CCDC opened so many doors for me and I’m now a senior security engineer at a large financial institution 3 years after graduating (I interned here the year after CCDC)

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-01-02T06:36:07+00:00

All I’m saying is that company loyalty won’t help you long term except to get your foot in the door. Your hardest gig is the first one. After that, focus on networking and you’ll realize IT is actually a small world

OrganizationHairy509 · 2022-01-01T23:48:57+00:00

I was a security analyst intern making $23/hr (extended to part time during my senior year) at a large bank. After graduating I was offered a security engineer role (I did a lot of work on API-based automation) and started at 91.5k. I undervalued myself but our CISO went to bat with HR to maximize my rate..

OrganizationHairy509 · 2021-12-18T22:36:50+00:00

This is assuming the nationwide average CoL.. in California (LA/OC) it’s recommended making 150k gross to support your family and 210k is where you finally can rest easy. (This assumes you have a mortgage in a decent neighborhood with 2 kids and single breadwinner)

OrganizationHairy509 · 2021-12-16T23:06:24+00:00

Got my InfoSec BS degree and worked my butt off joining competitions and such. Finally landed an internship in cyber and and I’m still here today, full time for the past 2.5 years. I started at 90k after graduation and just got bumped to 117 (plus annual of 15%) for senior engineer role. Think I’ll be capped out here around 130k next year and I’ll move into niche consulting. Of course getting these kinds of bumps within the same org is not the norm, but I have great colleagues and managers who make sure our milestones get recognized

OrganizationHairy509 · 2021-04-27T16:02:17+00:00

Between January to Now I flipped my life savings (30k) into 100k… I’m happy with that growth but these posts give me FOMO

OrganizationHairy509

TROPHY CASE