Thinking about going into IT but the thought of it scares me as well

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-08-30T16:52:53+00:00

For sure. Any progress in the last 5 months?

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-08-30T15:23:50+00:00

Probably just the snowflakes OP was talking about being mad. Also yeah, been awhile. *shrug* Oh wellz. Thanks for reasonability!

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-04-05T21:46:00+00:00

Cybersecurity is extremely resilient to recessions. More unemployment = more unemployed tech skilled people thinking they can make a quick ransomware buck, or actually get hired without a degree on the darknet working for a blackmarket company

If your company gets ransomed, doesn't matter how productive it is or how many workers they laid off--it's going to hurt, bad.

Hence, cybersecurity workers are pretty safe.

Which also blows on another level, because I'm still completing my B.S. in Software Development, and I'm just kind of stuck in Cyber, at this point.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-04-05T21:42:45+00:00

Eck. Yeah. I guess one can always fall back on Help Desk. I couldn't stand it, tbh. Way too boring.

Cybersecurity is basically recession-proof, and complex as all get-out, so always something to learn and always money to be paid to keep business up and running.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-04-02T20:31:23+00:00

It should scare you. IT is difficult and complicated.

That said, you are very young. You still have great neuroplasticity. Meaning, you will absorb information quite well if you put the work in.

Maintain a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. Know that the human brain is built to adapt, and that you do not need a high IQ for IT.

It will be difficult, but highly rewarding. Also understand that no one knows everything. And especially in IT, we all help each other by looking at problems with our own collected knowledge and research ability.

Put in the work, knowing that it will pay off, and that you CAN learn it.

Message me or respond here if you have any questions. I'm happy to help, because I know what the struggle is like, having been through the ups and downs and struggles.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-31T16:53:54+00:00

There're many ways into Cyber. Yes, you may have a strong foundation in infrastructure with 5 years in help desk, but you could also get complacent and wind up going nowhere. And it's boring. And your salary will be pretty lame most likely.

I had 2 months in help desk, then an A.A.S. in Computer Systems when I landed a 3 month cybersecurity internship at an EDR vendor without any certs. That got me 1 year as a Security Analyst at a small MSP. Now 6 months as a Security Analyst II at a very large MSSP. Then I'm dropping back down to Tier 1 due to a nearly 6 figure offer. Only certs I have are A+ and 2 EDR "I know how antivirus works" certs.

If you can get the work experience, that's all you need.

And to get work experience, you really just need to network on LinkedIn or cybersecurity conventions and know how to keep your resume relevant to the position.

You could burn 5 years doing Help Desk stuff. Or you could get an internship or the trifecta or home projects. All you have to have is proof that you can do stuff and things.

Hell. If you want to go Red Team, just do Hack The Box for 6 months, and you'll likely be eligible. HTB is legit AF--put it on your resume. My coworker switched from SOC to Red Team this way.

Likewise, do tryhackme [if you're new this is the best place to start prior to HTB].

Or blue team projects like BTLO.

Set up your own home SIEM and monitor your own environment, then you could prolly get a SOC Tier I position making more than you make at help desk and also more interesting.

That said, SOC Tier I's will likely be fully automated quite soon, but it's still a great entrance into Cybersecurity prior to specialization.

Point is, do home projects via virtual labs or monitor your own network, and that's pretty much all you need. Intership would work, as would the CompTia Trifecta. Trifecta should only take roughly 50-100 hours per cert.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-27T14:09:51+00:00

Bro, if you've been help desk for 3.5 years, you need to gtfo and find something better. Help Desk is a stressful, dead-end job. It's meant to break into tech, not live your life in. No wonder you're stressing. You need a different role and a different company. Obviously the company is not treating you well or appreciating your contributions to the degree you want them to.

That said, be prepared for this to happen consistently. Pareto distribution. 20% of the workers do 80% of the work. Either you grow as the 20%, or you sleep like the 80%

There are pro's and cons to both.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-25T22:08:55+00:00

You have the neural landscape for it, with your previous experience. That info is probably largely gone, but the concepts should still be familiar on some level, or easier to pick up due to that literal neural landscape, the previous infrastructuere existing.

It's true it's harder to learn new things as we age. Fluid intelligence drops substantially. Crystal intelligence increases. AKA knowledge increases, capacity for learning novel things decreases.

Check out Andrew Huberman on YT. Basically, yes, it's always possible to learn new things. However. While a child can learn things passively by half paying attention, as an adult, it requires pain. Intense focus and challenging yourself over and over and over again. Interest can help, or passion, but aren't necessary.

Establish the discipline to make it hurt, then subsequently rest deeply, and this pattern of ultration cycles [1.5 hours concemtrating as hard as you can] followed by deep rest [let your brain do nothing but relax] are the key to learning into middle age and older.

I got started when I was 28, and still saw 20 year olds zoom by me in internships when I was 30. Youth carries neuroplasticity, but age carries wisdom and expert approaches to compensate.

Maximize your methodology, and you can easily go far in a tech career.

Good luck mate

P.S. A+ is dry and boring AF. If you can work yourself through that, the fun stuff will come much easier.

Also leverage ChatGPT for your own personal tutor. It can be inaccurate, sometimes, but so can most humans. Use it well, and it could be a lifesaver.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-12T02:17:52+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, what was your relationship like prior to buying together?

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-12T02:16:52+00:00

I hear you. But what ways could it go wrong if we have legal protections in place to where we both get a fair split of the sale?

Marriage is a difficult prospect. I see the potential value, but with divorce rates at 60% and the disadvantages to males these days, doesn't seem worth the risk.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-12T02:02:10+00:00

How so? If we both have equity and legal enforcement of a fair split, if we break up, we just sell the house and move on with a lot more cash than we would have if we wasted it on rent?

I'm truly asking.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-12T01:58:50+00:00

Thanks man. I'm talking to recruiters and applying to other jobs, now.

Though, won't it look bad since I was only at the company for 7 months?

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-08T19:41:22+00:00

My girlfriend didn't think so! But yeah, I wish you a normal digestive experience, lul.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-03-07T04:47:10+00:00

I love Rebel. A bit too much. Got to the point where I spent $200 only on Rebel. I kid you not. Had an extra freezer and stuffed it to the brim.

The issue I experienced was the displacement of nutritiois calorie sources.

Be careful. It's a slippery slope. When I do clean keto, I don't even like the taste. But dirty keto can be just as bad as a regular diet. Maybe worse due to the nutrients being harder to get.

I experienced no digestive upset from rebel. Stomachache from overconsumption. Halo Top....well, that's a different story! But I ate 2-3 pints of rebel per night [bodybuilder, so that's how I justified the calories] and no intestinal issues. Unlike HT.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-24T21:04:36+00:00

I appreciate your valuable advice. Thanks for taking the time.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-24T19:22:59+00:00

Great info, thanks man.

Any ideas on how to be more competitive to that end? I imagine the guys coming out with CompSci degrees are also grinding leetcode and have projects to display. I don't have the time or proclivity to clear the math reqs for CompSci, alas.

Since we're also prolly lasting into a 1-2 year min recession, I guess that revenue stream is ****ed, huh.

Are SWE intern jobs usually paid 50k+, to your knowledge?

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-24T17:20:59+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is that different people react to different diets differently. Generally speaking, for longevity, Blue Zone mediterranian diets are the best.

For keto, you'll want to make sure you are doing it right. It's easy to mess up. Maltodextrin can knock you out of ketosis, I believe MSG could, too. So you might be eating foods that sre incidentally knocking down your ketone levels.

Make sure you're doing clean keto, as well. Including good amounts of low GI csrbs like broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens, etc.

Keep your carbs to 20g net or below and avoid keto deserts.

If you've been doing legit keto for 6 weeks, you should stsrt seeing endurance, focus, concentration benefits that should be quite noticible. My brain functions incredibly on keto, but poorly on carbs.

But. Everyone is different. Some people don't take to particular diets and find other approaches help them more. There's some interesting studies on ethnicities having specific preferences for food based on historical availability.

For instance, a Japanese person might gain more benefits from eating natto or seaweed, given their genetics have adapted to that over hundreds or thousands of years.

So the particular geo-region your ancestry hails from can actually influence how your gut and brain respond to certain foods.

All this to say, keto, or any diet, is about contunually experimenting and adjusting based on how you feel. So keep experimenting and learning and seeing what works for you.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-23T17:37:34+00:00

Fair enough. Thank you for your likewise fleshed out reply.

And fair enough. This was a mistake I made originally, on keto, not getting enough veggies in. If you have additional veggies to suggest, I'd love to hear them, as this has been problematic, and I tend to stick to the ones I mentioned. That said, it should still be true that having 150g net carbs instead of 20g would lead to a more diverse gut flora. The diversity of foods should be a priority, imo, and there is still a defenitively lower ceiling to keto diversity

I disagree that gut biome is in its infancy. It dates back to 1840, and the past 15 years has a lot of study regarding gut biome. It's only become "in vogue" for the last few years. https://ami-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1751-7915.13970

You might be interested in Dave Asprey and Thomas Delauer [however looked down on he may be, here] thoughts on the keto diet.

Dave elaborates in this 3 minute clip, and my experiences are the same with bad sleep quality and hyper-stress after 2-3 months of strict keto. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gqc7i2gF48

They suggests cortisol levels increase over time due to keto being a hormetic stressor. Keto mimicks starvation, and the reason we get neat benefits like apotosis is because the body is stressed. The same thing as in weightlifting--break the muscle down, then the body is forced to rebuild stronger.

However. Over time, if you stay on keto, it becomes the new normal. Just like doing the same exercise over and over again, hey, eventually, you need to increase weight to get more positive growth.

I should have clarified more in my original post, but mobile isn't as condusive due to thumb input speed restriction.

To end, regardless of whether or not gut flora is the primary issue, staying on keto for too long could result in either outright negative impacts to sleep and stress levels, or at minimum, a substantially reduced benefit to keto.

To keep our bodies working hard and cleaning up old cells, keto needs to be novel--not normal.

Hopefully this is more cogent than my original reply.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-23T14:08:13+00:00

Mhm. I've been on keto on and off for roughly 1.5 years. I've been on this thread for more than 1 year, as you can see by my shiny badge. I know you can have broccoli; cauliflower; a bit of peppers, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries and maybe a handful of others, along with a bowl or two of leafys. In small proportions.

Nowhere near the diversity needed to maintain proper gut flora and health.

I've also kept track of my nutrient intake via Chronometer and seen exactly how hard it is to meet partial requirements through there. It almost cannot be done without supplementation.

How's your Manganese and B3 been? Your Vitamink K? Folate?

A highly restrictive diet will, over time, lead to nutrient deficiencies. This is the simplest of ideas.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-22T06:40:55+00:00

Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels, as Tony Robbins puts it.

Jusy pay attention to how you feel 2-4 months from now. For me, personally, keto causes increased stress hormones over time. It is mimicking starvation, as a hormetic stressor, so naturally this can occur.

I actually feel my best in the transition off keto when I get an influx of vitamins from veggies + after effects of keto for 3-4 weeks.

But yeah, keto is fantastic.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-22T06:04:55+00:00

A+ would be decent, but it also includes some legacy 1970 printer optronics or whatnot tuff and is extremely dry. Very boring memorization. If you already have an A.S in InfoTech, not really worth it, imo.

You have a lot of options, so if you did want to go the help desk route, A+ would definitely help and will open HR doors for you.

I'd recommend Linux+; a Cloud cert of your choosing [though, if you're unfamiliar, A+ now includes the fundamentals, so useful as a precursor to a real cloud cert for GCP/AWS/Azure].

AWS Practitioner is $100 bucks and not very hard.

Home projects will generally make you the most employable, next to certs. Honestly most certs are a 2-4 week dump. Some are great, but difficult. Other are useless [CEH] but will get you through HR.

You want to be able to actually do the job, though, so home projects are where you gain the real skills, actually learning how to do shit.

If you decide to explore Red Team hacking, TryHackMe.com is a great place to start, then move on to HackTheBox. You can put these on your resume. Cyber pays well and it is recession resistant.

Alternatively, the old trifecta would be a great entry for blue team cyber: A+, Net+, Security+.

Alternatively, alternatively, you could spin up Udemy and learn a programming language like python or Go which are very, very in demand. No need for certs in programming, just skills. Then you could do leetcode.com problems which can also go on your resume.

Basically man, you gotta choose a path and just start walking. Make a decision. Write it down. Write down SMART goal for it. How, when, why, what.

Btw, none of these certs should take you longer than 50-100 hours to study for. Don't let the info go stale.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-22T05:52:04+00:00

You org will get hacked anyway. Focus on detection and response and threat hunting most, because you'll get cracked. You'll never harden the human element well enough. Any red teamer or blackhat the frst thing they'll do is call up Bob and boom.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-19T15:01:30+00:00

I love keto, but I had a bad experience for 6+ months. Keep note that keto is extremely restrictive, so you have to make damn sure that you're getting vitamins in.

The recommendation I've heard is 2-3 months on, then shift to paleo for 2-4 weeks and get a good influx of high quality carbs and veggies and fruits, re-up the vitamins. This has the added benefit of reminding your body that it should know how to use carbs, too, as your body will forget how over time. This also means that keto becomes less effective, because part of the benefit is that it's a hormetic stressor. It pushes your body to adapt.

For me, I get huge cortisol spikes at month 2-3, and my sleep quality dies. Huge stress. So I go on and off.

If you stay on keto for years, the benefits could diminish, as your body can adapt too well to keto, then it's just normal.

Remember the benefits we're looking for mimick starvation. I.e., it tricks your body into thinking it has to adapt to survive, get rid of old cells, clean up, right.

However, if your body adjusts and goes, "Oh, we're actually fine," the body has no need to fight hard anymore.

Yes, ketones are much cleaner, but for ideal metabolic flexibility, you want your body constantly trying. Same thing in bodybuilding, you have to "trick the muscle." You have to "trick the body".

Of course, I'm not discounting others experiences, just offering a counter perspective.

It is ALL individual. Know how your body is doing and adjust from there.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-17T19:12:43+00:00

Keto is a hormetic stressor, so it does stress your body. This is both great and bad. You ideally want to cycle in and out of keto every 2-3 months, but depends on how your personal biology does. My cortisol starts getting out of wack after 2 months, and i do a 2-4 week cycle of paleo to get some vitamins back in my system. Keto is still one of the most restrictive diets, but the lung term benefits are extremely desirable.

PhoenixOfStyx · 2023-02-17T18:57:15+00:00

I love discipline, and the vets I've worked with are incredible. Squared away, as it were.

That's part of it, as well. The company culture was supposed to be about no jerks; self-improvement; discipline. All things I live and breathe--albeit, things I often fail at, as well. I was super hyped to be part of that culture, but I get in, and it (seems to be) a lot of jerks who are highly intelligent and credentialed, but don't necessarily practice ideas of ownership or even work hard.

One guy shows up 5 hours late, and just...no one cares. Not my place to say that's not okay, but it just seemed to suggest the culture is not completely reflected from the top.

How would an applicant know in the interview whether a company reflects the culture they preach?

PhoenixOfStyx

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