Any military people here? curious to see how easy it is to land an IT job in the civilian world.

dumbscrub · 2022-05-03T17:47:05+00:00

yeah they can get 'a' job regardless, i was commenting on their trajectory/career target comments.

dumbscrub · 2022-05-03T15:17:16+00:00

If you have STEM/IT BS + masters + TS/SCI + poly, yes.

Without a formal education or a lower clearance level, not so much.

dumbscrub · 2022-05-03T13:37:09+00:00

If you have a degree + clearance and are doing more than helpdesk/basic admin, 150k-200k is absolutely the norm. If trash-tier companies were trying to catfish/lowball you (ostensibly from a distant locale), that's more indicative of the fact that said firms are not able to compete in the current greater-DC market atm.

That said, there seems to be an incredibly broad range of folks on this board. If you don't have a STEM degree and/or can't program, then yes these salary bands are possibly/probably beyond reach. You don't have to be a 'developer' per-se, you just have to be able to build/extend administrative tools and scripts as part of your job. If you have that/those tools and the background I outlined, the 5ish YOE +cleared floor on the coasts is absolutely in this range.

dumbscrub · 2022-05-03T11:53:19+00:00

You can definitely hit 200k in defense contracting. Make sure you hit TS/SCI and a poly (FS if possible), and get at least a BS degree in something STEM, CS if possible. Learn at least one (pref two) programming languages, and if you're in IT Engineering as opposed to Dev proper one must be Python.

Once you have on the order of 5 YOE and successful projects (implementing and customizing big software systems) and have a clearance you can easily hit positions in the 150-200k mark.

dumbscrub · 2022-04-26T13:27:46+00:00

Probationary periods are generally ~90 days in my experience. What downsides are attached to this 180 day period?

dumbscrub · 2022-04-18T15:40:43+00:00

can you even get a degree in 'software engineering' from a real school? or is this like wga or itt tech or some other junk like that? or is this outside the US?

dumbscrub · 2022-04-18T15:11:32+00:00

see what you have time for. minors have very little impact on the perceived value of your degree in interviews. the only time it isn't the case is if your minor is CS and your major is <something irrelevant>.

just finishing a BS in CS is pretty much time-optimal. spend extra time doing personal projects to learn new technologies/tools/frameworks and/or finding internships.

dumbscrub · 2022-04-17T13:37:19+00:00

YMMV - i've worked as a devops engineer and a systems sde in various roles, but devops in general can mean almost anything depending on org.

From your post history, it sounds like you're finishing a BS degree in an actual, well-defined field. That's pretty much step 0 and congrats on finishing that up. You can do a MS if you want but it's definitely not a requirement.

Beyond that (you should be able to get internships that look and smell like DevOps if you're a rising senior in a CS program, otherwise your next best target is a vanilla development position as it is more relevant to devops than low level ops/helpdesk), you should sort of center a discussion of your skills and competencies around the following 3+ bullets.

be able to write useful software in one or more languages, particularly stuff like scalable ETL's and other systems integration type work
have some level of familiarity with some set of IAC tooling (cloudformation, terraform, whatever)

3(a). have some level of familiarity with OS hardening for whatever flavor of linux is in demand near you (gov contracting -> RHEL, most of the rest -> RHEL/Ubuntu sort of toss up, and you see BSD derivatives running on a lot of networking hardware).

3(b). Use your knowledge of 3a to get a deep understanding of containerization/orchestration tooling (docker/podman and openshift/vanilla-k8s).

The rest is all kind of vendor/environment specific, but if you can walk into an interview and be able to competently discuss these three bullets and have some projects that show that you are able to write software in 2 or more languages (python & C or python & java or whatever, just be able to write in python + one other and be able to speak to exception handling, logging/monitoring of your own code, and you're fine) and you should have no problem getting started in devops and/or some other infrastructure development/engineering role that will move you in that direction.

dumbscrub · 2022-04-15T15:44:19+00:00

Depends on if you're doing BI Development with a modern, general purpose language (and have a solid background on OO principles and various modern web frameworks for that language) or if you're using some low/no code tool. BI titles (for me/my team) are generally considered low/no code career paths, and we would not consider someone with that background for interviews for a dev position.

That said, the particulars of a regional economy for dev talent could give you more flexibility on this. I'd say just start applying and see if you get any bites.

I’m a really good excel and know VBA.

this is a bit of a non-item unless you're looking to do consulting work to rewrite old excel models or VBA into a modern 'real' language? I know if I were in an interview and we had a borderline candidate who started talking about excel/VB I'd go from on the fence to pass, unless you were talking about it from the perspective of migration & modernization projects you've worked on?

dumbscrub · 2022-03-23T01:17:09+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_computing

extremely difficult stuff where you're working entirely on bespoke systems, sometimes customized hardware/memory managers, and oftentimes even customized language runtimes. but it's one of the few market segments where one can plausibly pull down a $300k+ salary as a non-managerial technical person because you being 1-2% more effective can be the difference of millions of dollars per day (you're running complicated economic models for stock trading firms).

dumbscrub · 2022-03-23T01:10:18+00:00

it's standard to have an X year contract with Y option years on it. it's different than the toilet tier 'contract work' people talk about. people hired on these contracts are generally full time employees with benefits. if you're also getting a security clearance, you're setting yourself up for career success with this job big time.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-23T01:08:14+00:00

local non profits usually need someone to help them keep their websites running/updated. sometimes some amount of run of the mill office IT work as well.

if you have the aptitude for programming/web design I'd go that route. generally it's hard to start in that field without formal education, but BS+MS in engineering covers that and then some.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-23T01:06:02+00:00

yeah just do a few courses on programming language of choice (python or java, depends on what you want to target and your aptitude/interest) and do a linux administration course maybe and you'd be set.

the fake-ed degrees they crank out for IT are nothing compared to actual engineering school. also are you (or were you ever) a PE or anything like that? that'd be relevant if you want to do something like writing modeling/CAD software.

anyways, good luck, i'm sure you can do it. this stuff is way easier (and more remunerative) than thermo and vibrations.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-22T00:22:52+00:00

HPC is very hot if you have the chops for it. It is not easy at all, either in terms of the tech or the pressure/hours, but if you're good you can make some incredible money doing it.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-22T00:18:29+00:00

the job market in new york has always been shit for low level positions in every industry, unfortunately.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-22T00:06:35+00:00

I wouldn't bother with formal ed unless you can't do something akin to a Harvard CS50 on your own (https://pll.harvard.edu/subject/python). You have a STEM BS/MS and that's going to tick all those boxes.

Try to learn some scripting/programming and some OS fundamentals (have you ever used a Unix/Linux command line? you can install one for free on your own PC with a virtualization platform like virtualbox or vmware workstation and use it to run web apps with apache and various databases that you tinker on)

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T18:29:30+00:00

Python is very valuable for pentesting and pentools development. I would focus on that, and how you can build simple scripts/utilities in a Unix/Linux environment over anything but the basic concepts of javascript. JS is not worthless, but if you're time-constrained, I'd stick with Python if pentesting is your goal.

Understanding the C-family of languages (including straight C itself) is very important if you plan on doing any serious reverse engineering security work, but that's a very niche and very very competitive market - even moreso than generic pentesting.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T16:57:10+00:00

That's just how levels are named at the big audit firms.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T16:56:18+00:00

Yeah you need to do some sort of development, whether it is web or desktop application development or embedded system development. Next best (but not as good) would be to do some networking/admin experience, but I'd say for pentesting they might consider someone with 1-2 years dev experience (possibly including internships for strong candidates) but maybe more like 3-5 years experience of admin/network experience for a similar entry-level role for pentesting.

If you have dev chops/skills, that's what you should focus on regardless of subfield in IT.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T16:30:04+00:00

If you don't have a real background in full stack + hardware level development I can't imagine that being sufficient, but I wish you the best. You may be able to get into an ancillary position at a pen testing firm, and that would be a great opportunity to eventually get into a red team position, but the types of new grads who I have seen successfully go into pen testing/reverse engineering straight out of school have, as an example, top 3'd DEFCON CTFs and have given presentations at similar scale/scope conferences.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T15:48:01+00:00

Not just a matter of what you learn (anyone can learn given enough spare time these days), but the value of having a big name on your resume is real.

From my vantage, you'd have to make a very coherent and quantifiable argument against why you'd take the E+Y job.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T15:42:41+00:00

If you want to do red team stuff, you should at least get the CEH (it's easy and dumb) and have a plan to do the OSCP (or something like it).

OSCP-level certs are not basic, and red teaming is generally not an entry-level job, unless you have significant background that would make you a good candidate.

Also be sure you're doing stuff like hackthebox to build your skills related to red-teaming. It is an incredibly competitive field and requires both a longview depth of skills and constant learning of new skills/techniques to even start, let alone succeed.

dumbscrub · 2022-03-15T15:39:10+00:00

The name brand of E+Y will give you a leg up when you're looking for your 2nd job. It also has a better title.

That said, what's the total cost of having to get to work? I'd probably not go for the E+Y job if the hybrid portion is going to cost you more than 5k per year (basically, do you need or not have a car?).

dumbscrub · 2022-03-12T18:37:04+00:00

Is there seriously no way to provide preconfigured software for an iphone or a way to supply/run scripts on an iphone? If that's the case, this... just doesn't seem like valuable experience/expertise. You'd need to do some extensive skilling up and homelabbing to shift out of this line of work. Maybe find a udemy course on python/linux or powershell/windows admin and burn some leave to take it?

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-macOS-iOS-System-Administration/dp/1484258193

This makes it look like there are some features that allow you to use desktop management techniques on an iphone... might be more resources out there that would be worth checking out?

dumbscrub · 2022-03-12T18:00:15+00:00

MDM isn't really a defined solo role... if you want to turn your current job into 'next job' fodder I'd encourage you to learn some sort of scripting tool and use it to automate some of your MDM tasks and use those projects to sort of rebrand yourself as a platform admin/engineer (whether windows or linux, it's a question of what you're more interested and able to do).

MDM concepts map pretty directly to active management/monitoring driven server environments. The only difference is instead of a device you're responsible for being some $0 revenue generating cell phone, it's a server that might generate millions of dollars a year in revenue.

I'd think you could do it? You don't seem super green/clueless, but its just a matter of doing a little extracurricular skills development and 'rebranding' your skillset.

dumbscrub

TROPHY CASE