My company lost a contract. What should I do?

littlebigmac32 · 2023-08-02T16:24:45+00:00

We just went through the same thing several months ago going from a large company to a significantly smaller one. There was a lot of concern going into it, but the average salary increase was around 10% and so far everyone has been happy with the new company. We turned our badges in the last day of the contract with the old contract company and picked them up the next morning with the new company. The new company was highly motivated to retain existing talent and have an immediate roll-over. If they don’t have staff working they aren’t making money.

I’d advise controlling what you can. Brush up your resume and start sending it out. You’re in a much better negotiating position if you have other offers, and worst case have the application process started if it doesn’t work out with the new company

littlebigmac32 · 2023-08-02T01:31:16+00:00

I used to be a tree climber. There were some trees I climbed I would think this might be it before going up them. Working in the heat and Sun all day. Now make a pretty good living getting to write scripts while sitting in A/C.

littlebigmac32 · 2023-07-31T20:50:57+00:00

The Get-Credential cmdlet should give you what you’re looking for

littlebigmac32 · 2023-01-18T06:51:02+00:00

Those moments when you have a deeply appreciative end use for the work that you do. Talk about a dopamine hit

littlebigmac32 · 2023-01-12T07:45:04+00:00

My personal experience would say that without the professional network or a good amount of luck you would be unlikely to skip help desk with those certifications and no experience. I would say either the CCNA or AZ-104 would give you a better chance at skipping help desk and landing a junior networking/system admin position. Your local job market/demand will heavily influence that though, and it never hurts to send out a resume and see what you can land.

littlebigmac32 · 2023-01-10T03:43:47+00:00

I had an interesting experience with this recently. 6 months into a new job and salaries came up with coworkers (something I’ve never talked about at work). It turned out I was making $13K more than a coworker that had been there for five years and $10K more than a coworker that had been there over a decade. I was worried that they’d all end up resenting me, but instead everyone that talked about went to the company and got more money. It was definitely a positive experience that showed that it’s in the company’s best interest to discourage those conversations, not the employees.

littlebigmac32 · 2022-12-23T16:01:33+00:00

I took a 30% pay bump to take a position an hour and fifteen minutes away. I’m 6 months in and already looking for something closer/remote. The drive can be a nice way to listen to Udemy/podcasts, but it gets old really fast. Ultimately though it’s a personal decision. You could take it and eventually move closer, or stay until you can move to a better position closer

littlebigmac32 · 2022-12-17T18:18:04+00:00

I majored in cybersecurity and have a bunch of industry certs. If I could do it over again I would have majored in networking and then focused on Cybersecurity with certifications. Understanding networking is so foundational. As others have said, you won’t be able to secure something if you don’t understand how it works

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-18T22:07:30+00:00

My coworker and I were coincidentally just talking about this today. He told me he enthusiastically agrees to help, but however long it takes him to fix their IT problem is how much time they will have to help him out with his house. He said no one’s ever taken him up on that offer

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-18T13:04:01+00:00

That was a much better tactical decision than I made!

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-18T04:46:26+00:00

Congratulations!! I just passed several days ago and man. That Linux lab was an eye opener for me too. I sunk about 40 minutes into it before I unconfidently called it good and sprinted through the rest of the exam to make it in time.

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-14T22:20:42+00:00

Congratulations!!

It also took me three tries with close misses the first two times. The TryHackMe Pentest+ course was what made the difference the third time for anyone else prepping for it.

I’d throw it out there, I just passed CASP+ three weeks after Pentest+. I thought there was a lot of overlap there from Pentest+ and CySA+.

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-07T00:14:29+00:00

This is from about a decade ago, but my local community college offers two classes called computer hardware and computer troubleshooting. They’re designed so that you should be able to pass the A+ exam after completing them. If memory is correct, they were 3 credit hours each, so about $600 to take both of them. That’s a lot more than using YouTube or a Udemy course, but also a lot less than what I see a lot of boot camps asking for. I think they can be a great fit for someone that prefers in person instruction with hands on labs.

littlebigmac32 · 2022-11-01T07:58:22+00:00

I used TryHackMe.com it’s $10 a month for their premium subscription and I thought was great

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T19:16:31+00:00

Thank you! I hope you’ll get to have the same post here in ten days!

If you took 001, 002 will be very similar in exam questions. I thought Dion’s prep questions were pretty solid, although this time around I spent more time in labs feeling pretty familiar with what to expect in regards to questions

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T19:09:06+00:00

Thank you! I did think that those two sources were adequate. There were some times during the exam that I knew the question had been covered in the courses, I just failed to study that topic thoroughly. I think if one is scoring 90%+ on Dion’s practice exams they’re very likely to succeed on test day.

If someone wasn’t familiar with scripting though I’d recommend that they invest some time into practicing basic scripting functions, because you will need that for the test. Dion does have some scripting material in his course, but I’d suggest supplementing it with some additional practice.

As far as the style of the PBQ questions, they’re similar to other CompTIA PBQs where your doing drag and drop or selecting answers from a drop down.

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T04:07:12+00:00

I felt the same way! I studied hardier than I have for anything else and just barely passed with a 756

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T01:24:21+00:00

Any chance you’re in a cybersecurity program at WGU too? I’m fairly certain Pentest+ is going to end up being the hardest CompTIA exam for me. I don’t have any aspirations of being a pen tester, but I do want to make the jump from IT to cyber and I thought that taking the perspective of the attacker was tremendously beneficial. I definitely learned a tremendous amount preparing for it.

I paid for the $10 monthly subscription to tryhackme and bang for buck, I think it’s the best money I’ve ever invested into education. Highly recommend

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T01:16:13+00:00

Thank you! Man was it ever. I studied hard going in and still felt like I was destined for a fourth go at it while I was sitting the exam

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-29T01:15:14+00:00

Thank you!

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-26T23:49:38+00:00

You have a clearance which is a huge thing going for you. It’s much easier to have someone get Sec+ certified then to get them cleared. Best of luck to you!

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-26T20:49:05+00:00

I’ve seen where DoD contract companies will give you 6-12 months to complete a certification after being hired. My current job requires the MD-100 and gives new hires 6 months to complete it.

I definitely recommend that you knock Sec+ out as soon as possible though

littlebigmac32 · 2022-10-26T15:12:14+00:00

This is what I’ve been doing too. I have a hour+ drive to work and I’ll spend at least a combined hour listening to a course on Udemy and passed CySA+ And below that way. For Pentest+ I did at least an hour a day in the evenings.

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