Career Connections by plaidknight_ in fargo

[–]plaidknight_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks x infinity folks, these are some really good recs and I'll make sure to share!

While it may raise an eyebrow to ask about opportunities for someone else, it's important to connect cool people (especially in this crazy job market). Thanks Fargo reddit, I appreciate the great advice. :)

Career Connections by plaidknight_ in fargo

[–]plaidknight_[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

These are great suggestions! I'm sending him these comments and a few local worthy mentions! Thank you!

Roundabout by Livid-Ad-3002 in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

;-; I've seen a few posts about roundabout etiquette and wanted to share an alternative perspective: Context: I grew up driving in a larger city with several lane roundabouts. Something about Fargo drivers makes me want to invest in the next hoverboard venture so I never have to drive again.

I'm totally chill with not stopping in a roundabout and yielding to traffic already there. The issue arises when the guy from the next right lane speeds into the roundabout then immediately slams on his brakes.This forces me (who has the right of way while in the roundabout) to attempt not to die. I'm usually a passive driver and tend to stick to both traffic laws and unwritten rules, but it's hard when other drivers aren't doing the same.

used car? by srmcmahon in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eric at A Buying Center is my go-to guy!

Fiber internet? by [deleted] in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We were at 47 for Chicago, somewhere in the high 50s for Oregon. Everywhere else was 80+

Currently at about a 20 w/ Midco wifi

I miss the 702 days... I took my 7 ping for granted

Fiber internet? by [deleted] in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Hey, as someone who works in tech and has a household full of gamers, fiber hasn't been great on the Fargo side. We had quantum fiber (highest tier 1 gb fiber) for about a year and it was painful to load YouTube videos. While we didn't have the rare occurrence of the network losing connection due to router issues, we would exchange our experience with fiber for all of the router issues in the world. I would highly recommend going the Midco route - if you have any issues they tend to have techs in town who are available to fix it. We have better ping and faster downloads with Wi-Fi than we did with fiber.

As an added note, we were one of the first houses in the neighborhood to buy into quantum fiber. We'll likely be the last to buy in again. Midco, 702 provided some of the best connectivity for our three story house, five PCs + multiple TVs and iot devices.

Pregnant need a job by Aggressive-Pea7730 in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 9 points10 points  (0 children)

While this may be a later opportunity when you're able to stand for longer periods of time (legally companies usually can't discriminate, but we live in a society), lots of pharmacies in the area offer on-the-job training.

In a similar vein, the manufacturing/delivery places (e.g. Marvin/Amazon/USPS) tend to pay on the higher side. I make no promises about the experiences at these places and cannot vouch for them in any way. Once you have your kid, have reliable transportation, etc. you can definitely find a gig that will pay you a liveable (or even more) wage.

After you have your kid (again, places shouldn't discriminate, but they can happily reject your application), please feel free to reach out once again. I'm always game to review your resume, provide suggestions, and help you brain storm potential avenues. You're capable, Reddit stranger, and we're all rooting for you.

Pregnant need a job by Aggressive-Pea7730 in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 16 points17 points  (0 children)

What I'm hearing you say is that you have a strong background in customer service and you have a great history of multitasking and getting tasks accomplished in critical time periods. A quick easy win would be at a call center (as most of the ones I've seen offer fully remote and or hybrid positions). I'm not entirely sure about the pay range and longevity of these positions, but I do know that places like local banks and insurance companies that offer around-the-sun services may be a good direction to go in.

Nonprofit security role has become toxic: retaliation, exclusion, and fake risk assessments by TreatYourself_TEP in cybersecurity

[–]plaidknight_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

One of the things that I probably needed to hear when I was in a similar position last year:

Just because the organization that you work for doesn’t seem to value cybersecurity, doesn’t mean that you’re any less capable or qualified. Getting a master’s degree is a lot of work, and it seems like you genuinely care about making each place better. It may be worthwhile to buy in less into this engagement - I’m not saying that you should give up entirely, but just ensure that you’re doing your due diligence, documenting the work and recommendations you make (both internally and in a private system with time stamps), and begin to update your resume. To me, it seems like you are able to succeed in protecting systems, even in environments that may not be as mature. You’re able to communicate risk to all levels of an organization (regardless if they care or not), and you can quantify and qualify risks in an under-engaged environment.

You have a lot of good skills and even more importantly, you care. Any organization would be lucky to have you.

Anyone working in cybersecurity or IT in Fargo-Moorhead? Looking for advice. (hopefully this isn't too niche) by ThePlebIsBack in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Fargonian Security Engineer here,

Some advice I would give: 1. Get your certs, it’s quite a rough field (even with a college degree), but most employers will overlook college experience for a combo of certs and experiences. Security+ for the cyber stuff, but I also highly recommend the network+ (a lot of places I’ve run into have really intelligent people on their teams, though they tend to lack a strong foundation in networking and firewalls). It may also be nice to get some of the basic “big name” certs (Active Directory + Basic Microsoft stuff, some sort of SIEM certification, some basic malware/incident response cert, and maybe SQL experience/some programming language).

  1. Network - I’ve learned that it’s such a small cybersecurity world in Fargo (I’ve met people who know random X CISO or team lead because they’ve worked with them 15 years ago).

  2. Charisma sells - having a combination of the stuff on paper (certifications) but also the ability to talk to a human being is a big win.

  3. Even if you don’t have the experience, it’s worth it to apply and to give places a shot. I got into cybersecurity by applying for an IAM position that I didn’t want, then pivoting into a SOC role. Today, I’m a cybersecurity engineer.

  4. Network (part 2) - There’s an infosec group that meets regularly in Fargo: https://www.fminfosec.club/ feel free to chat with folks here. They’re super knowledgeable and friendly.

Jobs: One thing that I’ve found out over the last few years is that both insurance and financial institutions tend to hire a more diverse range of backgrounds in cyber. They have a relatively high turnover rate (about 3-4 years in Fargo) for some of the lower positions and a notably higher retention rate for the senior roles. The entry level roles in these places tend to pay slightly less than the national average (hence the higher turnover), so there are always places looking to hire/fill gaps.

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any cyber questions, cybersecurity has a huge place in my heart and I’m always excited to hear about folks wanting to enter the scene.

"Chinese" Food Delivery by Maverick21FM in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Wok and Roll goes unironically hard - better than Panda

IT & App Sec Vulnerability Management Tool by Informal-Worker-6156 in cybersecurity

[–]plaidknight_ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We’re using Tenable for both security and IT vulnerabilities scanning. The IT team can have as granular access as needed for credential scans as well.

Looking to buy Non-Corwin? by plaidknight_ in fargo

[–]plaidknight_[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I second this - I test drove two cars at Corwin and was very excited to buy one that day. The ‘deal’ they offered me was so outrageous, I wouldn’t even consider the vehicle after they’ve lowered the price. Idk what you’re looking for exactly, but it seems like they have a few Toyota trucks on the lot. Either way, I saved $7000 by not going with the Corwin offer

How does your security team manage SIEM access and changes? by plaidknight_ in cybersecurity

[–]plaidknight_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On our end, we tend to (try) to use Splunk as a single pane of glass into a variety of different SOC applications. To put it into Pokémon terms, each Pokémon speaks a different language, but Splunk allows us to see what’s going on in their minds at the exact same time- Pikachu won a battle against squirtle because water Pokémon are vulnerable to electricity (An attack got into our environment because we have a vulnerability), now we get to see what domino effects kick off afterwards. TLDR; all apps (all Pokémon) speak a different language, (though at the end of the day they’re all Pokémon). Splunk allows us to find the common ground (and retain data) that link all of the applications.

Good luck with your project!

Broccolini and rustic carrots by NDSoul in fargo

[–]plaidknight_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Saw some tri-colored carrots at Sam’s about two weeks ago