I’m looking to make a career change from retail sales. Investigating my options. Seeing that there’s usually a minimum requirement of some jobs training.
I’d like to avoid going back to school for a four year degree, if it can be avoided. Do you see people being hired with their only training being these boot camps or technical degrees I’m seeing some places? Should I just consider a 4 year degree as cost of entry here?
@spaceraser#SCaLE in March will have a career track and usually covers recareering, we'll also have career counseling. Need to be in person in Pasadena, Calif
I removed the degree requirement for my job reqs, but nothing open right now
I'd like someone with a degree, but the real value is if the candidate can grow into the sysadmin I need
#SeaGL is planning a career expo in November. We plan to be hybrid. It's similar to SCaLE's career track, but smaller
@spaceraser Depends on your current role, but my usual recommend is: don't look for ways to drop your current role and jump to infosec; instead, look for ways to add infosec to your current role.
Take the pretest to see what you know. Do the course. The cert isn’t actually free — you have to pay a little to join — but it’s like $50 instead of $$$ for school or most other certs.
I’m not saying you can get a job with it, but it’s a good starting point and should help a lot in figuring out what’s next.
@spaceraser I can only speak for my one organization: a bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience is required. Don’t let that discourage you, though… it’s just one data point.
However, you might be able to land an IT support job with a few certifications and try to work your way into cybersecurity that way. I also know people who have gotten in via military and quasi-military posts (national guard, etc), if you’re young enough and can deal with all the BS that comes with that for a few years.
@spaceraser you can do a lot of self learning. Start a home lab and take certs. You can easily make it in the IT space if you can prove your knowledgable in the subject.
@spaceraser You should get a foundation of technical knowledge. Doesn't have to be a four year degree but you should understand the basics of computing and then a cert like CompTIA Security+. You'll do much better if you understand how the things you're protecting/breaking work.
Try adult ed/community college for some basic networking and infrastructure courses.
For the sysadmin roles, I've only ever worked for one place that required that and it was a college. Private companies care much less and prefer experience. Your best foot in the door is going to be working a support role first, such as helpdesk. While you're in that type of role, start looking into getting a cert or two to show that you're activity working to become more knowledgeable about system administration. And good luck!
@spaceraser Both roles tend to have an experience and skills barrier to entry.
For a sysadmin, I often see people start in a support role then move up to sysadmin. Whether that's a helpdesk, desktop support, or other role in my spaces that's a frequent path.
Cybersecurity folks tend to have some experience in another role too although we occasionally direct hire a recent graduate, particularly if they have gotten a certification already.
@spaceraser I made the change from medicine in my mid 30s. Got an AS in cybersecurity at the local community college and got an entry level job as an “IT Tech” (Helpdesk with extra duties) at a 3 person department. That place was a shitshow, but getting my feet wet in a place where I could touch everything was great. Helped me into a proper Helpdesk spot at a larger place where the ISO wanted to move into a different position. When he moved I got his spot.
@spaceraser To be honest, I've never been a fan of "formal qualification" being a requirement for IT.
I got hired as a Junior Programmer back in 1998, the year after I left High School. I never went to University/College, nor did I have any desire to. Everything I know I learnt on the job, and by doing the occasional course here and there.
On the other hand, I don't know where you are in your life, but it's likely that you have a certain minimum salary expectation, that you wouldn't have had fresh out of school. It's going to be tough to match your current salary in a new career if you've been working for a while, and having a degree might help prospective employers to take that chance.
If money's not really an object or you know what the starting salary is and you're sure you'd be happy with it, then I'd say just jump in. Show your enthusiasm and your willingness to learn and fit in and all that, and just jump in. Attitude and personality go a lot further than education, IMO. :-)
@spaceraser In the public sector, and presumably some old fashioned corporations, HR can be inflexible about the four year degree requirement. It's incredibly frustrating for the cybersecurity team as we know that there are jobs out there that don't require it, we're already struggling to recruit, and we've known of good candidates that don't have degrees.
@spaceraser i can't speak for sysadmin but i hire for security at a fortune 50 company. HR edits our job postings to require a 4 year degree as a basic qualification even if we say having any degree is a "nice to have." many of the old guard IT folks do not have degrees and do not evaluate candidates based on them. i would absolutely encourage you to apply regardless of the education requirements - especially if you have relevant certifications. you will have to be more diligent about following up after submitting, and even better if you can reach the hiring manager and not just the recruiter. we go and look at all the applicants whether HR forwards them to us or not, but i don't know how common that is overall
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