|
|
| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Technology |
How can I transition from Desktop Support to a Networking/Security career? |
I've been doing desktop troubleshooting and helpdesk work for about 5 years now, and I just got a job doing it for the State (responsible for about 25,000 users). However, the job seems to be a dead-end and i'm looking for advice on what would be the best way to cross-train my way to an overall IT management position (Preferably something along the lines of security, but i'll go where the 100k jobs are). Any ideas besides just getting my certs and hoping someone gives me a shot? Should I just stay with this new job and work towards management? Learn a few programming languages? Thanks. - Stressed out techie (Already have a B.S., thinking about getting an MBA with a focus on IT) Well it sounds like you established a good career track in terms of starting in IT on help desk and now moving up, its a natural progression. Here's the approach I would take. Keep the state job for a six month period to build up your resume and point out how you have experience with large scale deployments. After this look into real industry respected Certs ( go here for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cyber_secur... ) , prepare and Take them . The cert just says you know how to pass a test, but while your at your state job you can try and implement a few security ideas even better, all in an effort to bolster your resume in this area. Then when 6 months go by begin you job hunt for a security position, contact CTO's directly if you can, begin doing consulting work on the side. etc.. Write a how to blog or contribute to a well known site. All this is about building your brand.. From a technical perspective , you'll need to get a really strong handle on Networking (routers, Cisco, firewalls) , followed by a solid understanding of OS (Windows, Linux) , some knowledge of databases, etc. Not so much programming, security is really more about plugging holes , and most of that can be done using hardware and software configurations. Learning the ins and outs of those configuration settings (example appache httpd.conf file) is what does the trick.. good luck |
| Tags |
| Credit Corporations Other - Careers & Employment Technology Marketing & Sales Law & Legal Health Care Government & Non-Profit Food Service |
Finance Categories--Copyright/IP Policy--Contact Webmaster |