Entry level IT help desk fag here. I'm looking to move into either network admin, cybersecurity, or software dev. There was a post the other week about a coding bootcamp and if they're worth it, a lot of anons suggested skipping coding bootcamp (scams) and either doing the CompTIA trifecta or community college classes. My problem is that I can't decide where to laser focus my career trajectory, I initially thought doing IT security would be a good idea, but how big is the market compared to a Fullstack Dev? Honestly I know fuck all about software dev and have never written a single line of code. here's the referenced post
How hard would focusing on Cybersecurity or Network Admin be compared to LeArNiNg tO cOdE? Also, it makes sense to me that there'd be a higher market for coders than Network admins or Cyber - How many admins or Pen testers/auditers does a company need compared to a software dev? I'm also in late 20s so can't really afford to study for something for 10 years. Can anyone in the industry give me some advice? thanks anons
you won't get anywhere in the tech industry if youre not a globohomo or get a job at Google
Mason Morgan
That's fine, I can lie for money. Plus, I've had all my personal social media accounts purged since like 2016 and constantly post dumb bullshit on linkedin. Plus. if "Getting anywhere" to you means making $150,000 a year then we have diffrent expectations. I'd be happy with like 75-80
You'll hit a salary ceiling much lower if you don't learn to code and do Network/Cyber security. You can make up to 200k if you're senior, but it's hard to get above that in those fields ever.
Software Engineer is going to have more to learn, and a higher skill required, but a much higher ceiling. Senior/Staff level is well above 500k at big tech.
Both are decent paths, I started Cybersec with my degree, and pivoted to software engineer after 7 months in my first job since I saw the writing on the wall. > 300k WFH with 7 yoe.
Samuel Miller
Thanks user. I'm taking my Net+ next month and I'm already A+ certified. I dropped out of uni (shitty degree) years ago so I'm trying to figure out how to steer my career from here. I think I'll dip my feet into coding and see if I have the attention span for it, but I'd also like to learn networking or cyber. Any advice on how to start as a complete noob? Should I bite the bullet and take some courses at a community college or something?
Aaron Sullivan
Without a degree you're just another pleb
Jayden Walker
>I've had all my personal social media accounts purged since like 2016 and constantly post dumb bullshit on linkedin. You're already filtering yourself for shitty companies that look for that kind of thing in an employee. Stop pretending to be what you think companies want, and unironically just be yourself.
Camden Gutierrez
My local community college has a transfer agreement with a business school, and they have a 4-year CyberSec program. If I commit myself to this path, will I graduate into a field with low demand? I'm also concerned about my aptitude and intelligence, the most advanced thing I've ever done is probably set up a file server and write some commands that integrate with Youtube-dlp to download videos.
user, fortune 500 companies with an unlimited budget have to hire tech bros that pledge themselves to the cult of diversity. "being myself" means being a weird introverted racist.
I knew a guy that played around on those hacking challenges websites, eventually got some certificate for it, seemed like a lot of work, he spent a few months training and practicing for it, and he did a review for some vendor and somehow that got a ton of people reaching out to him, so there's jobs out there. He walked me through some of the stuff he does and the kind of work didn't look too bad if you're good with computers, you kind of learn to create your own flow and it's almost like a checklist of shit to go through when doing it. Basically a high initial learning curve and then once you're there just keeping on top of the trends and new stuff every few months, so seems pretty comfy.
I do software dev, spent 5 years in university and doing co-op positions between semesters. I have mixed feelings about it, in some ways its comfy just writing shit code or maintaining a codebase but other times it sucks because you can't coast too much, always have to be doing sprints or scrums or some bullshit. Interviewing for it feels like the worst of all, algorithms/data structures are all anyone asks about and that's the thing I'm really bad at, and 90% of the work is just maintaining code or gluing libraries/apis together.
Bootcamps can work, I knew some 40 year old chick from when I played mmorpgs that worked a grocery store, she went through a coding bootcamp that helped her network with a company after she graduated it, and that landed her a well paying position (at least relative to the grocery store). She isn't particularly smart either so it's probably easier to get in that way.
Jackson Sanders
i would advise you to pursue a niche skillset like automation or cloud to separate yourself from the hoard of generic IT guys who are creepy weirdos trying to become le software engineers or cybersecurity experts (aka leet haxor mans). But judging by the anime posts you probably fit right in as a generic IT admin dude
Which programming language to learn if I hate math and am shit at it? I heard Java is less reliant on math, is that true?
Juan Morgan
WGU offers IT degrees, and it includes all of the CompTIA certs in their program. 6 month tuition is like 3.5k, and you can finish as many classes as you can during that time. Their BS in network engineering and security gives you a bunch of certs and a degree. pic related.
If you take anything from this thread, OP, please please PLEASE let it be that you NEED to know scripting/coding. Now necessarily software engineer level, but you MUST be proficient at automation. You simply will not go far in today's IT world I'd you don't have AT LEAST a tenuous grasp of scripting concepts.
Julian Long
I’m doing WGU right now for Cybersecurity. Been doing it for a couple months and I’m already almost A+ certified
Isaac Thompson
Cybersecurity jobs are still in pretty high demand. If you can stomach reading Splunk logs all day entry level positions aren't hard.
Isaiah Myers
I'm a bit apprehensive about shelling out the dosh for a coding bootcamp, I've had a few friends do it, and have heard some horror stories about what happens once they get in.
I have no idea how to even get into these fields. Like Amazon Web Service?
Thanks anons, I'll look into this. I had a friend go to one of those "Career schools" where they offer you the ability to obtain as many certs as you can. He paid 5 figures and only got his A+ and Net+ , ultimately it seemed like a big scheme unless you can bust out certs in like 2 weeks, which I find impossible. .
Care to point me towards some resources? I'm following Microsoft's learning programs on Powershell right now, any particular language I should pivot towards after I'm done with that?
>bootcamps I think bootcamps could be good if you already know a full stack. Going in with zero knowledge is just pleb bait. >aws DevOps >WGU Your mileage may vary, but if you look at gov bis labor stats for job growth/demand, cyber security is ridiculously understaffed >scripting/coding You nee to know git version control, CLI, and be comfortable with a few languages. Picking up python and building a scraper is probably a good place to start.
The important thing is that you start and don't stop. Not everyone is mentally built for self learning - so if you don't think you can hack a job through hackthebox/freecodecamp/theodinproject/coursera etc. then you should consider the paid program options like bootcamps and WGU, paying for something can "hack" your motivation to actually complete it (skin in the game) v.s. free resources.
Connor Cooper
nice. good luck user. what made you choose that, and what are the chances of getting a good job with that if you're all certed up with a BS? study everything before enrolling so you can move through it quick.
Thanks user. I admit I have some trouble with my attention span, and it's very hard for me to start a project and not get distracted by Any Forums tabs on my other monitors. I think this is something that I ultimately just have to try and work on after years of porn abuse, social media, video games nuking my attention span. Maybe I'll pin-point my major distractions and black them through a policy on my router or something.
if you are a retard screen addict with porn brain you are likely only "interested" in "programming" because it seems to you as an "easy out" from "real work" but the reality is you are deeply troubled by addiction to disgusting content and you should go get a non-screen job until you've untucked yourself then re-assess what you're going to do with your miserable loli cool life.
No hate intended, you just need to get real or you will be doing the same shit and asking the same stupid questions 5 years, even 10 years from now.
Ignore this at your own peril, but you WILL remember it.
Camden Campbell
i used to go to a coffee shop to force myself to study for hours. only after hours of study i rewarded myself with tf2.
