TLDR at the end if you don't wanna read the long grandmother-grandfather story

I interned with my friend's dad's company cuz I had to do it as part of my degree program (otherwise can't graduate). I couldn't find an internship anywhere else so I just ended up asking him and he said "ok can" (kabel power)

Anyway, I did my internship with him for about 4 months where I was doing some simple front-end work with HTML/CSS/Bootstrap. There was no real internship program at his company so they probably just came up with some stuff to occupy my time. Ok la, at least it gets the job done.

About halfway through my boss offered me a fulltime position after my internship ended. At first I was super happy cuz it's basically a free job. There wasn't even a resume analysis or technical interview (chill, dont get jealous yet, the bad part is coming)

I've told him before that I wanted cybersecurity to be my fulltime career, so at the start of my probation (6-months before becoming fulltime staff) I was given a report given by one of our client's pentesting team showing some stuff that had to be fixed for one of our websites they're using. Eh? First, understand that i'm not really a cybersecurity expert. I had just got my CS degree and I didn't really decide on cybersecurity until late 2022. Plus my GPA was only around 3.2 (not bad score but not really a wow-factor either). I don't really have any certs, projects, nothing.

When I actually read the pentest report, the fixes didn't really seem that hard. You didnt need to be Neo to figure out the stuff, pretty basic. So over the next few months I slowly helped to fix these issues. Then after that I started to just fix whatever problems I found with their sites/servers. Many of the fixes I did were in reference to the pentest report that the client provided. I tried to find out the tools they used and applied them myself.

...

Ok, now for the not-so-good stuff.

Basically I'm the only guy in my department who is in "security". I find problems on my own and try to fix them, sometimes I would try and test something and see if there's a problem, but it wouldn't work out so I just had to move on from it, etc. I am constantly having to keep up with knowledge just to keep surviving week by week. I cannot show up to each weekly meeting saying that I didn't accomplish anything. Everything that I did on the job, I learned on the job. Uni prepared me maybe only 1%

Because I got zero experience and limited knowledge, my work is slow. And most of my time is spent googling how the f*ck to fix this issue that issue. So I end up feeling overpaid and I'm sure my boss can pick up on that fact.

My concern right now is that my usefulness will run out soon. I have an appraisal coming up soon which where my boss + HR will basically review my performance, attendance, etc. and I can say that it won't go well. I know that what I have done does not match my income. I have known my boss for a long time and he's very close to who I consider family. But what's the point treating me like special if I can't deliver?

You can call it impostor syndrome, paranoia, overthinking, or whatever. But the situation now is, I don't think I can survive the next few months at this job cuz my boss will sure come to a point where he simply cannot tahan me and just end up letting me go. This is a real possibility.

...

Looking into the future now, assuming what I said in the previous paragraph does happen.

I did mention that I wanted to pursue a career in cybersecurity, which is still true. However I don't think I'll be able to find a job related to cybersecurity. Why? Recently I found out that cybersecurity isn't really a "entry level" field. You really need to know your general computer knowledge, computer networking, security fundamentals etc. and (ideally) a few years experience in another IT field before transferring over to cybersecurity.

I know that some of you might be thinking "but my cousin ah beng just graduated few months ago, and now he got fulltime incident responder position in KL!" Okay okay, good for ah beng. I wish him the best. But we cannot look at that like the general trend. Yes its possible to get a cybersecurity job as your first IT job, but it will EXTREMELY susah if you don't have any experience beforehand in something like helpdesk, sysadmin, software development etc. How to protect computer when you don't even know computer?

So for the past few weeks I have been going through some options of what kind of IT work I wanna do. I thought maybe helpdesk would be okay for me, but I've heard about the stress it can bring which I'm not really a fan of. Plus, going from CS degree to helpdesk seems very bodoh.

Then I looked into network administration/network engineering which I found really interesting and seems like something I can go for. Configuring networks and working with switches/routers/etc. is something that I can see myself doing for a few years before transferring to cybersecurity. The experience will definitely help me in that regard.

I did some more reading and found that certs like Comptia network+ and Cisco CCNA are the most well known in the industry when finding a job in this area. Keep in mind that I'm also trying to plan things out so that I can find a job ASAP. I'm already paying my family RM400/month for "rent", just to minimize the cost of me living in the house. Of course if I kena fired, I won't be able to pay them this money and I got barely anything in savings. So I need to do something that will help me get paid sooner. Cybersecurity positions are definitely out of the question for now.

Back to networking and certs. I'm thinking of pursuing the CCNA full-time (if I get let go) for a few months and hopefully pass it. The question is, will this be enough with my degree to get an entry-level position in a networking job (or at the very least, an internship?). If not, what else do I need? Or is the CCNA+CS degree okay for HR/recruiters? Any other things should I do while studying for CCNA to increase my hiring chances?

===========

TLDR:

I received internship+fulltime position from a good friend's dad for a IT security role, however I am struggling alot, working slow and getting overpaid. Boss might end up letting me go especially with an appraisal coming up. As a backup plan, I'm thinking of switching up and pursuing a IT networking job before transferring to the security side (can't get a job immediately afterwards and can't get a cybersecurity job down the line cuz I need a job asap). My question is, would a CS degree + CCNA cert be enough to qualify for an entry-level/internship networking role? If not, what else is required? Are there any other role I can look into besides networking?

Thanks dudes.

I am both CCIE and CISSP certified. Which you can say I have reasonable experience in both Networking and Cybersecurity world. My personal recommendation is to join a NOC/SOC as a L1 analyst. This help you start somewhere.

If you prefer tougher and steeper road, try SI (system integrator) companies. E.g. CTC, DD, NTT, Tech. M. You will have long working hours due to project deployment (my longest record was 36 hours straight without sleep). But those are the experience that's give you big bucks over the long run.

If you need more advise can drop me a DM.

^
freshie with ccna def is rare in the market, could earn you more chances to get interviewed.

as per recca, go for SI if you want to see how thing works end to end. or join NOC/SOC for starting and move to SI.

anyway network is not really freshie friendly nowadays as more companies goes for cloud and only need a handful of seniors to manage not so many on prem DCs.

If you are interested, I'm hiring freshie for our cybersecurity firm. Post: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3920604767[




quote=Sonder,Apr 26 2024, 04:25 PM]
TLDR at the end if you don't wanna read the long grandmother-grandfather story

I interned with my friend's dad's company cuz I had to do it as part of my degree program (otherwise can't graduate). I couldn't find an internship anywhere else so I just ended up asking him and he said "ok can" (kabel power)

Anyway, I did my internship with him for about 4 months where I was doing some simple front-end work with HTML/CSS/Bootstrap. There was no real internship program at his company so they probably just came up with some stuff to occupy my time. Ok la, at least it gets the job done.

About halfway through my boss offered me a fulltime position after my internship ended. At first I was super happy cuz it's basically a free job. There wasn't even a resume analysis or technical interview (chill, dont get jealous yet, the bad part is coming)

I've told him before that I wanted cybersecurity to be my fulltime career, so at the start of my probation (6-months before becoming fulltime staff) I was given a report given by one of our client's pentesting team showing some stuff that had to be fixed for one of our websites they're using. Eh? First, understand that i'm not really a cybersecurity expert. I had just got my CS degree and I didn't really decide on cybersecurity until late 2022. Plus my GPA was only around 3.2 (not bad score but not really a wow-factor either). I don't really have any certs, projects, nothing.

When I actually read the pentest report, the fixes didn't really seem that hard. You didnt need to be Neo to figure out the stuff, pretty basic. So over the next few months I slowly helped to fix these issues. Then after that I started to just fix whatever problems I found with their sites/servers. Many of the fixes I did were in reference to the pentest report that the client provided. I tried to find out the tools they used and applied them myself.

...

Ok, now for the not-so-good stuff.

Basically I'm the only guy in my department who is in "security". I find problems on my own and try to fix them, sometimes I would try and test something and see if there's a problem, but it wouldn't work out so I just had to move on from it, etc. I am constantly having to keep up with knowledge just to keep surviving week by week. I cannot show up to each weekly meeting saying that I didn't accomplish anything. Everything that I did on the job, I learned on the job. Uni prepared me maybe only 1%

Because I got zero experience and limited knowledge, my work is slow. And most of my time is spent googling how the f*ck to fix this issue that issue. So I end up feeling overpaid and I'm sure my boss can pick up on that fact.

My concern right now is that my usefulness will run out soon. I have an appraisal coming up soon which where my boss + HR will basically review my performance, attendance, etc. and I can say that it won't go well. I know that what I have done does not match my income. I have known my boss for a long time and he's very close to who I consider family. But what's the point treating me like special if I can't deliver?

You can call it impostor syndrome, paranoia, overthinking, or whatever. But the situation now is, I don't think I can survive the next few months at this job cuz my boss will sure come to a point where he simply cannot tahan me and just end up letting me go. This is a real possibility.

...

Looking into the future now, assuming what I said in the previous paragraph does happen.

I did mention that I wanted to pursue a career in cybersecurity, which is still true. However I don't think I'll be able to find a job related to cybersecurity. Why? Recently I found out that cybersecurity isn't really a "entry level" field. You really need to know your general computer knowledge, computer networking, security fundamentals etc. and (ideally) a few years experience in another IT field before transferring over to cybersecurity.

I know that some of you might be thinking "but my cousin ah beng just graduated few months ago, and now he got fulltime incident responder position in KL!" Okay okay, good for ah beng. I wish him the best. But we cannot look at that like the general trend. Yes its possible to get a cybersecurity job as your first IT job, but it will EXTREMELY susah if you don't have any experience beforehand in something like helpdesk, sysadmin, software development etc. How to protect computer when you don't even know computer?

So for the past few weeks I have been going through some options of what kind of IT work I wanna do. I thought maybe helpdesk would be okay for me, but I've heard about the stress it can bring which I'm not really a fan of. Plus, going from CS degree to helpdesk seems very bodoh.

Then I looked into network administration/network engineering which I found really interesting and seems like something I can go for. Configuring networks and working with switches/routers/etc. is something that I can see myself doing for a few years before transferring to cybersecurity. The experience will definitely help me in that regard.

I did some more reading and found that certs like Comptia network+ and Cisco CCNA are the most well known in the industry when finding a job in this area. Keep in mind that I'm also trying to plan things out so that I can find a job ASAP. I'm already paying my family RM400/month for "rent", just to minimize the cost of me living in the house. Of course if I kena fired, I won't be able to pay them this money and I got barely anything in savings. So I need to do something that will help me get paid sooner. Cybersecurity positions are definitely out of the question for now.

Back to networking and certs. I'm thinking of pursuing the CCNA full-time (if I get let go) for a few months and hopefully pass it. The question is, will this be enough with my degree to get an entry-level position in a networking job (or at the very least, an internship?). If not, what else do I need? Or is the CCNA+CS degree okay for HR/recruiters? Any other things should I do while studying for CCNA to increase my hiring chances?

===========

TLDR:

I received internship+fulltime position from a good friend's dad for a IT security role, however I am struggling alot, working slow and getting overpaid. Boss might end up letting me go especially with an appraisal coming up. As a backup plan, I'm thinking of switching up and pursuing a IT networking job before transferring to the security side (can't get a job immediately afterwards and can't get a cybersecurity job down the line cuz I need a job asap). My question is, would a CS degree + CCNA cert be enough to qualify for an entry-level/internship networking role? If not, what else is required? Are there any other role I can look into besides networking?

Thanks dudes.

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