Re: Career Choice

[Michael Krymson <krymson () gmail com>]

It is a hard road, but you could start out at any sort of entry-level 
position in a company, even Tech Support (yeah I know you will think oh 
God, but the experience should be had at least once in every techies 
career).  Pick a company that you can earn you way up in, Tech Support, 
maybe Systems Administration of some sort, and maybe even earn their trust 
to give you a shot at security related things.  In all you do though, keep 
security in mind and on your sleeve.

If you mean in terms of what skills you can hone on your own, certainly 
*nix experience is great.  In fact, if you can, make your main computer a 
Linux computer (or for the brave, a BSD variant).  Learn some programming, 
for instance Perl or Python.  With a CS degree, that shouldn't be foreign 
to you at all.

Learn networking and TCP/IP.  You can do some of that at home with your 
home network.  Grab old PCs that no one wants anymore, some cable, and a 
cheap switch and start playing.

For entry level, you'll need those building blocks among other things, to 
show you have potential and are willing to learn and research on your own.


At 07:34 PM 3/8/2005, Zaven wrote:

> Britton, Jeff B. wrote:
> >  If you want to break into
> > the security industry right out of school, you'll probably need one of two
> > things...
> > 1. A darn impressive resume
> > 2. An inside contact to get you a job
>
> I'm about to graduate from a UC with a Comp.Sci degree, and I want to go 
> into security. Since no one will be trusting the security of their 
> enterprise to a newbie, what types of real-world experience should I be 
> shooting for? I've been thinking about expanding my UNIX administration 
> skills as a start. What else is valuable for an entry-level SA?
>
> ^Z