Student Inquiring about IT

Azure Delusion · 03-06-2008, 05:30 PM

Hello Everyone,
I'm a student at a community college getting general education courses out of the way. I love working with computers and have dabbled in programming, a bit of networking, and some pc hardware repair and os architecture classes in high school and Video Game Design Essentials this semester. Since early childhood, I'd like to say about the age of 6 or 7, I wanted to be a good guy hacker for the government. I'm 19 (well I will be this Saturday) and I think Network Security is the field I'd like to work in. To get into Network Security, what kind of entry level job would I enter. Is there anything I could do during summers between semesters (working on a Network Security B.S next semester hopefully) that would help me get my feet wet, even if it is stepping in a rain puddle? I have been reading a bit about IT jobs changing soon and would Network Security be a safe job that will be around long enough that I won't be wasting time getting a job after schooling only to find out in 10 years that security professionals won't be needed. These thoughts are a bit unorganized, as they were typed while hitting writers block for an English assignment.

Thanks for reading,
Azure Delusion

**Cellus** · 03-07-2008, 07:36 PM

First and foremost, the Security field in the industry is growing a lot and will probably continue to do so for quite a while. When it comes to "general" job security (as per demand), it's definitely there. In that respect there is little worry. There will be plenty of work to go around.

I should note that being a "good guy hacker" (aka: "whitehat", or ethical hacker) is somewhat of a niche profession. Keep this in mind. If you want something like a government job in this field, you need to be on the narrow (clean record, etc), be very knowledgeable, and have experience.

I could write pages upon pages regarding everything you've asked. However in a nutshell (and this applies to other IT jobs as well), you need both the knowledge (ie. education) and experience in IT. This means before you intend to go into that coveted government position, you need experience in the private sector, and in the private sector you need to start with some general experience before specializing. This means general IT support. After doing that for a while, you can start focusing yourself and move to the more specialized jobs. You start broad and work your way in.

When it comes to education, both degrees and certifications are valuable. Degrees are very broad and open, covering a little bit in a lot of various subjects, while certifications are very specific in their subject (and in some cases the very products they represent). Degrees are good if you want to lean more towards programming jobs, while certifications are good if you want to lean more towards deployment and support jobs. Having both a degree and certifications is definitely "gold" when it comes to education. I should also note some companies want one over the other, depending on the position (and even the person who is hiring).

If you have specific questions, please by all means fire away.

03-06-2008, 05:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
Azure Delusion Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Virginia Posts: 44 OS: XP MCE/Vista Home SP1/Ubuntu 7.10 My System	Student Inquiring about IT Hello Everyone, I'm a student at a community college getting general education courses out of the way. I love working with computers and have dabbled in programming, a bit of networking, and some pc hardware repair and os architecture classes in high school and Video Game Design Essentials this semester. Since early childhood, I'd like to say about the age of 6 or 7, I wanted to be a good guy hacker for the government. I'm 19 (well I will be this Saturday) and I think Network Security is the field I'd like to work in. To get into Network Security, what kind of entry level job would I enter. Is there anything I could do during summers between semesters (working on a Network Security B.S next semester hopefully) that would help me get my feet wet, even if it is stepping in a rain puddle? I have been reading a bit about IT jobs changing soon and would Network Security be a safe job that will be around long enough that I won't be wasting time getting a job after schooling only to find out in 10 years that security professionals won't be needed. These thoughts are a bit unorganized, as they were typed while hitting writers block for an English assignment. Thanks for reading, Azure Delusion __________________ History will continue to repeat itself until the lesson is learned.

03-07-2008, 07:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
Cellus Moderator Networking Team Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,664 OS: Windows Vista Business SP1, Windows XP Professional SP3 My System	Re: Student Inquiring about IT First and foremost, the Security field in the industry is growing a lot and will probably continue to do so for quite a while. When it comes to "general" job security (as per demand), it's definitely there. In that respect there is little worry. There will be plenty of work to go around. I should note that being a "good guy hacker" (aka: "whitehat", or ethical hacker) is somewhat of a niche profession. Keep this in mind. If you want something like a government job in this field, you need to be on the narrow (clean record, etc), be very knowledgeable, and have experience. I could write pages upon pages regarding everything you've asked. However in a nutshell (and this applies to other IT jobs as well), you need both the knowledge (ie. education) and experience in IT. This means before you intend to go into that coveted government position, you need experience in the private sector, and in the private sector you need to start with some general experience before specializing. This means general IT support. After doing that for a while, you can start focusing yourself and move to the more specialized jobs. You start broad and work your way in. When it comes to education, both degrees and certifications are valuable. Degrees are very broad and open, covering a little bit in a lot of various subjects, while certifications are very specific in their subject (and in some cases the very products they represent). Degrees are good if you want to lean more towards programming jobs, while certifications are good if you want to lean more towards deployment and support jobs. Having both a degree and certifications is definitely "gold" when it comes to education. I should also note some companies want one over the other, depending on the position (and even the person who is hiring). If you have specific questions, please by all means fire away. __________________ TSF Networking Team Virus/Trojan/Spyware Removal Help Donate! Last edited by Cellus; 03-07-2008 at 07:39 PM.