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Famethrowa posted:it felt harder then it was in reality, I think. felt like my every answer was wrong. compare to the ccna which I bombed but felt confident the whole way through. ccna will come...eventually. Good to know. I'm angling for a security+ cert in a bid to pivot to IT. Any tips on the self-learning front?
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Dec 31, 2022 10:58
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90s Solo Cup posted:Good to know. I'm angling for a security+ cert in a bid to pivot to IT. Any tips on the self-learning front? well...to caveat: I have been doing a cybersec/computer science degree for 4 years and working on a GRC compliance team for 6 months. I found my experience working tangentially with IT infrastructure through risk assessments and familiarity with hands-on networking and linux at school helped give me a baseline to guess at questions a little more successfully when I didn't know the answer. Honestly though, a lot of the questions go really deep on configuration concepts related to enterprise security that I knew very little about since I never have worked directly with modern IT systems, so it's not like I had an unsurmountable edge over a beginner. Overall, your rule of thumb should be: what would cost the business the most money or make my boss mad at me? Then do the opposite. I challenged myself with a 2 week turnaround, and mostly utilized Prof. Messer's playlist here. I used it as a refresher and skipped around, but he goes very deep and speaks very clearly on key concepts so if you make it a goal to sit down and carefully watch a few videos every night you'd get even more out of it. 4 days before the test I took his practice test blind, and made flashcards of all the concepts I was foggy on or got wrong. Those felt the most impactful, because there are so many similar sounding stupid acronyms that I memorized. Otherwise if I was in your position/had more time, I'd try to build some peripheral baselines that aren't necessarily security based. I don't know your skillset but for example:
Famethrowa fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 23:13
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Took the MS-900, Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals exam this morning. Passed by the skin of my teeth, mostly because I didn't study enough for it thinking it would be a lot easier than it was. Still, pretty basic stuff if you've ever worked with MS 365. Can't imagine anyone already knee deep in their career would need to get it, but it was recommended to me by a friend as something to help with getting my foot in the door somewhere. Onto the Net+, and finally sitting down and learning Python.
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Jan 5, 2023 17:11
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Concerning Cisco certs, I do have (the now retired) CCENT and the original CCNA. (Routing & Switching, or the older one that got retired) My expiration date on CCNA expires next month, I'm wondering if it's worth it to try renewing before then, or if it's better to try and get the MD-101 done first. While I'm not currently using some of the skills learned in my older CCNA cert, (I still do program eXtreme switches and hardware on a regular basis) is there any downside to having to start from the beginning? (which is where I'm at anyway) I've already seen some of the differences in the exam with regards to the OSI model, and also the introduction of getting familiar with python/automation as well.
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Jan 12, 2023 07:40
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Confession: I've been oscillating back and forth between studying AZ-305 (knowing full well I've been sitting on an unused possibly expired AZ-900 voucher), CCNA and Linux+ XK0-005 concepts
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Jan 12, 2023 08:16
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You can renew your CCNA now by just using continuing education credits and you can get the 30 needed for free. But as Cisco does, they make it a pain in the rear end to actually determine what counts and how to access it.
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Jan 12, 2023 13:00
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Trying to build up steam for the Azure Administrator (AZ-104) cert. Has anyone taken it, or is currently working as an Azure admin? If so, thoughts? I have my AWS Solutions Architect - Associate cert so a lot of the concepts and terminology is a lot easier to pick up now.
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Jan 23, 2023 04:53
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The 104 is very broad and moderately deep.
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Jan 24, 2023 05:21
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I have my RHCSA exam tomorrow that I'm not 100% certain I'm ready for but I'm going to try my best.
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Jan 25, 2023 01:45
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:I have my RHCSA exam tomorrow that I'm not 100% certain I'm ready for but I'm going to try my best. Just in case you have somehow not heard this before: make sure you have memorized how to change the root password from boot.
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Jan 25, 2023 12:30
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:I have my RHCSA exam tomorrow that I'm not 100% certain I'm ready for but I'm going to try my best. You got this!
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Jan 25, 2023 15:49
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Passed my Network+ exam this morning.  Had the usual "I'm bombing this!" anxiety followed by the testing center's internet going out like three times, causing my exam to crash and restart. Didn't lose any time but it def. threw me off my game. Guess I'm just glad I took it at a testing center so they could tell Pearson Vue whereas if I took it at home, I'd have been hosed. Anyways, onwards to Security+.
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Jan 26, 2023 18:39
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Handsome Ralph posted:Passed my Network+ exam this morning. Congrats, that’s the stuff nightmares are made off. Exams are stressfull enough without any issues. Can’t imagine how lovely I’d feel if connection dropped once, let alone multiple times. Well deserved cert by the sounds of it!
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Jan 27, 2023 09:43
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I’m not sure I’ve had a single certification exam experience that was without some kind of issue or technical glitch. They’re seemingly as much about stress management as they are about the actual material. Congrats to Handsome Ralph, that’s going to be a solid foundation to build off of.
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Jan 28, 2023 21:57
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Is there any value to the CASP? The material looks way more technical and interesting than CISSP but it looks like if you're not in the US it's not worthwhile
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Jan 31, 2023 23:21
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My workplace made me get an ITIL4 certification. Thanks, workplace. You spent tons of money on teaching people proprietary word salad for common sense principals. I considered quitting. For real.
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Feb 6, 2023 09:53
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freezingprocess posted:My workplace made me get an ITIL4 certification. ITIL4 is a good cert to have. Gets you past the HR block at a lot of places, anyway. It’s not that serious.
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Feb 6, 2023 15:28
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Passed the Microsoft Azure Data Engineer exam.  For those looking at Microsoft certifications, check to see if your company is part of the Microsoft ESI program. One of the benefits being free vouchers for certification exams.
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Feb 7, 2023 22:44
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So, I'm currently in a federal training program for cybersecurity and at the end of the program we will train for and take the Security+ cert from CompTIA. (it'll be paid for by the program) A part of our main training is networking and I have access to CertMaster Learn for Network+ for the next year from this training program, and I was wondering if the CertMaster Labs are a good quality investment for better training before the Net+ that I would like to take on the side at my own expense. Are they amazing to use or just blah and not necessary apart from the initial access I already have?
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Feb 12, 2023 23:56
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I wouldn't recommend spending any money for the Security+. It's such a popular cert that whatever you get from your training course and YouTube videos should give you plenty of information to pass the exam. It is not overly difficult, or at least it wasn't when I took it like 10 years ago or something. I would set that money aside for some sort of training in the future once you figure out what part of cybersecurity you're interested in or will be working in. It's a broad field.
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Feb 13, 2023 17:52
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If it’s a federal training program it may very well be related to govt jobs in which case the security + is well worth it (And since it sounds like it comes with a voucher). I 100% agree with your post if you replace Sec+ with Net+ though.
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Feb 13, 2023 21:50
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Sec+ test I felt like was poo poo that was actually applicable in my real work. A+ and Net+ are tests about how computers were back in the 2000s.
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Feb 13, 2023 22:12
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Cyks posted:If it’s a federal training program it may very well be related to govt jobs in which case the security + is well worth it (And since it sounds like it comes with a voucher). I'm going to take the Sec+ for free and they give us two weeks of training before we take it so that is a given, and I want to add the Net+ for added training and cert list. I have a friend who has taken both and he said not to worry too much about the Net+ test, and he said it was not too hard, just tedious. I'm going to go ahead and take it after our Sec+ training and test.
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Feb 15, 2023 20:35
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I've had a subscription to Pluralsight for a few years now. I pay for it myself so I can use whatever I want. I've enjoyed it and I like being able to watch videos on whatever I want, but sometimes I feel the selection isn't granular enough or they don't have enough of the content that I want. I use it for two primary use cases: 1. I am thinking of going for [certification] and I want a full prep course for it and 2. I am going to have to do implement [thing] for work and I want to watch videos that teach me how to do it. For the former, I think it used to be good, but when Cisco changed their curriculum, they started but never really finished revamping their video library for it. I was after CCNP ENCOR, and they started releasing new videos in March 2020, but they still aren't done and it's been nearly 3 years, which is insane. Those videos in particular are also very, very talky -- I'm glad they're thorough, but they have nearly 40 hours of video content for that track. For the latter, they don't really have much in the way of smaller videos for "how to do [thing]," so you kind of have to hope they have a broader path targeting a certification or something that covers the thing you want to know about. I am fine paying for my own subscription in order to have the flexibility to use it or not and learn whatever I feel like. (Pluralsight generally has discounts that keep you from having to pay full price.) I strongly prefer the subscription-based, all-you-can-eat model. Is there a better fit for me than Pluralsight or should I stick with what I've got? It would a plus if whatever service I used had a functioning Roku channel. Pluralsight used to and they killed it because ??? (I assume it was about money in some form). EDIT: I should say that I specifically want stuff for IT and not software development, except that I do want content available about stuff like DevOps and network automation and whatnot. guppy fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Feb 16, 2023 |
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Feb 16, 2023 15:04
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WGU wants me to take AWS SysOps admin associate. It seems a little weird since I'm in the network BS degree plan but whatever. How useful is this cert? I'm not opposed to a cloud job, I'm really just trying my best to get back into IT and out of metrology for good. I've done a couple years of help desk and have a few more IT certs and looking to make a move into something a little more lucrative.
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Feb 21, 2023 01:07
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I mean, there’s a lot of networking in the cloud too. Doesn’t seem unreasonable
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Feb 21, 2023 01:08
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Hotel Kpro posted:WGU wants me to take AWS SysOps admin associate. It seems a little weird since I'm in the network BS degree plan but whatever. How useful is this cert? I'm not opposed to a cloud job, I'm really just trying my best to get back into IT and out of metrology for good. I've done a couple years of help desk and have a few more IT certs and looking to make a move into something a little more lucrative. If you ever decide to transition over to cloud-adjacent jobs having a background in network administration will be a great help for you. I hear that the SysOps cert is the more difficult of the beginner ones to get, but it certainly gets you introduced to a lot of AWS at a high level.
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Feb 21, 2023 02:07
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Passed my Security+ exam this morning. I thought it was significantly harder than the Net+ despite seeing people say the opposite. Certainly felt like I was bombing the entire time, more so than any other time I've felt that way taking an exam. The PBQs were loving something else as well. Now all I gotta do is take my AZ-900 at some point in the near future...oh and find a job. Some law firm wants to interview me for an internal help desk position, but my IT friends are all telling me to run away screaming from it. Probably gonna just treat it as a "interview" experience in any case.
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Feb 23, 2023 18:12
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Definitely interview, and any job is better than no job (most of the time). It’s also a law office so feel no loving shame about dipping after a few months for a better offer. It will give you more leverage when negotiating in any event!
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Feb 23, 2023 19:28
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Cat Army
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guppy posted:EDIT: I should say that I specifically want stuff for IT and not software development, except that I do want content available about stuff like DevOps and network automation and whatnot. I have a subscription for ACloudGuru that I really like. Since Pluralsight bought them I feel like their videos have declined, but the Cloud Sandboxes are where the real value lie. You can test out services, play around and lab things, etc without getting a huge bill.
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Feb 23, 2023 19:56
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Handsome Ralph posted:Passed my Security+ exam this morning. I thought it was significantly harder than the Net+ despite seeing people say the opposite. Certainly felt like I was bombing the entire time, more so than any other time I've felt that way taking an exam. The PBQs were loving something else as well. Congrats! Coming from a data background, I found the Security+ to be trying. I can't speak for the Net+ but if you passed the Security+ then I think you'll find the AZ-900 a breeze. It's mostly vocab.
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Feb 23, 2023 20:14
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BaseballPCHiker posted:I have a subscription for ACloudGuru that I really like. The sandboxes are the big plus. I found the course quality declining quite a bit before they got purchased but the folks I speak who are still using it are happy enough about it. For me the 15 bucks per udemy course beats the sandbox. I can use company sandbox environments to test stuff and for exam prep I hardly ever exceed free tier anyways when I’ve prepped on my personal account. For the price of a 1 month ACG sub you can get 2 udemy courses which are (at least equal) quality. And they’ll be available forever and even get updated for new exams. I usually take (at least) 2 months per exam which means saving 60 dollar. If you consume multiple courses per month all the time, ACG will be cheaper. It is nice to browse through some topics you’re interested or want to get a start with though.
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Feb 24, 2023 16:29
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Probably not relevant to a ton of folks here but I passed Palo’s PSE Strata Pro exam today. Wasn’t terribly difficult with all of the PAN experience I have, even if it’s been a couple of years since I was actively working on them. Despite being a sales engineer focused exam, not very many of the questions were really SE specific. A handful along the lines of some details on how a PoC is conducted and one or two that phrased the question as if it were a customer eval type question but really weren’t any different than a PCNSE type question on how something works.
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Mar 17, 2023 00:51
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Scheduled my 1102 for Tuesday so I can do some additional studying over the weekend. Got convinced to start working on my certifications and make a (hopeful) career change into IT, took the 1101 on the 3rd and passed it fairly confidently. I have roughly 6-ish years of doing freelance technician work, small hometown I came from had people segueing from one dying major industry into another, so out of highschool I've been competing unsuccessfully with people that have 20+ years of experience for entry level work. Now that I've settled in Texas for the last couple years, I'm looking for some other opportunities as my current state job promised growth but hasn't really followed up. Back home I've seen pretty much everything from hardware failures to troubleshooting internal/proprietary applications important to full business operation on the fly so I'm hoping that will give me a bit of a leg up getting into the industry after I pass A+ or any of the other certs.
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Mar 18, 2023 07:03
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I’ve been working in networking for 10+ years, having lucked into jobs not needing certs besides an AS in the field from a community college. Well that ended and my current job is requiring I finish a CCNA in like 3 months. Plus any future job… What’s the best training program these days, Boson? I know almost all of the poo poo, I just have to know the stupid proprietary poo poo like EIGRP for the test. I feel like no one even uses this crap in the real world, but since it is Cisco's own baby they want you to know it.
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Mar 18, 2023 07:18
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I just rebuilt the core of a metropolitan school district that involved a shitload of EIGRP including a bunch of metric tweaking to make sure certain schools in certain geographical areas preferred certain transit points for internet access over others. I had to go reference the various types of K-values in order to get everything to line up nicely. EIGRP is real. It's real, it's not just marketing, and it exists out there in all scales of deployment. Pretending otherwise is a one way ticket to getting called out on not knowing your poo poo when things go tits up.
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Mar 18, 2023 07:49
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jeeves posted:I’ve been working in networking for 10+ years, having lucked into jobs not needing certs besides an AS in the field from a community college. Well that ended and my current job is requiring I finish a CCNA in like 3 months. Plus any future job… I studied for my CCNA with Todd Lammle's books and I thought they were great. There are new ones now that I didn't use because the exam changed after I took it, but I assume they are still good.
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Mar 18, 2023 10:56
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I passed the 1102 and I'm now A+ Certified. If I can give anyone a recommendation, I would just go onsite if you have to take an exam through Pearson VUE. The application itself seems fine, but the proctors are so seemingly shotgunned through the program that they're frustratingly inconsistent. 1st two proctors for my 1101 were fine for the most part. I got annoyed with having to remount my webcam (All it said was "Clearly see your face" not that it had to be at a perfectly straight angle) but other than that it was fine. Today, 1st proctor required me to find speakers instead of just calling me or using chat like the previous two I had, then told me he would call me back "In 5 minutes" and if I wasn't ready the exam would be forfeit. So I sprint into my wife's room and grab the only monitor that has speakers in the entire apartment and tell her I need to switch or I might be out 250 bucks. Come back, get back in line, wait for call with 15 minutes to go before the exam "Release" window starts. He never called. 2nd Proctor makes me spend 10 minutes doing inane things and then disappears seemingly to let me start, my favorite one was "Can you please pick up the wire and show it to me again?" referring to a capture card that was hiding behind a TV that was already facing the wall- I put it on the floor behind my desk the first time. I picked it up 5 different times and explained how it had no power source. I show her my pen-tablet, which has been disconnected already since it functions as a second monitor. "You need to remove the laptop." "Ma'am it's a monitor *holds up USB-C* and it's disconnected" "You need to remove the laptop." "Ok." "Ok, I will now release the exam." *10 actual minutes pass* Chat opens back up and she calls me again "Can you please show me the left side of your desk again?" And then while I'm in the process of clearly setting the webcam back down, she shouts "WEBCAM MUST BE STRAIGHT" Just, please. 250 dollars for one attempt at this isn't already enough stress for me. Susat fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 04:08
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Having done a few over the last 2 years I feel like they proctors are pooled to only do stuff for specifics vendors or something, the 4 Cisco ones I’ve done have all been identical, proctor calls have to show the desk with the webcam, then go time. The MS and Palo Alto ones I did I never even interacted with the protector at all, exam just started and ended, no chats calls or anything
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Mar 22, 2023 08:55
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My desk is an absolute mess and my room is just full of stuff. Probably won’t ever do a proctored exam because the proctors will likely need an additional workday inspecting it or just deny me the exam. Also I don’t want to deal with some jerk interrrupting me during an exam. Too bad the k8s exams are all proctor only.
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Mar 22, 2023 08:59
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