Story of an IT Pro: Volume 2 "The Choice"

If you haven't read Volume 1 "The Beginning", check it out now.

So fast forward from that time where I worked in K-12.  I had worked for the school system for a little over 4 years and it was time to move on.  For those that have been in IT for a while, you know that the jobs can get stale which can cause you to burn out.  I was there and it was time to go.  I took a job with a consulting company which offered a nice pay increase as well as possible training opportunities (later I found this to be exaggerated a bit).  The job was a love/like/hate relationship.  I loved the amount of experience I was getting from all the different environments and systems.  I loved that I had people above me that had much more knowledge than I did on a number of related topics.  I liked most of the people I worked with.  I hated the travel.  Now I had an idea that I would be on the road a bit more than a normal 9-5 with a standard commute, but it does drain you and can cause you to make some poor decisions in handling your job.  Now that being said, I still would not have traded that experience.  I think 5 years doing the same job in IT is a pretty good run.  Will I ever take on a job like this again? Certainly not, but I would still recommend that if you are new to the industry, a consulting job will be your best bet to gain a significant amount of experience.  Just do your research on the company before hand.  That is all I will say on the matter in this post.  I may right something in the future on the topic.

Back to the story... So I was getting burned out and InfoSec was just starting to become a hot topic, at least in my world.  We had one guy in the company that held a strong interest in the art of penetration testing.  Sadly, at this time, there was little call for it.  We mainly did vulnerability assessments since no one wanted to pay for the full penetration test and/or risk having their systems down if we succeeded in the test.  This field of study fascinated me.  So I began doing some heavy research in the topic.  I provisioned some systems in my home lab to play with and started using twitter so I can follow some pros.  I filled my iPhone with all sorts of security podcasts.  I was really into it.  After I learned that with good security, one can eliminate a number of the small day-to-day fires that Sys Admins have to deal with, I made a choice to pursue this as a career.  So I updated my professional development plan and let my manager know this is what I want to do.  And shortly after that, the lead engineer for Security Services gave his notice.  Well I still tried to take on more security related tasks but eventually, it was time to look for something new.

Remember that thing about burning out?  Due to a couple bad calls on my part, it was decided that the company and I were no longer a good fit.  I was able to take a nice semi-paid 3 week vacation before going back to consulting.  I took a job with another consulting company to pay the bills.  But it was not the job I was looking for.  If it wasn't clear, the choice I made was to pursue a career in Information Security.  I really didn't know what that meant exactly.  I did know what I didn't want to do, and that was to have to troubleshoot printer issues forever.  So I was determined to find the job that would support my new goals.  I wanted to find things before they became problems.  I wanted to prevent the common day-to-day fires caused by improper anti-virus software installs and poorly configured firewalls.  During that short stint with that other consulting company, I was presented an opportunity to take on a Security Administrator role in a local not-for-profit insurance company.  So I jumped at!  You have to do what is good for you.  So you find that new job, write your resignation letter, and part ways...

Continued in Volume 3: Career Advice

Story of an IT Pro: Volume 1 "The Beginning"

So this may or may not turn into a series of posts.  But just in case, let this be the first of that series.  15 years ago when I got into this business, I didn't really think I quite understood just how many different types of jobs existed out there in IT.  I mean, sure, I knew about the help desk and repair jobs (which is where I started).  I also new about the System Admins and Network/Tel-co groups.  And of course there were the developers.  At the time those were the folks I would curse out on a regular basis for their "crappy app that we were forced to use".   One more note about my past, I was a late bloomer to computers.  I didn't really get into them until college.  Sure we had one in the house  before the days of AOL, but mostly it was a glorified word processor with a couple of games.  We would occasionally use a modem (14.4 kbps baby!) and connect up to the various Bulletin Boards to download the Jolly Roger Cookbook and learn to make all sorts of things; which today would get us on a Terrorist Watch List.

I've always been decent at using tech and gadgets but never really thought of making it career.  I wanted to do something that would allow me to work outside.  Let's see in Kindergarten I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up...  Raiders of the Lost Ark had just come out and I was fascinated with the adventures of Indiana Jones.  So naturally my answer was "Archaeologist!" (probably one of the hardest words I had to spell in Kindergarten).  Of course after I learned that you don't get to carry around a bull whip, sport a cool leather satchel, and shoot evil swordsman in the head, I pretty much lost interest in that.  Towards the end of high school I decided something in the environmental studies field would be fun, National Park ranger to be more specific.  Unfortunately Chem 100 in college sent me off that path and into Business, most specifically Management Information Systems.

VAX 11/780
Courtesy of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAX

By then, though, I had already explored my way  around the University VAX system and I even took a job
int he Information Systems Computer Repair department.  Apparently I was a natural at this type of work.  The initial job was for an installer, which consisted of bringing a computer to an office and plugging it all in.  Configuration was either done before or after it was installed.  Of course I had to at least make sure it powered up and could access the network.  I did this job for about 2 weeks before I was promoted to a repair tech after discovering a network issue in one of the buildings and troubleshooting it down to a bad port in the network closet with the assistance from the Tel-co folks.  After that I had a number of different challenges which got me noticed by the Systems office.  I was promoted to a position with the guys who basically controlled the access to the network and all the systems that ran on it.  The new boss continued to challenge me with a number of tasks from migrating the university staff from the VAX email to Microsoft Exchange 5.5, to creating a back-end database and query for user look-ups so people can verify who they were before resetting a forgotten password.  By this time the only programming I had done was in the MIS Intro to Programming course.  So this was certainly one of my toughest projects.  I worked on that part and another MIS student created the front-end app the Computer lab used to let students change their passwords.  I also re-purposed the app so the help desk could verify staff when they called in.  In hindsight, I should have kept learning more about the developer side of IT back then, considering what I do now.

Eventually I had to start prepping for the real world.  Luckily I had a good amount of experience from working at the university.  I was able to take a Co-operative education job doing Systems Admin work in a Novell/Windows environment (with a little bit of Lotus Notes thrown in for good measure), which then lead me back the education world managing the network and systems for a K-12 environment.  So this is all leading somewhere, honest!  Make a note of the comment I made about developers earlier in the story...

Continue in Volume 2 - "The Decision"