Security does seem the most interesting to me. Just what little I've looked into it, writing code for extended periods seems so tedious that I'd probably go crazy. Like I said before, the Ivy Tech courses are supposed to be free and I really could use a foundation. The course I posted has A+, Security+, and also a bit of Linux so it seems like it'd be a good bet. Am I missing anything?
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That should give you a good foundation and also give you an idea if InfoSec is really for you. The courses are pretty similar to the ones I took at WGU for my degree.
That's a fantastic start if you are wanting to try security if they have a basic network class you may want to grab that too.
I've also been a hands-on person, doing mechanical and carpentry work in my younger years, before and during college. After college I worked all of my career in a scientific/technical environmental field. Five or so years ago, there was a push for development of a paperless digital reporting system for field staff in my large office. I was one of several senior technical staff who were given just some overview-type classes and then put to work with our IT guys to come up with a workable system. I never was really a computer guy, and I mostly got involved with the project because I wanted some say in what kind of thing that was going to be put together and thrust upon my people.
Long story short, it turned out that building a virtual machine is pretty much the same as building a real machine, with one important difference. A real machine is conceived in your mind, then it gets built and you can see it. The virtual machine is conceived in your mind and pretty much stays there, since there isn't always that much to see on the computer screen. To be successful at building a huge virtual machine with a thousand moving parts, you have to be able to picture it, and see it work in your mind. Not everyone has the ability to do that. If you're good at working with real machines, diagnosing problems and getting them solved, then you probably would be good at doing the same thing with virtual ones.
I could never be a programmer(I don't think), but building and maintaining our complex digital reporting system has been the most fun I've had in almost 30 years at my job. Sometimes I wish that I could have learned all this when I was a little younger.
Honestly, I've been in it long enough that I don't tend to play with tech for fun when I don't have to for work purposes anymore. Fishing, guns and stuff are more fun :-)
Agreed, even with cloud (whether it be AWS, Azure, or someone else) there is a definite space for administrators, especially those that understand how to integrate things and who are into DevOps, etc. There is all kinds of work to be done in the cloud, including but not limited to IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service). The cloud has change the sys admin role forever, but it has not eliminated it.
As someone pointed out upstream, but I'll reiterate, if you are looking to administer anything Microsoft related, look to get started with PowerShell. It's the key for managing most any Microsoft technology (whether it be Exchange Online, or managing Operating Systems, or most things in between.
Here's some free MS learning stuff to help ramp up in advance https://mva.microsoft.com/
One thing I will note, I am not a programmer, I don't excel at it, I don't enjoy it. However in the Network/Systems realm you will end up doing some coding. It will be refered to as scripting, but it will more or less be coding. Writing a config for a router is a type of coding. Windows Administration, you will end up getting into Powershell scripting to make your life easier. Linux/Unix you will do shell scripting.
Most of the programming Network/Systems do, we often refer to it as scripting. It ins't full blown applications, but it is there to make our lives easier. When I went to being a full time Linux Admin I have written in the past year more scripts than I did in the previous 20 years of my career. Why, I am lazy, and if I have to something more than twice it is easier to script it, and kick off the script.
When I was a network engineer I had a basic config for routers, switches, firewalls that I would modify to meet the needs of that device/network. Why? Because it was easier than building a config from scratch.
Most of the programming Network/Systems do, we often refer to it as scripting. It ins't full blown applications, but it is there to make our lives easier. When I went to being a full time Linux Admin I have written in the past year more scripts than I did in the previous 20 years of my career. Why, I am lazy, and if I have to something more than twice it is easier to script it, and kick off the script.
When I was a network engineer I had a basic config for routers, switches, firewalls that I would modify to meet the needs of that device/network. Why? Because it was easier than building a config from scratch.
Here's something you can try at home that will help you understand how devices appear on a network. Soft Perfect Network scanner. I showed this to my boss a couple years ago and demonstrated how powerful it can be in helping my department (field service) gather info on remote systems. I came up with a few tricks and scripts then he went full bonzo with it. He wrote a ginormous set of scripts (+ mine) to do things like check Dell end of warranty dates, hard drive status, encryption, logged on users, installed printers, SCCM status, antivirus status, etc...
https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/
Another set of tools I pushed at work are the Sysinternals suite. Go grab the entire suite and step through what each app can do. There are videos that explain how a lot of this works. I'll try to dig up a link to those as well.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
I remote into systems all the time and run the live versions right off the website. https://live.sysinternals.com/
https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/
Another set of tools I pushed at work are the Sysinternals suite. Go grab the entire suite and step through what each app can do. There are videos that explain how a lot of this works. I'll try to dig up a link to those as well.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
I remote into systems all the time and run the live versions right off the website. https://live.sysinternals.com/
Congratulations, you have taken your first steps into a larger world.
Also, welcome to our world.
I know I keep saying this, but its important. Feel free to ask me all the questions you have. If you go over something in class that doesnt make sense or you need further info, or perhaps you just plain do understand a concept. Ask away. You will get no snark, judgment or mean comments from me.
(Read further if you don't mind indulging me on a short personal story)
The reason I keep harping on asking questions:
Once upon a time, I was working at a call center, we provided support for lots of things, ISP's, Work from home people for huge companies like Pepsi, Johnson and Johnson and many other, as well as personal computers and laptops sold at walmart. There was another team there as well. The cream of the crop. The top dogs.
The Motorola Canopy and PTP team. Those were the guys you wanted to be. The top. They didnt have to follow the same restrictions the rest of us as to do. they were shielded from the crazy ass management. They were the kids playing outside the barb wire fence. Now when ever I work at a job, im not just there for the pay check. i always feel like I have to have something in front of me to achieve. So naturally I felt I needed to advance to this team. And I did. I worked hard, became an asset to my team, paid my dues, and put myself in front of the Moto manager as much as possible. And after a little hustling I found myself on a team, supporting Radio networking equipment. Knowing nothing about radio at the time. All I knew was Walkie-talkies couldnt work with CB's bc well uh reasons, and also if two CB's were near each other they would cause feed back. I found myself with lots of questions. The two guys on the team that really knew all the things were jerks to put it plainly. They would tell you something once. Thats it, once. With no further info or explanation. One of them was noted as saying "writing things down makes you weak" So he would snear and mock you for taking notes. So I didnt take notes, which lead to questions, which lead to more stress and more being the target of ****ty attitudes. There would be times when I would have some guy on the phone with a crisis on his hands. I would try all i knew to fix it, and yet still come up short. So i would frantically thumb through the 900 page manual and try and find some glimmer of hope, or i would sit at my desk, worried I didnt know the answer couldnt find it, and was too afraid to ask bc i didnt want to be berated and made fun of. And many times, I would need to bite the bullet and walk up and take the static to fix the problems. it was hell. I hated that helpless feeling.
It taught me a few things.
1: The type of Tech I wanted to be, and the type not to be.
2: Learn to love thy manual and research.
3: Document everything
and dozens of other things.
The point being I hated that helpless fearful feeling of not understanding something and not being able to ask about it. Inside of a year of being on that team, i worked hard and rose to the level of "Lead Tech". I swore I would never put anyone else in the position I was in.
That was nearly 10 years ago, and I feel even more strongly now than I did then. I have more experience, more patients, and more answers. I have infinite patients for questions. I don't even care what the question is. If you take the time to ask me a question, I will gladly take the time to answer it.
Want to ask me about what subnetting is. Lets talk subnetting, if you want to me explain in detail what I know about radio, lets talk radio. Want to know why the sky is blue? About my divorce? Why I hate shoes? Why I drive a Jeep? Want to hear stories about traveling across Ireland? How do hypervisors work?
Lets talk about the sky, my ex, shoes, Jeeps, Ireland, and or hypervisors. Lets dig into this stuff. With me literally everything is on the table, nothing is taboo.
I wish you the best of luck in your new courses.
Also, welcome to our world.
I know I keep saying this, but its important. Feel free to ask me all the questions you have. If you go over something in class that doesnt make sense or you need further info, or perhaps you just plain do understand a concept. Ask away. You will get no snark, judgment or mean comments from me.
(Read further if you don't mind indulging me on a short personal story)
The reason I keep harping on asking questions:
Once upon a time, I was working at a call center, we provided support for lots of things, ISP's, Work from home people for huge companies like Pepsi, Johnson and Johnson and many other, as well as personal computers and laptops sold at walmart. There was another team there as well. The cream of the crop. The top dogs.
The Motorola Canopy and PTP team. Those were the guys you wanted to be. The top. They didnt have to follow the same restrictions the rest of us as to do. they were shielded from the crazy ass management. They were the kids playing outside the barb wire fence. Now when ever I work at a job, im not just there for the pay check. i always feel like I have to have something in front of me to achieve. So naturally I felt I needed to advance to this team. And I did. I worked hard, became an asset to my team, paid my dues, and put myself in front of the Moto manager as much as possible. And after a little hustling I found myself on a team, supporting Radio networking equipment. Knowing nothing about radio at the time. All I knew was Walkie-talkies couldnt work with CB's bc well uh reasons, and also if two CB's were near each other they would cause feed back. I found myself with lots of questions. The two guys on the team that really knew all the things were jerks to put it plainly. They would tell you something once. Thats it, once. With no further info or explanation. One of them was noted as saying "writing things down makes you weak" So he would snear and mock you for taking notes. So I didnt take notes, which lead to questions, which lead to more stress and more being the target of ****ty attitudes. There would be times when I would have some guy on the phone with a crisis on his hands. I would try all i knew to fix it, and yet still come up short. So i would frantically thumb through the 900 page manual and try and find some glimmer of hope, or i would sit at my desk, worried I didnt know the answer couldnt find it, and was too afraid to ask bc i didnt want to be berated and made fun of. And many times, I would need to bite the bullet and walk up and take the static to fix the problems. it was hell. I hated that helpless feeling.
It taught me a few things.
1: The type of Tech I wanted to be, and the type not to be.
2: Learn to love thy manual and research.
3: Document everything
and dozens of other things.
The point being I hated that helpless fearful feeling of not understanding something and not being able to ask about it. Inside of a year of being on that team, i worked hard and rose to the level of "Lead Tech". I swore I would never put anyone else in the position I was in.
That was nearly 10 years ago, and I feel even more strongly now than I did then. I have more experience, more patients, and more answers. I have infinite patients for questions. I don't even care what the question is. If you take the time to ask me a question, I will gladly take the time to answer it.
Want to ask me about what subnetting is. Lets talk subnetting, if you want to me explain in detail what I know about radio, lets talk radio. Want to know why the sky is blue? About my divorce? Why I hate shoes? Why I drive a Jeep? Want to hear stories about traveling across Ireland? How do hypervisors work?
Lets talk about the sky, my ex, shoes, Jeeps, Ireland, and or hypervisors. Lets dig into this stuff. With me literally everything is on the table, nothing is taboo.
I wish you the best of luck in your new courses.
I too welcome questions. I'll do my best. And I ENCOURAGE you to write it down.
There are no stupid questions. Only stupid people.
There are no stupid questions. Only stupid people.
I would not wait on the A+, start yesterday (they cover RAID these days). Network+ is a good followup. A good skill to have is to be able to connect the dots in your head. A lot happens that you can't physically see/put your hands on.
A lot of the collage programs these days seem to be a waste other than the piece of paper at the end. We just hired an entry level position. You would be surprised of how many applicants could not answer the question "what did you learn in school?" or "did you complete any interesting projects?" It seems to be what you make of it these days. I keep hearing stories of the teacher or TA spending the whole class trying to get the lesson setup and working, not being able to work through errors with the student, and overall absent mindedness. Maybe IT guys don't make good teachers.
without Admins, who would coordinate, test, and roll-out the upgrades? There are always upgrades.
A lot of the collage programs these days seem to be a waste other than the piece of paper at the end. We just hired an entry level position. You would be surprised of how many applicants could not answer the question "what did you learn in school?" or "did you complete any interesting projects?" It seems to be what you make of it these days. I keep hearing stories of the teacher or TA spending the whole class trying to get the lesson setup and working, not being able to work through errors with the student, and overall absent mindedness. Maybe IT guys don't make good teachers.
without Admins, who would coordinate, test, and roll-out the upgrades? There are always upgrades.
As others have mentioned, I'm happy to help with any questions you may have as you're starting out. Make sure you use what resources you have. Whether it be instructors at school, fellow students, Google, or other mentors who are offering help. As FMJ offered with his story, a lot of us have been in IT/InfoSec for a while and have experience which may be beneficial. Some of us have already made mistakes that we could help you avoid. I loved my time in IT Support, but I spent WAY too much time there. I should have moved to InfoSec years before I did, but I was all about the hardware and staying in my comfort zone. Don't do that, especially when first starting out. There's nothing wrong with becoming an expert at something (or learning as much as you can about something), but constantly pushing outside your comfort zone is how you will grow and get ahead. The pay can be phenomenal in InfoSec if you work hard and are knowledgeable.
For instance, let me share some average numbers I've seen, working for Anthem and IU Health. I started in InfoSec making ~$55k, plus bonuses. Keep in mind I had worked IT Support for ~16 years prior to that. Starting pay I've seen for getting into InfoSec should be low $40's, but some places will make an entry level tier to get the pay down even more. In less than 5 years in InfoSec, I'd had 2 promotions, bringing my pay up to ~$80k with a $3k sign on bonus. I average working ~40 hours a week and work from home 2 days a week. My schedule is flexible and the work is challenging. I've been in this position for just under a year and within another year I hope to be promoted again and making around $90k. With continuing education and certifications, you can continue to grow and make good money in this field. My buddy is a director at Anthem in InfoSec. He makes a base pay of ~$140k, has stock options, a large bonus pay structure and more. These are just examples, but meant to show the field can really pay well if you work hard and keep moving up. Every company is different, I know people making less and taking longer to get promoted and I know people making a lot more and getting promoted very quickly. Just offering some examples...
For instance, let me share some average numbers I've seen, working for Anthem and IU Health. I started in InfoSec making ~$55k, plus bonuses. Keep in mind I had worked IT Support for ~16 years prior to that. Starting pay I've seen for getting into InfoSec should be low $40's, but some places will make an entry level tier to get the pay down even more. In less than 5 years in InfoSec, I'd had 2 promotions, bringing my pay up to ~$80k with a $3k sign on bonus. I average working ~40 hours a week and work from home 2 days a week. My schedule is flexible and the work is challenging. I've been in this position for just under a year and within another year I hope to be promoted again and making around $90k. With continuing education and certifications, you can continue to grow and make good money in this field. My buddy is a director at Anthem in InfoSec. He makes a base pay of ~$140k, has stock options, a large bonus pay structure and more. These are just examples, but meant to show the field can really pay well if you work hard and keep moving up. Every company is different, I know people making less and taking longer to get promoted and I know people making a lot more and getting promoted very quickly. Just offering some examples...
I started my professional IT career in 1984...keep this in mind, it's a continuous learning process during your whole career. You need to get in the door and then start learning stuff...but you always have to start learning stuff...if you are going to move to IT then you best be prepared to be a lifelong student of technology. I've seen environments go from centralized computing to distributed computing back to centralized back to distributed...and remember the cloud is nothing more than someone elses computer. Just when you master the network operating system, another one comes into vogue. I have worked on 3COM networks, Novel Networks, Microsoft networks, unix networks, and a few other very much insignificant network technologies...but you need to stay on top.
Getting in the door is when the learning starts. Once in, you can look at everything career wise...database management, application development, systems management, help desk management, there are hundreds of specialties.
I am looking for a SCCM (Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager) master...anyone? We patch about 1900 servers monthly and use SCCM...our SCCM dude got married and runned offt.
Getting in the door is when the learning starts. Once in, you can look at everything career wise...database management, application development, systems management, help desk management, there are hundreds of specialties.
I am looking for a SCCM (Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager) master...anyone? We patch about 1900 servers monthly and use SCCM...our SCCM dude got married and runned offt.
I'm impressed how many IT folk are INGO users or visa versa. ...Bunch of geeks... 
Anyone working with NIST 800-53?
Anyone working with NIST 800-53?
I'm impressed how many IT folk are INGO users or visa versa. ...Bunch of geeks...
Anyone working with NIST 800-53?
That's more or less an industry standard, so all or most of InfoSec will be using that as a guideline, if nothing else. For my part, I'm very familiar with that and HIPAA/HITECH.
OP, also be sure to learn vi, since it is your best text editor
Harasy!!! Nano is clearly better.
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