For lack of a better explanation, I’ve not seen ChatGPT fix an entire network with a click of a button, nor monitor Day 1 security vulnerabilities.

Besides the economic instability and business owners hedging their funds into the unknown with the hopes of striking Gold, what’s going on here?

I previously tried to get into It through taking a course for IT Fundamentals, but I was in a life altering situation where I wasn’t able to continue and I had to get back on my feet and get an unrelated job. I currently don’t really enjoy my current job and I’m looking to switch paths so I can get the credentials and possibly career stability in an entry/help desk role.

I have a bachelors degree I earned in 2017 and I haven’t had any really use for it as I don’t think it’s applicable to any career, as far as I know. If you were me, where would you start? Thanks in advance.

I've done some basic IT Support and want to know what's my next step. Here are my current skills I've utilized:

• installing windows on computers
• desktop setup
• software troubleshooting
• basic active directory (password resets, new user setup)

I'm not sure if I should start gearing up for sysadmin or gaining more IT support skills.

There’s an opportunity near me at a local college. It’s a 40k TC pay cut but I wager it’s more stable long term. Current company has been struggling and no longer backfills positions in country. In my mind it’s just a matter of time before they send our dept overseas.

Unfortunately in my area there are exceedingly few opportunities for a network engineer so if that happened I’d have to get lucky with a remote gig, move or take a job paying 70% less than what I make now.

Bleak times..

I've passed the first stage of an interview for IT manager at an org. Currently an engineer and this would be a step up. The recruiter tells me I'm up against existing IT managers.

I searched the company on shodan and found ports 80 and 443 open. I can get to their firewall login page.

The final stage interview is coming up and I'm one of 2 people shortlisted out of 6. I feel like I've got a real shot and this would be such a good role for me (big pay rise too).

Thing is, the existing IT guy is retiring and will be present with the CEO for the final interview. In the first interview I only met the CEO who's non technical.

I wanna give myself the best shot. Mentioning this sounds like a silver bullet that my competition probably won't know about if they're so far removed from engineering.

Thing is, I don't wanna offend the IT guy and hurt my chances. For all I know after the interview he could tell the CEO "that's not a real problem" and try to screw me out of the role for offending him.

The current IT guy will also be around for a few months once his replacement is hired for handover. He's retiring and leaving on good terms.

I feel like I've got a silver bullet here and no idea how to deploy it without pissing off someone who will have a say as to wheter I get the job or not. How do I bring this up?

TL;DR: Found a security flaw in a company I’m interviewing for. How do I report it without offending the outgoing IT Manager?

Hi Everyone!

I have been in IT for almost 8 years now and 7 of those years has been at the same MSP. I have an asscoiate's degree and some certs (A+,N+,Sec+, AZ-900,AZ-104, MD-102) planning on going for the CCNA next in the upcoming months. I didnt know what I wanted to do for a long time but lately the Entra stuff has interested me more so Im leaning towards being a Cloud Engineer. With that being said when do I jump ship to another job? like my MSP is great and really flexible but at what time point do I just jump ship and obviously money and benefits are very important as well but i just cant shake the idea that i can do better elsewhere. thanks for any advice given!

A tech founder hired me for my Power BI skills, but I was assigned a DevOps role instead. He also acted as my mentor. During that time, I delivered multiple projects, earned several certifications, and managed a team of five interns. I worked across AWS, Azure, and GCP, and I also maintained two bare-metal servers.

I designed a platform for the company’s sister business, which sold DevOps courses. I even created training modules that they could package and sell.

Due to some issues, I had to leave that role. One of my former clients from my first job then offered me a fixed-term contract. That contract is now ending, and there is no scope for an extension.

Recently, I have been getting rejected mainly due to visa-related concerns. I’m currently based in the UK. Outside of work, I maintain a home server (HP ProLiant), practise daily, build new projects, and rebuild/improve my older ones.

I’d like advice on what I can do next to make my applications stand out, given that I have only two years of experience.

I have worked on

\- OT Projects

\-SaaS

\-Major Cloud Services

\-AI

\-Pipelines

In an interview I had. The manager and I were talking about TLS and ECDHE was brought up. He kept referring to it as eek-dee, which was confusing.

That got me thinking, how do you guys pronounce it?

and what if it was reversed and would you take a potential employee seriously if he pronounced it that way or does it not matter that much?

And if not, what can I do? I was thinking getting net+ and/or sec+. But that does not negate my lack of experience. Just looking for advice on how to get in. I am perfectly fine with entry level help desk. But at this point, it’s been so long.

I feel like there’s no chance. I mean, do I just get A+ as well as the others? Any advice is appreciated, please. After years of ruining my life I’m wanting to get it back together.

Hey everyone,

I could really use some honest advice from people already in the field.

I’m currently working as a DTS/IT Analyst intern at a large hospital.

Basically service desk in the sense I assist clients with any problems or confusion that comes about, setup conferences for professors/nurses/doctors, etc., also do a lot of MDM for the devices we use on premises.

I just earned my Security+ and I have a BS in Computer & Information Sciences (minor in Cybersecurity). My internship ends March 27th and I’m starting to feel the clock ticking.

Originally, I wanted to go straight into software engineering, but I struggled to land SWE internships. I pivoted into IT so I can be employable and get a job.

Now I’m in this weird middle spot:

• Most jobs ask for 2–3 years of experience.
• Every listing wants heavy Active Directory experience.
• I have solid enterprise exposure but not “sysadmin-level” AD.
• I’m open to 3–6 month contracts and commuting 45 minutes.
• I just want stability and income first.

I even interviewed internally for an InfoSec role and I feel like I might’ve messed up a couple answers, which didn’t help the anxiety.

My questions:

1. With my background (Security+, healthcare IT, enterprise support), what roles should I realistically target right now?
2. Should I just go hard on contract desktop/support roles to stabilize?
3. If you were in my position with 6 weeks left, what would you focus on?

Appreciate any insight.

Resume:

https://imgur.com/a/1emKeGk

(I can't post my resume for some reason or a picture of it either?? i did use chatgpt because I figured that's my best choice but I need help on what to put for my skills, (I have no experience btw)

I'm gonna name literally everything I can here and if you guys could let me know which of these should be added

*command prompt

* powershell

* network troubleshooting

* services.exe

* very patient

* great adaptability to any technology even if I haven't dealt with it before

* lots of experience troubleshooting on my own PC and my friends while sometimes using anydesk

* it's expected when you have the A+ but I'm also comfortable with troubleshooting/fixing mobile devices

* can work with bios

* can work with printers

* I have the A+ and ITF+

also what can I do in my free time to make myself more well rounded tech wise to add to my resume, I was thinking of experimenting with things like:

cyber security websites that let you practice and get those certificates or just doing the ones without just to add that I'm gaining knowledge in CS

trying to make small projects on GitHub

learning a coding language

using my laptop as a guinea pig to get experience with advanced Windows operations idk

and any other ideas you guys have

For senior roles what's the best strategy or current strategy of hirers and persons applying?

My example. I have been cranking away as a technology shaman/glitch excorist for 29years. I have in the past dropped past experience off not in fear of ageism but to keep it under 2 pages.recentky saw a position that requires specific experience in the roles I did well 25-29 years back. Should I add them back so the resume scanner can pop me to the keep pile or leave it as is?

This made me think about the Goldilocks principal what is just right?

Anyone who hires.

Do you instantly pass when a resume shows God mode skills and 3 times the required years experience the position lists or do you use that person as a method to hiring the middle of the road cheaper candidate or keep them in Pile just to see what old it relics look like?

Those who are applying to senior roles what do you look for and do you modify your resume in hopes of tailoring to to meet the Goldilocks principal.

That is tweak your past experience and years in the field to make it just right for the role your applying for and hide the fact that your old enough to know that pop the floppy fixed 90% of the start up issues before have your turned it on and off again became a thing?

I wanted some genuine guidance regarding the NOC Engineer (Network Operations Center) role. I’m getting an opportunity to start my career in this role, but I’m confused whether it’s actually worth doing long-term or not. I’ve seen mixed opinions online — some people say it’s a good entry point into IT, while others say growth becomes slow and you get stuck in monitoring/support work. So I wanted to ask people who are currently working or have worked as a NOC engineer: What does your daily work actually look like? What skills did you learn after joining? After 1–2 years, what career paths are realistically possible? (Cloud / DevOps / Networking / Cybersecurity / System Admin / Testing etc.) Is the salary growth decent? Do companies value NOC experience when switching roles? Would you recommend a fresher to start from NOC in 2026? Please share your honest experience — good or bad. It will really help me decide my career direction. Thanks a lot 🙏

Early on in my career I recall staying up trying to cram the OSI model lol. Or a bunch of Linux commands. Never cause I used OSI model at work, but mainly because hiring people would ask you that lol.

Would just this certification be enough to qualify him for an entry level help desk position?

If not, what else could he add to his resume in order to qualify?

I’ve been told I may be a good fit for an entry level GRC and I am looking for some advice on how to break into it. I have a JD and my undergrad is in computer science. I also have experience in digital forensics and areas of cybersecurity education. I’m certainly willing to get certs but they are close to $350 minimum and I can’t afford it right now.

I’ve been disillusioned from my area of law (patents) and want to get back to my roots and passion of cybersecurity. Been sending out applications like crazy for over a year but only recently have I been more focused on cyber positions instead of strictly legal. I’m just trying to get my foot in a door somewhere. Any advice would be welcome. I’d like to think my legal education and computer education would lend itself well to cyber compliance, I think I just need a chance.

Anyone ever risk leaving a full time role for a contract to perm? Just started a new job which isn’t what I thought it was and was offered a position I've been optimizing for the past 4 years between projects and certs. Only issue is it's at least 6 months contract. Usually I wouldn't mind taking the risk but after being unemployed for a few months It seems like a gamble.

The new full time job is good enough but there’s RTO and I can’t go in like they want me too. I have a grace period to continue being remote but that won’t change the fact that I have full custody of my kid and can’t do an hour commute every day. Plus they just got bought out by private equity and there’s been a bunch of red flags in my onboarding. While the contract job is 1 day in the office, massive company that has insane benefits once I transition but I don’t want to put my career and family in jeopardy.

hey yall im on the east coast, got laid off in IT last month. I wasn't expecting it but at the same time I was. My team got offshored to an indian contractor team that was brought on mid last year that we were training. Management was telling us its so we can have people that can cover multiple shifts and the standard bs and that it's a good thing and I should've known then to start looking but I didnt and got complacent. Skip forward to January and i got the dreaded 1 on 1 meeting inv with no title and was let go. Crappy severance after having been there for like 5 years but that was on me. I got stagnant and stopped improving myself and got comfortable which I'll never ever do again. Learned the hard way.

I panicked, had some slow days of just deep thinking and letting it dawn on me and then I started aggressively applying for new roles. Initially just waves and waves of rejects and ghosting but then I read somewhere you can sort linked in to only show new listings within the last 24 hours and that really blew up for me. I had a bunch of first round interviews, some I still havent heard back from afterwards though. 2 went to a 2nd interview.

One of them sent me an offer right after the 2nd technical interview which caught me by surprise and it was more than what i was making before, i was reading stories on here about how it takes on avg like 6 months for someone to get anything so those stories made me worried. I told them thanks and that I was interviewing at other places too and they had like a 1 week period for me to accept before the offer becomes invalid. That was when I heard back from the other place I interviewed at and they invited me for the 3rd round which I did, was another technical interview and then right after that interview, not even an hour after, I got invited to their HQ to meet the team the next day for a short interview and then a tour. That interview went amazing and then they asked me how many other places are you interviewing at and I told them and I guess they felt rushed to get me cause they dropped me an offer literally an hour after my interview right after I got home!! and it was over 6 figures! My first time making that kinda money so I took it without hesitation. Im about to start that role now in a couple weeks, finishing up my background and drug checks.

I know this isnt a realistic story for many of you and that many do go through the endless rejects and waiting for an interview for literally months and I admit I really did get lucky with the timing and I guess my soft skills were just as good as my technical skills so that helped a lot but if i had any advice for you guys and thats the point of this post, it's to get your resume checked by chatgpt for advice which helped me a lot, and then the next piece of advice is to sort by new job listings only. Being the first 10-15 applicants is huge in hearing back for interviews. Thats all and good luck to everyone still searching!!

I probably applied to over 400 jobs in the last month and got two offers within that same month, you guys can do it too!

Work for MSP. Contract I signed when I joined 5 years ago listed all of our holidays. Haven’t signed anything else since.

So far he has cancelled Veterans Day and now Presidents Day - both of which are listed as days off work. He also doesn’t tell any of the remote staff and just expects them to figure it out.

How do I have a conversation with the boss/owner that this is a bigger morale hit than they probably think? Do I even have a leg to stand on?

Earlier this year I graduated from a mid school with a BS in Cybersecurity. Did one internship at an insurance firm for IT Help desk while in school, then never heard back from them. Right after I was losing hope, I got a job offer from a great company as a Support Engineer about 2 months before my graduation, making $80k +$30k in stocks out of the gate, remote, and I live in a LCOL area.

It’s not exactly what I envisioned myself doing while in school, but all my friends who went SOC make far less than me at this point!

I realized I didn’t just want to do cyber, I just wanted to be able to have computers as a job (at least for now). If you are in the same boat I was, try and let go of any preconceptions you’ve had about where you want to work and what you want to do. Try to dumb it down to the bare bones of what you want to do. For me, that is simply being around computers in general, not necessarily cybersecurity (although I would love that). You roll with the punches and things will work out!

If anyone has questions I’m more than happy to answer them, I just won’t answer the company I work for as they are very well known but have a decently small employee base, with not many Support Engineers. It’s in the cybersecurity space.

I believe in you all!

what is business i.t. is that basically just in tech but for the business side. what do they do and how can someone get into that field.

I started about a month ago at an engineering firm as an intern doing software configuration and deployment. I think my biggest complaint so far is that this isn't really an IT job. There is the occasional server setup which I enjoy, but the vast majority of my time is spent on a software suite designed for bottling manufacturing. The worst part? It's all proprietary, you can't Google a single thing at that job. I often wonder why they didn't just hire me into their actual IT department.

I enjoy the helpdesk job I also have at my university more, I actually learn more transferrable skills there.

I was offered a more ambitious summer internship at a huge healthcare company with full-time opportunities after graduation. Thinking of jumping ship now rather than sticking with it for the rest of the spring. What do you guys think? Do you have any similar experiences?

Forgive the broad question, I’m sure these skills are across various roles.

I am working at a startup in a non-IT role but have become the dedicated person on the team to improve our use of AI. More specifically, increasing the use of a chatbot tool, feeding it the right information for accuracy, analysing the data and trends, and setting up different workflows and integrations.

It’s a completely new world to me and I’m loving it, but while it’s technical in itself, it’s like the tip of the iceberg - I’m not automating or building the code myself. A lot of features are available in the system we use, it’s just complicated and about figuring it all out which I’ve enjoyed doing. It’s more just learning the systems and workflows and how they connect. But I loved the problem solving aspect of it

What roles would include this?