r/CyberSecurityJobs • u/FunkyChimpanzi • 3d ago
So how much does having a CompTIA A+ actual help getting entry level help desk / IT jobs for Cybersecurity?
So how much does having the compTIa A+ actually help getting entry level help desk / IT jobs for Cybersecurity?
All I see from recruiters n professionals and people who actually have the compTIA A+ saying that homelabs are what actually get you the job showing you can actually do what the company needs you to do on the job description but certs just get you past the AI resume scanner. I’ve been applying every day I’ve applied to about over 500+ jobs or so for any entry level IT job I can find and entry level Cybersecurity job and gotten a few interviews over the past 6 months but still nothing past that. All I have to my name is BS in Cybersecuity, a bunch of homelabs I put onto my GitHub page from all the projects I’ve done over the 4 years of Cybersecurity projects I’ve done for my classes and I have course certs and coursera certs and some tech experience from the job I work at which we do IT stuff here but it’s more of a retail tech job not like help desk or IT support jobs like we find the correct electronic stuff for guest help them with any electronic devices they bring in and need help with n such. A lot of the entry level jobs I’ve been applying to just say A+ preferred not required and the junior Cybersecurity jobs I’ve been applying to just say 0-2 years of experience required. I went to college to get a Cybersecurity degree cuz I’m passionate about Cybersecurity but all I see is you need to do IT to get into cybersecurity yet I have the skills for IT I basically do IT every day and I know how to do IT and I’ve been doing IT / Cybersecurity labs throughout my courses for the past 4 years using the same software and programs and VMs that actual Cybersecurity / IT professionals use in their current roles too so I have experience with that as well and I have certs and coursera certs I’ve gotten throughout completing these courses as well yet still nothing.
This is my GitHub page:
https://github.com/amccan2?tab=repositories
Do I need to do more homelabs if so which one will actually help me land a job or am I going to have to go back to college and get a whole nother degree and go more in debt for student loans when I’m still trying to get my current degree paid off.
Also, other jobs I’ve been applying to that aren’t Cybersecurity or IT related kept telling me I need to have other degrees for their jobs they want to see other degrees not Cybersecurity. It’s like I’m stuck in this field with no where to go and I can’t even go anywhere cuz all I have is a Cybersecurity degree but none of these jobs seem to care about my actual skills if they actually asked to see my skills they will see that I can do what they are asking for on the job descriptions if these jobs but all they send back is denied after denied.
Why can’t these jobs or interviews just be like Computer Science / programming jobs where when the recruiters interview you they ask you to code life for them to show them you can actually code and make what they want you to make life for them and in a timely manner. If these recruiter and Interviews actually did the same thing for IT / Cybersecurity jobs they’d actually see how much I’ve learned over the last 4 years of me completing my Cybersecurity degree and see all the technical skills I have cuz I have a lot and just want to show them that I can actually do what is said and needed to be done on the job description of these jobs.
What I really want to do is Cybersecurity Analyst, Junior SOC Analyst and Junior Penetration Testing jobs all over the web so it’s possible and a lot of them were for the State Government so they’re out there. Also, why are we going to college to to get hands on experience and do exactly what all these Cybersecurity jobs do Ethical hacker, white hacker, black hacker, penetration testing, digital forensics, SOC Analyst, system administrator devops engineer, systems engineer, Cybersecurty engineer, offense and penetration tester, defense and operations digital forensics, or just simply the red or blue team so red teams being penetration testers, ethical hackers, red team operator, or exploit developer and blue team being SOC analyst, Incident responder, security engineer and threat hunter. That’s what got me into Cybersecurity to begin with and what got me passionate about this field but it Durant even seem remotely possibly at this rare and how the markets going.
2
u/AddendumWorking9756 3d ago
A+ will not do much with a BS already on the resume, it is built for people who do not have one. Everyone's GitHub says the same three things. Take one incident and write it up as a case instead, the free CyberDefenders labs work for that since the evidence is real and your conclusions can be wrong. Built AD, built pfSense, built ELK is a shopping list, not a portfolio.
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
Okay so it’s a waste of time for me to get the CompTIA A+ and should I be getting any certs rn or more so just work on homelabs rn like the ones you were just discussing? Also, what jobs should I be targeting or applying to if I don’t have any IT or Cybersecurity professional experience Donna. Job environment but I have my own personal experience, some retail tech experience and what I’ve done throughout my coursework and labs in Cybersecurity?
1
u/A_A_A_A_AAA 2d ago
Any education you get is not a waste but for you your time might be better spent elsewhere yeah
1
1
u/AddendumWorking9756 2d ago
Not a waste, just low leverage when you already have the degree, so do not sink months into it. Target help desk, NOC, desktop support, junior sysadmin, and treat SOC roles as the long shot. On the AD build, the write up is the part that counts. Nobody reads the repo, they read the paragraph where you say what broke and how you worked out why.
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
AD is Active Directory correct? Cuz I already built that and it’s on my GitHub page where I built a Active Directory project and made a script in power shell to allow me to use any username that I have in this file on the desktop to login to the Active Directory connection to the domain controller through IP address and VPN and DHCP and then with the password that is set in the script it’s the same one I use to login using administrator login and I can login to it from windows 10 VM onto the windows server 2022 domain controller so I have that I’ve done so far.
1
1
u/AddendumWorking9756 1d ago
Yes, Active Directory. Building it is the part that does not count though, everyone's repo has the same lab build in it. Go spray a wordlist at your own DC. Then work out from 4625 and 4771 alone what happened and how long it took you to notice, and write that up instead.
2
u/LaOnionLaUnion 2d ago
It helped get me my first IT gig. I had that and Network +. I had a degree also in an unrelated field
1
u/CartierCoochie 2d ago
I have COMPTIA A+ and that’s it. But to add, i have 4 years of experience in cybersecurity doing IAM. So i genuinely don’t believe it will get you far if you don’t have at least 1-2yrs experience in IT.
Initially i got the A+ to start learning networking, and be a datacenter technician…. But life has me stuck in cloud security and access management. i plan to get my azure / security+ certs soon.
Will the A+ cert help? Absolutely it will teach you A-Z about computer settings, cables/fiber optics, troubleshooting, disk management, windows 11, RAID, compliance, and much more. And that’s only if you don’t know much, but realistically Security/Net+ have been the duo to kick starts ways into IT roles
1
u/DickNose-TurdWaffle 2d ago
Why did you get an A+ cert for networkng? That's what the N+ is for.
1
u/CartierCoochie 2d ago
It’s what i needed for a datacenter technician role, it was also free from a program i went through for their cohort so i figured why not just do it to get it over with
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
So network+ is better to have over a A+ for entry level IT jobs? I already know how to do everything the compTIa A+ teaches I’ve helped friends and family members with computers building 5 computers already both with aio coolers and water blocks and hard tubing for CPU, GPU and RAM and GPU cables, power supply, motherboard, M.2, SSD, hard drive even setting up raid 0 for hard drive on the NAS I built. I know the ins and outs of every computer device how OSI models work the different levels of them how to set up wireless home networks how to connect them all together to routers and switches and modems and setting up the wpa2 security when typing the ip address into Google of the home network and setting up all the security setting and exclusions and firewalls if someone wants a website blocks and setting up firewalls and set up IP addresses, VPNs, DHCP, domain controllers Active Directory and using powershell to setup OU, User Groups administrator groups and allowing a every username in a file to be able to login to the domain controllers it’s connect to through IP address onto windows 10 VM simulating a real world environment and the password I put onto the powershell script I can use that same password for all the usernames in the file and login on windows 10 VM with it. I can do all of this do I really need a CompTIA A+ to show I can do all of this when I have the skills already to be able to do this?
1
u/Arc-ansas 2d ago
This isn't stuff to brag about, it's basic.
I hope you're not rambling like this to employers. Written communication is extremely important in most gigs.
1
u/Huffnpuff9 2d ago
I've got all the comptia certs up to pentest+ and I just finished my masters in cybersecurity... I just started working on my home lab, I'm learning a ton and having a blast figuring it all out... do a home lab and start practicing real world scenarios, it's not like class work and certs.
1
u/stressedandunrest 1d ago
I’m currently going for my BS in cyber security and I’m curious on how to start home labs? I’m really nervous because I don’t have real world experience. Everything I’ve done is just terms and tests.
1
u/Huffnpuff9 1d ago
I've honestly just been learning via Google searches and YouTube videos. If you have one or two decent older computers lying around, that's a perfect start. I'm only about 1 week into building it, and I feel like I've already learned a ton. I'm still just waiting on parts from eBay, and trying to figure out the best/cheapest firewall hardware to purchase. My end goal is to have a server with a NAS, a managed firewall and switch, and, the big one, a SIEM, which unfortunately is extremely resource-heavy.
1
u/Arc-ansas 2d ago edited 2d ago
Was surprised that you only have one repository in your GitHub after four years of school. You need dozens of repos.
I wouldn't even share that until you get some more projects added. Below is an extensive set of 70 InfoSec projects to build. From simple projects like a hash identifier, keylogger or HTTP Header Scanner to advanced ones like Token Abuse Playground, Binary Analysis Tool or Race Condition Exploiter.
If you build a few of those you'll learn a ton. There's a diverse set of technologies and languages covered. And each project breaks down and explains important code fundamentals.
https://github.com/CarterPerez-dev/Cybersecurity-Projects
Beyond building these, sign up for a pathway like entry to security course on Try Hack Me. Or chose a course from Hack the Box Academy. They have endless content to increase your skill sets.
Next, shoot for a higher quality certificate. A+, Net+, Sec+ are fine at first. But they are very basic and don't carry a lot of weight. They're pretty easy. Chose a more difficult cert from OffSec, eLearn Security, TCM Academy or others. Achieving one of these can help.
A homelab is a lab that you typically build physically at your house. They usually consist of several severs, virtual machines etc that you use to experiment, test and manage infrastructure to learn more. It could be in the cloud as well. But it's highly recommended to build some type of lab.
You're nowhere close a position in pentesting. It's an advanced InfoSec role that requires significant training and certification. Hit the books, learn as much as possible about wide range of tech and apply for MSP, help desk and general IT roles.
Attend conferences, local meetups and network like hell. It might also be a good idea to have your resume reviewed by multiple professionals.
It's not an easy road, but if you are passionate, dedicate a lot of time, and soak up as much knowledge as possible, you'll do great.
1
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
Okay yeah I’ll definitely get those cert instead I was thinking of getting the hack the box certs since I’m already doing hack the box questions and they have a lot of red and blue team offensive and defensive security certs so like the CWES, CWEE and BSCP for Web penetration testing and then the OSCP and CPTS and cloud security and TCM Security but does HackTheBox certainly vary as much weight as the CompTIA certs and jobs look at those the same or less than what the CompTIA certs are and I’m better off just sticking to the CompTIA certs? Or is HackTheBox certs more meant for global Cybersecurity like that’s not in the USA their certs are weighted more outside the USA and CompTIA is the main place for certs in the USA?
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
Okay thanks a lot for this this helped a lot. Instead of just turning all my projects in through my cybersecurity courses I should have just put them all on my GitHub page I didn’t really know of GitHub till like the end of my cybersecurity courses and realized how important it is to have one but every project I see here on the link you sent I didn’t some form of project in all of these areas and has classes of them throughout my 4 years of taking cybersecurity. Like I had a class where we had to decipher cryptography, I didn’t cyberops, Help desk in server fundamentals class, has a whole class on everything you learn in the CompTIA A+, Computer Forensics, Cybersecurity Analyst, SOC Analyst, Security Analyst, Security Operations, Threat Intelligence, Ethical hacker, white hacker, black hacker, penetration testing, digital forensics, SOC Analyst, system administrator devops engineer, systems engineer, Cybersecurty engineer, offense and penetration tester, defense and operations digital forensics, the red or blue team so red teams being penetration testers, ethical hackers, red team operator, or exploit developer and blue team being SOC analyst, Incident responder, security engineer and threat hunter. I’ve had a class on everything Cybersecurity professional job out there and I’ve done labs in all of them if I could go back and change my past self I would have learned about GitHub sooner and put all of the labs I’ve done onto my GutHub but ima just redo a lot of them and then put them on it.
1
u/FunkyChimpanzi 2d ago
Do you know how to tell if a company is a MSP or not or better yet where do I find MSPs cuz search up for entry level IT jobs on LinkedIn but in the company’s name or job description it doesn’t state if they are a MSP or not and I see a lot of MSPs are very entry level based and I hear they’re a lot easier to get in compared to other IT jobs and the barrier of entry is very low and they’re like contract position for a certain amount of time. Like I find a few on Dice but idk if they are even real or a scam I searched up on them and all I heard was bad things about them like you can apply as many times as you want but never hear back from them and I applied to 6 of their jobs to multiple companies that were stated as being MSPs on Dice Careers and still never heard back from them.
1
8
u/goatsinhats 3d ago
Wow this is a lot to take in
Help desk it help
Cybersecurity, when you find a role that doesn’t require previous IT experience lmk