There is no bash scripting, python automation, ansible automation or anything involved at all. I suddenly feel like I'm doing the job that is the "lowest hanging fruit".
But the reality is portrayed differently in our office. We're topmost of hierarchy. Developers come to our office floor to discuss with us instead of us going there. We handle sensitive data and are the most information-vulnerable department overall. The current company technology chief is from our department.
And even the salary, I don't think it's too low. It's standard with developers. For example: Developers with 6 months experience make around say 600 USD in X company, then our helpdesk is earning 550 USD in same X company(location isn't USA obviously but some 3rd world).
I'm not concerned if I'm wasting my time because I started this job knowing nothing(I got lucky as I knew someone who knew someone :D ) and now I've learnt a lot. Be it Linux, SQL, NGINX servers, some bash scripting.
I've bought these courses on udemy as well: - Docker by zeal vora - Kubernetes by zeal vora - Linux performance monitoring commands course by Shikhar Verma - Linux security and hardening by Imran Afzal - Git and Github by Bogdan Staschuk - Bash scripting by ralph jensen
My concern is that we're not using anything of these advanced skills extensively in my job. Not even linux shell scripting that properly. We need everything a bit, but we don't need in that depth. So, I'm scared if this is a dead end job that is leading me nowhere?
This thought come to my mind because internet said that a linuxadmin who doesn't program is a dead-end job and has no future. Programming could help us if we changed the way we worked but the thing is we're not doing it(nobody is going to be convinced at this point as most have already spent 5-6 years in this company as a IT helpdesk). We could change our work from IT helpdesk to something like DevOps , but we've a separate team for DevOps so that's not going to happen. I really don't know what our current DevOps team do as most of the stuffs are handled by Helpdesk.
Do you think what I do is dead-end? Are we the lowest hanging fruit?
Can you guide me towards a proper roadmap of certifications to become a proper career person?
These are the certs in my mind(These seem valuable)
- Red Hat Certified System Administrator - Certified Kubernetes Administrator - Comptia sec+, Net+ (for being vendor neutral, if there is any certifications for TCP IP protocols, do tell me) - OSCP - AWS certified solutions Associate
These are on my hitlist. I've no idea where they'll lead me(that's why I'm here)...Please guide.
You have time to post on HN, you have time to code on the side.
OSCP is worse than useless -- combining
And even if you get it... you'll probably be 80 to 100% travel.
Pentesting is not a fun gig. Focus on automation etc but... that's hard if you grew up poor.
(My area, Appalachia, is as poor as some of the areas we outsource too, but it's maginified by if you must rely on parents for college etc and never amass wealth of your own, you're on a dark path)
Your best bet is to do fun projects, and save as much money as possible.
I regret not traveling more when I had an emergency fund, forever afraid to give my name or let someone spend the night lest they go into the computer or something. I will always regret that.
Anyways... try to write some scripts of your own, and put them on github, and share them here, and you might get something.
I got my first decent offer that took me out of a terrible situation when I wrote some toy scripts that did things like use python's RNG to generate a passphrase, take the MAC up and down.
Another option is to go more of an analyst route but... my Bellingcat cert didn't help much.
But to be honest, if you're precarious, it might be best to save up as much as possible, and hostel in the EU -- you'll find a partner or a job, most likely.
(Since I was American, they didn't help me, so I went back to where I came and eventually had my hard drives fail and lost most of the memories.)
Sorry to be flippant but... so many here are millionaires and billionaires -- it breaks my heart to see smart people told to give up their savings to prove things we know they have when we see their code, see their speech.
And on top of everything, you speak (or at least write) English well -- a huge asset. Own that. Many struggle because of comms issues.