Browsing the Spyderco Forums old school.

[Mike Slayer]

Well kinda. I love using command lines in terminal on my MacBook Pro. While I am doing that I can cruise the Spyderco forums in an old school way. I am looking at a possible career change in the future. Something along the lines of ethical hacking and cybersecurity. I have always been interested in how computers work, the language they use and how I can manipulate them to do certain things. Does anybody else work with tech for a living or like to tinker with tech?

[Mike Slayer]

[Naperville]

I have an MIS degree and started working in tech support in 94. I've worked in Silicon Valley. Haven't worked since 2018 after I had a heart attack followed by open heart surgery....been out 2yrs. I'm 40 miles West of Chicago and nobody wants to hire me due to COVID-19 and the break in my resume.

If you have a good job where you are at, I would not go in to tech support. Republicans, Democrats, and the US Chamber of Commerce want as many cheap foreign laborers from India as they can import.

[RustyIron]

Does anybody else work with tech for a living or like to tinker with tech?

Yeah... I work on some technically complex stuff. It's not easy, but it puts meat on the table, beer in the fridge, and Spyderco's in my pocket. The eager young groupies are just icing on the cake.

http://www.dropbox.com/s/p2mimv96n6w46u3/Gen2.MOV?dl=0

[The Deacon]

Retired for 11 years now, but prior to that I worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst for various New York State agencies. Started out coding in COBOL and IBM SQL against a DB2 database, spent my last ten years working in an Oracle shop using Oracle Designer to create Oracle databases and to create Oracle Forms and Reports to enter data into them and extract data from them.

[VooDooChild]

My first degree is in math, so some of the theoretical stuff I find pretty interesting.

But, I am not great with computers and I hate the act of programming.

[Ankerson]

Got out of it professionally years ago, or should I say almost 15 years ago now.

Mostly on the hardware end myself.

I do remember the old days of the news groups etc. though.

[rangefinder]

I've worked in the software industry for decades and done everything from tech support to testing to coding to system administration. (But no management roles!) I'm currently doing "enterprise application" system administration.

If you're looking for a career change, there are two obvious ways to go:

1. System administration. Getting Microsoft or Cisco certification does not require 4 years of college. Both MS and Cisco have certifications that are specifically about cyber security. For example: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training- ... ional.html

2. Coding/testing. While having a college degree certainly helps with this, being able to show you can actually program is also important. Find an open source project you're interested in. Test it and file bugs (and be prepared to do additional testing/verification if requested). Look through the open bugs, find one (best to start with a cosmetic defect or something equally low priority) and debug the code to find where the flaw is -- then fix it, build the project, test it, and submit a patch to the project maintainers. Beyond learning to code, you'll also need to learn how the project's tool chain works, learn how to use git (and github or whatever central system the OS project is hosted with), and learn how to work with the project team -- all of which are also needed in a "real" job.

Having a "body of work" in open source projects is a BIG plus when you apply for a job. The hiring manager can have his/her staff look at the work you've done on the OS project to see what kind of work you can do.

The specific coding process has a lot of variations, depending on what you're coding for. Developing a web application is different from a desktop application which is different from a mobile application. So depending on what you're interested in, you'll eventually need to specialize some.

Just in general:

* Two big trends in the industry right now are containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.) and cloud (AWS, etc.). If you don't know anything about either of these, you should start learning them. You can do this on your own. AWS (and probably Azure and Google Cloud) have a free "personal" tier you can use to learn on.

* Almost every software company uses "agile" methodology now, so you should learn about how this process works. If you go into an interview and they start talking about sprints and work items and similar terms, you should know what they mean.

[Mike Slayer]

I've worked in the software industry for decades and done everything from tech support to testing to coding to system administration. (But no management roles!) I'm currently doing "enterprise application" system administration.

If you're looking for a career change, there are two obvious ways to go:

1. System administration. Getting Microsoft or Cisco certification does not require 4 years of college. Both MS and Cisco have certifications that are specifically about cyber security. For example: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training- ... ional.html

2. Coding/testing. While having a college degree certainly helps with this, being able to show you can actually program is also important. Find an open source project you're interested in. Test it and file bugs (and be prepared to do additional testing/verification if requested). Look through the open bugs, find one (best to start with a cosmetic defect or something equally low priority) and debug the code to find where the flaw is -- then fix it, build the project, test it, and submit a patch to the project maintainers. Beyond learning to code, you'll also need to learn how the project's tool chain works, learn how to use git (and github or whatever central system the OS project is hosted with), and learn how to work with the project team -- all of which are also needed in a "real" job.

Having a "body of work" in open source projects is a BIG plus when you apply for a job. The hiring manager can have his/her staff look at the work you've done on the OS project to see what kind of work you can do.

The specific coding process has a lot of variations, depending on what you're coding for. Developing a web application is different from a desktop application which is different from a mobile application. So depending on what you're interested in, you'll eventually need to specialize some.

Just in general:

* Two big trends in the industry right now are containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.) and cloud (AWS, etc.). If you don't know anything about either of these, you should start learning them. You can do this on your own. AWS (and probably Azure and Google Cloud) have a free "personal" tier you can use to learn on.

* Almost every software company uses "agile" methodology now, so you should learn about how this process works. If you go into an interview and they start talking about sprints and work items and similar terms, you should know what they mean.

I really appreciate the awesome information. Your advice is literally noted and saved. I still have a lot to learn but with the layoff due to covid-19. I have plenty of time so I figured now is the perfect time for a career change and maybe a job I can work from home. I still love to learn new things and savor a challenge like it is a thick perfectly cooked wagyu steak. My Wife is going to College know to learn video game design. She has always been a gamer while I am not much of a gamer. I have always took pride in keeping our computers as secure and optimized as possible. She is a PC Women while I prefer Mac these days. It's just my personal preference. Either one I can work with. Thanks again rangefinder.

[wrdwrght]

Don't overlook API documentation. Companies counting on interoperation of their code with the code of other companies will pay a premium for tech writers who can richly represent their code. So long as you can access the company's code remotely, working from home is almost a certainty.

[VooDooChild]

If you do get an interview, I wouldnt mention that you prefer mac.

[Mike Slayer]

If you do get an interview, I wouldnt mention that you prefer mac.

What if they ask me that question? I can't tell a lie like that. Momma will jump out behind something to beat me with a wooden spoon, flip flop or flyswatter. I rather not get the job than get beat by my Momma. LMAO!

[rangefinder]

...
The specific coding process has a lot of variations, depending on what you're coding for. Developing a web application is different from a desktop application which is different from a mobile application. So depending on what you're interested in, you'll eventually need to specialize some.

I really appreciate the awesome information. Your advice is literally noted and saved. I still have a lot to learn but with the layoff due to covid-19. I have plenty of time so I figured now is the perfect time for a career change and maybe a job I can work from home. I still love to learn new things and savor a challenge like it is a thick perfectly cooked wagyu steak. My Wife is going to College know to learn video game design. She has always been a gamer while I am not much of a gamer. I have always took pride in keeping our computers as secure and optimized as possible. She is a PC Women while I prefer Mac these days. It's just my personal preference. Either one I can work with. Thanks again rangefinder.

That's actually yet another variation -- game development is quite different from web/desktop/mobile development. Game development usually uses an "engine" toolkit (Unity, Unreal, etc.) which is a very different coding environment.

The software industry is so large and diverse now that no one can know everything about everything. Everyone ends up specializing to some degree.

If you're just starting out (no programming background at all) I'd generally suggest starting with Python. And although I've not used it myself, I've heard good things about Apple's "Swift" language: https://www.apple.com/swift/

[Mike Slayer]

If you're just starting out (no programming background at all) I'd generally suggest starting with Python. And although I've not used it myself, I've heard good things about Apple's "Swift" language: https://www.apple.com/swift/

Funny you bring that up. Those are actually where I started. It's crazy how diverse coding and software can be depending on what you are doing. Always something new to learn. That is one reason I love knives, guns and tech so much. I never stop learning new things.

[rangefinder]

If you do get an interview, I wouldnt mention that you prefer mac.

What if they ask me that question? I can't tell a lie like that. Momma will jump out behind something to beat me with a wooden spoon, flip flop or flyswatter. I rather not get the job than get beat by my Momma. LMAO!

Outside of Microsoft (and maybe not even there) no large software company is going to be upset you prefer a Mac. If you go to any company website/blog and look at pictures of the work space, you're going to see a bunch of Macs. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Expedia, Adobe, you name it -- all of them have lots of Mac users.

Even a company like Salesforce (not exactly known for being "edgy") has plenty of Macs -- look at the work space pics here: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2018/01 ... tower.html

In some cases, companies actually prefer people have a Mac. Because it's easy to run Parallels or VMWare on a Mac to get Windows, but you can't run MacOS in a virtual environment on your PC.

[Mike Slayer]

I am downloading Xcode right now. I also downloaded some books on Swift a while back.

[JD Spydo]

I have an MIS degree and started working in tech support in 94. I've worked in Silicon Valley. Haven't worked since 2018 after I had a heart attack followed by open heart surgery....been out 2yrs. I'm 40 miles West of Chicago and nobody wants to hire me due to COVID-19 and the break in my resume.

If you have a good job where you are at, I would not go in to tech support. Republicans, Democrats, and the US Chamber of Commerce want as many cheap foreign laborers from India as they can import.

Everything you say is 100% true. My brother has a good friend who worked with one of the biggest high tech companies on the planet. They go by the nickname "big blue". He had worked for them for 18 years and one day they brought him a helper ( so he thought). He worked with his "helper" ( a guy from India) for almost a month. Then one day he came in to work only to have the security guy tell him to clean out his desk and they fired him ( said they laid him off ) they escorted him out of the building

Here this guy put in 18 years of extremely dedicated service and worked all kinds of overtime and long days. Only to be tricked into training his replacement. That's the typical American Corporation in this new era. Makes me glad I quit working for Corporate America some time back .

[Ankerson]

I have an MIS degree and started working in tech support in 94. I've worked in Silicon Valley. Haven't worked since 2018 after I had a heart attack followed by open heart surgery....been out 2yrs. I'm 40 miles West of Chicago and nobody wants to hire me due to COVID-19 and the break in my resume.

If you have a good job where you are at, I would not go in to tech support. Republicans, Democrats, and the US Chamber of Commerce want as many cheap foreign laborers from India as they can import.

I got out when it went from good to bad years ago....

With all the outsourcing etc that killed the industry and the pay it's not worth it.

They over flooded the market...

[Naperville]

I have an MIS degree and started working in tech support in 94. I've worked in Silicon Valley. Haven't worked since 2018 after I had a heart attack followed by open heart surgery....been out 2yrs. I'm 40 miles West of Chicago and nobody wants to hire me due to COVID-19 and the break in my resume.

If you have a good job where you are at, I would not go in to tech support. Republicans, Democrats, and the US Chamber of Commerce want as many cheap foreign laborers from India as they can import.

Everything you say is 100% true. My brother has a good friend who worked with one of the biggest high tech companies on the planet. They go by the nickname "big blue". He had worked for them for 18 years and one day they brought him a helper ( so he thought). He worked with his "helper" ( a guy from India) for almost a month. Then one day he came in to work only to have the security guy tell him to clean out his desk and they fired him ( said they laid him off ) they escorted him out of the building

Here this guy put in 18 years of extremely dedicated service and worked all kinds of overtime and long days. Only to be tricked into training his replacement. That's the typical American Corporation in this new era. Makes me glad I quit working for Corporate America some time back .

Hey, and if we were stuck in India, I'd want to come to the USA too. I am not blaming or disparaging anyone, but the fact is the market and salaries are stagnant because they have let in millions to work for 1/2 the necessary salary to survive.

When I first got to Silicon Valley in 2000, I already had 3yrs of experience. I landed a job in a NOC and was making $25,000 per yr. I was sleeping in a room in Fremont, CA, on a hardwood floor in a sleeping bag! There were 5 other guys renting rooms in the house.

Then I managed to get a job as a sys admin, and lived in a house with 13 people!!!! All Chinese. There were 3 bedrooms in the garage. The dining room and living room had been converted in to bedrooms. Some of the "rooms" had families living in them.

Silicon Valley is awesome if you have a Masters or PhD. Bachelors degree....not so good, but you will survive.

[prndltech]

It’s threads like this that remind me I’m glad I work on cars... I program the computers in them with other computers...


It’s more like software updates but whatever, at least I’ll always have work and my job can’t be outsourced, no matter how much it sucks sometimes.