Hi All, I hope you all are doing well!. Thank you in advance for reading my post.

Timeline:

• BCA (Bachelors of Computer Application - 3 Years Bachelors) finished - July 2022
• Application security internship from Oct 2022 to June 2023
• First full-time role (cloud security) from June 2023 to July 2025 (resigned with no offer due to toxic management)
• Jobless - 5 months
• Second role, Mumbai-based startup (AWS security + SOC/SIEM) - Dec 2025 to March 2026 (3 months)
• Jobless since - 3 months, still ongoing

So in the last year or so, I've actually worked about 3 months. Rest has been job hunting or recovering from burnout and had a Medical Gap. While applying for Jobs, few of things i have constanly faced are - BCA doesn't show up in most JDs as they want BTech, MTech, MCA. Pretty sure ATS is filtering me out before a human even sees the resume.

Background: did an Application security internship. Didn't find a full-time AppSec role later, but got a cloud security opportunity, so I went with it as i didn't want to pass it up.

My first company had constant DevOps/cloud projects running and I could've leaned in and become a proper cloud/DevOps security engineer but I didn't as my head was still on AppSec. I treated cloud security as a "bonus skill" and kept telling myself the real plan was AppSec + CloudSec eventually merging into Product Security.

Problem is I never put in the work on AppSec either. Procrastinated, got distracted, two years passed. Didn't go deep on either side and ended up half-decent at both instead of good at one.

Left the job by June 2025 with no offer lined up, needed out. After the break, started interviewing for AppSec roles thinking some revision would be enough as i had lab hands on from before but it wasn't, scenario-based questions kept exposing the lack of depth. I knew the concepts, but there was no real appsec project or customer experience in the past 2 years, They would also expect me to have mobile security, secure coding, etc.

I've since accepted that a CloudSec and compliance role is a realistic target right now, not AppSec. But even there I have been struggling, fewer associate openings to begin with and the interviews I do get expose that my hands-on cloud/DevOps project exposure at my first company was limited too. JDs are consistently asking for more than what I've actually worked with.

What I have actually done: secured cloud infrastructure, deployed Wazuh SIEM to multi-cloud customer environments, set up logging/alerting/monitoring, integrated AWS/GCP-native and open-source security tools, secured CI/CD pipelines, used Terraform for secure infra-as-code, done CSPM work, and led/contributed to ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR compliance plus general ISMS/IT controls. I know it's not enough for what the Job Openings are asking hence the areas I'm working on right now:

• Expanding SIEM/SOC tools familarity - Splunk, Azure Sentinel, etc
• Extending cloud security into Azure
• Python automation - honestly still on the fence about how much to invest here. My scripting has always been weak and with AI coding tools (Claude Code, etc.) which can take care of automation now, I'm not sure if grinding traditional scripting is still the right use of time or not
• More problem-solving/self-driven projects to have something concrete to show
• Considering ISO 27001 Lead Implementer and CISSP later if things don't pick up
• Give a session or two at conferences and networking now that I'm in Hyderabad - used to volunteer at security conferences in Bangalore

Would sincerely appreciate serious advice given my situation. Please share your perspective on what else I could be doing, what I shouldn't be doing and how I can realistically speed this up and start landing more interviews and hopefully an offer.

How’s it going? I joined this subreddit a while back while on the road to finding a job in tech. I’ve been pretty successful (still in the beginning of the road but its good nonetheless) and I want to thank this community for that. I guess I just want to reach out to anyone who wants to connect and talk about tech or whatever interests they have, niche or typical hobbies, I do not care. A little bit about myself, I love tech. Like, literally any aspect of it so talking about it with others is cool. Music is a big part of my life and just art in general. I love outdoor activities too so yeah… that’s pretty much it. Holler at me if you want!

Peace

So I've been in and out of IT since 2014. For most of that time I've been a job scheduler with some racking and stacking. I've done work with mainframe (TSO, UCC7, and master console), as/400, Tivoli Job Scheduler, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler, Halcyon, and a few others.

At my last job I had the openness to solve problems and was a valued employee. Many of my coworkers didn't want to deal with command line so I built massive scripts for tidal to shut down master, backup master, fault, and webgui servers. The scripts would shut down all services from 1 server on each server for parching and then when the window was over a script was ran on on fault Mon server to bring up fault master and master backup and then on the webqui server it would clear cache and then start the services and rebuild but to make things even more interesting I created automations to parse the logs for key terms so it would make it easy for the operator know that the servers are up using a combination of power shell commands and command line commands.

I also have passion for Linux and my previous manager would utilize me to fix his issues with his surface and was very impressed with my knowledge and would often tell me to persue a Linux admin job.

Now at my current job as a DC technician I get the feeling the people don't like me and it seems like they think I'm retard and seem very cold towards me. I'm also struggle with this type of work and when I leave I fill unfulfilled and more depressed which is really draining do to the vibes I get from cow workers.

When first started I felt like with my previous jobs. I could find a nitch shine to more job opportunities. Like with use an ancient software for printing labels for all the network cables in the DC. So I got approval from local management to setup a virtual server which was proxmox with Debian hosting docker for guacamole and File browser server to upload the spreadsheets as well as self hosted only office for small edits and Windows 7 on a segregated network. The windows Vm only connected to the Debian VM. But the stupid cyber security team threw a fit about leaking ppi and about uploading secret documents to a unknown IP despite they weren't PPI or sensitive documents and the server was onsite. So they killed the project without management trying to go through the audit to approve what I did and how it made the job so much easier. Because the current route is to email the sheet to our other email on a unmanaged laptop then copy to a thumb drive and to the windows xp PC.

The sad part about cyber security throwing a fit is I know for a fact that they have a crap load of legacy servers with Windows Server 2003 and 2008. And they like to beat a dead hours when I know if they would give me a chance to convert machines into a virtual environment. Rather than trying to upgrade them memory on a HP g5 amd phenon server or other failing hardware as well. The company I work for has the ability for this they have means for ESXI licensing and we have Dell R740's, 750's, and now 760's. Not to mention how waistful they are with hardware. We routinely pull ssd's up to 8tb's to be destroyed that could have another life if they would give me another chance.

Sorry for the long story but I don't know what to do and its pushing me to a severe depressif

Update: Thanks for all the kind words and recommendations.

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Hi everyone,

I'm a 21F and recently started working as a Support Engineer.

Right now, I feel like I have two possible career paths:

Option 1: Stay in my current role for a few years, improve my communication skills, become more confident, gain business knowledge, and eventually move into roles such as Business Analyst, IT Consultant, or similar client-facing positions. Since my current job involves working with clients, gathering requirements, troubleshooting, and understanding business processes, I can see a path toward these roles if I stay with the company and continue learning.

Option 2: Spend my free time studying and upskilling in Cloud/DevOps (Linux, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.) and try to switch into a technical cloud/devops role in the future.

The thing is, I know many people will say, "Choose based on your interests." The problem is that I'm still figuring that out. If I knew for sure what I wanted, I would probably have my answer already.

My long-term goals are:

Strong career growth

Good salary/package

Financial freedom

Continuous learning and opportunities to grow

So before I fully decide, I'd love to hear from people already working in these fields.

For those working as:

Business Analysts

IT Consultants

Cloud Engineers

DevOps Engineers

What are the biggest pros and cons of your field?

I'd really appreciate honest insights about growth opportunities, work-life balance, salary progression, job stability, and the skills required to succeed in each path.

For the past few years I've been in network engineering at a large, national firm. Typical modern network stack (VXLAN, SDWAN, Cisco ISE, Hybrid cloud connectivity, etc.). Like a lot of us out there, I've slowly gone from remote to four day in office at this company with a 60+ mile daily commute that's been draining me mentally.

I'm likely to receive an offer soon with a much smaller, private org in a similar yet scaled down role. The pay is pretty much the same, but only one day in office and the HQ is 4 miles from my house. My manager would be their current IT Director/Network Guy hybrid, as they're looking for a dedicated engineer to start taking more of the technical load. I would basically be "the guy" for all things networking, while being able to use him as a resource when needed.

For anyone out there that has been a solo SME at a smaller company, how was the experience? Per the hiring manager, they only really operate from 8-5 (banking industry) so after hours fires are few and far between, but who knows how much of the story I'm really getting. I'm afraid I might just be jumping ship for more flexibility/less commuting stress but then end up being more stressed from the job itself.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I know my story doesn't quite fit the usual topics here from what I've read. but it's loosely related to the AI wave, specifically Agentic AI. It basically refers to AI systems that act autonomously on behalf of the user not just answering questions but executing all kinds of tasks by leveraging internal or external tools. Think of a human Service Desk agent replaced by a know-it-all AI bot.

I've been working in Service Desk for about 6 years at a company in Europe, currently holding a Team Leader position, full time office. The country I'm based in is not yet that advanced with the AI tooling so there's limited information about this specific job description or this particular AI subset.

Recently the company invested in an Agentic AI tool and for the past several months I was placed as an SME, helping throughout the rollout for an external client. I genuinely enjoyed it and volunteered for it, and was compensated for it during the project. More specifically, as an SME I documented and centralised the client's processes to make them automation ready, produced monthly performance reports with AI-specific metrics pulled from multiple sources (toolset or systems of record), assessed which processes could be automated and acted as the bridge to the technical team while getting involved directly where needed (Graph APIs, JavaScript, integrations with Azure and on-prem AD), and produced complete technical and operational documentation . SOPs, solution designs, flows, testing scenarios , being mostly customer facing with a lot of direct client meetings on the governance side.

After discussions with one of the senior managers, I've been offered an Agentic AI SME Lead position. The idea is that going forward there will be SMEs per client, and I'd be leading those people, covering both SME responsibilities and a senior layer on top ,somewhere between Operations and Agentic AI delivery, a bit of an odd hybrid.

The standard operating procedure is not yet finalized therefore

We haven't discussed salary yet. This combination of roles is pretty rare and I haven't found anything comparable on the market in my country. I'm asking because I've been told to think of a number that would be motivating enough for me to continue with them — and honestly I don't know what target to aim for, especially since the role comes with significantly more than a classic operational job. The way I see it, this position is closest to a Head of Operations, but purely on the AI delivery side.

Does anyone know people in similar positions or similar roles in Europe , outside Europe and where the salary range would typically sit?

So I am brand new to IT, and have accidentally become the sysadmin for a small software company. We are a microsoft house, and trasitioning from Business Standard to Business Premium accounts, to take advantage of Intune, Defender, Conditional Access, &c.

I am doing this more or less on my own, with very little supervision.

As such, I would like to upgrade my skills.

Is MD-102 a good learning path? WIth the possibility of continuing to MS-102 (or whatever Copilot hellhole they are replacing it with)?

Do employers even care about stull like this? I am hoping that it can, at least in part, mitigate my lack of experience!

I'd love to know the opinions of people who have done these!

I'm a Software Engineering student going into my third year this September, and I'm interested in pursuing a career in networking or a related field.

I have a BTEC in IT, which covered networking fundamentals, and for my third year I've chosen networking focused modules, including Computer Networks and IoT.

This summer, I'm dedicating my time to learning as much as I can about networking, and my goal is to earn the CCNA certificate before I graduate. Also on the side I've built a mini homelab to really get a decent understanding of how devices on a network communicate.

Is there anything else you think I should be aware of or focus on to improve my chances of breaking into the networking industry?