Some time ago I realized that it was time to leave my job, but I stayed longer than I should have. I wanted to help the people who reported to me and to wait for some planned changes to take place. This week the decision was made for me and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve been blessed to have great friendships and professional relationships and have been contacted by dozens of people giving me support, job recommendations, and offers to help. It’s truly humbling to have all of you reach out to me and I can’t say thank you enough.

I am excited about the future. While I look for my next full-time gig, I’m looking at a couple of options for consulting and will take this opportunity to spend with family, focus on exercising and enjoying life. I’ll also be working on a couple of certifications and my eBook about security compliance for small businesses. Boredom won’t be a problem.

Thanks again to all of you who have shown me such friendship and support. I appreciate it very much.

I wish my former employer and coworkers nothing but the best. They have a difficult and important job and deserve the best.

What advice would you give to students just entering the IT / Computer Networking / InfoSec field?

As an adjunct instructor at ITT Technical Institute, students often ask me what they can do to get hired or what certifications they should get. Here’s what I tell them:

1. Do what you enjoy doing. Life is too short and this business is too demanding to spend your time working on things that you don’t enjoy.
2. You’ll spend the rest of your career learning. Technology changes too fast and there’s so much to learn. You can’t learn everything, so you’ll eventually need to narrow your focus. See #1
3. Find people who know more than you about your area of interest and learn from them.
4. Certifications in your area of focus help you get the interview, especially if you have little experience. For example, if your focus is networking, an A+ isn’t that interesting to me but a CCNA is.
5. Show me why I want to hire you and why you’ve got more to offer than the other people competing for the job. Have a portfolio to exhibit your work: Visio drawings, scripts, project time lines, statement of work documents, device configurations. Don’t fake this stuff – make sure it’s yours and that you can back it up!
6. Get a lab at home and use it!! You’re new to a field that requires constant learning; I want to know that you are committed and that you know what it takes to learn. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a lab. Use virtual machines or GNS3 for networking. See the Helpful Resources section below for more ideas.
7. Have a website where you discuss what you are learning, how you are learning it, and how you overcome obstacles. Besides seeing what and how you learn, I can see how well you communicate in writing.
8. Learn Linux. I can’t tell you how many students interested in security tell me that they hate Linux. Almost every security person I know uses Linux or OS X to run their security tools. Limiting yourself to Windows is a mistake in my opinion.
9. Learn to write useful scripts. Scripting multiplies your effectiveness and makes you more valuable.
10. Keep asking questions. Curiosity is one of the best assets an IT / Networking / InfoSec person can have.

I’ve hired scores of people and sat on more interviews than I can count. These are the traits that I look for in people that I hire, but I’d love to hear what advice others in this industry would give. Leave a comment or send me a tweet @true62 so we can continue the discussion. Also, feel free to send me links to sites  to add to the resources list below.

Helpful Resources

Here are some helpful resources that are relatively inexpensive that will help the student or person new to the technology field:

• O’Reilly School of Technology – Instructor lead certificate programs through the University of Illinois. Programs include system administration (including scripting) and web programming. Classes currently $398

“…unique, online, hands-on courses leading to Certificates of Professional Development from the world-famous University of Illinois, OST will help you gain an edge in your career — on your own time, at your own pace. When you have completed our courses, you will not only have a Certificate, but you will also have a portfolio of completed projects to show for your effort.”

• Cisco Networking Academy – take classes at high schools, community colleges, technical colleges, or universities in your area. Cost is typically the same as tuition for a 4-credit course plus lab fee.

“Cisco Networking Academy is a global education program that teaches students how to design, build, troubleshoot, and secure computer networks for increased access to career and economic opportunities in communities around the world.”

• Internetwork Experts – take instructor led or self-paced CCNA bootcamps. Self-paced CCNA bootcamp currently $495.
• GNS3, Dynagen, and Dynamips, – Cisco router emulator software
• Amazon Compute Cloud – setup servers in the cloud without buying hardware
• Security Onion – bootable DVD with software for installing, configuring and testing Intrusion Detection Systems
• Backtrack – Linux pen testing distribution (thanks Steve)
• Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Analysis – Careers

Why You Want to Create a Career Path

Everyone should have at least a rough outline for their career path. The last thing you want is to decide that you want to get into a field or specialty only to find that you haven’t prepared. For example, you don’t want to interview for a leadership position without having at least thought about why you want to transition into management.

From time to time, each of us needs to take some time out to assess what it is that we enjoy and are willing to exchange our time for money. After all, our interests, desires and needs change over time. Once you decide what it is what you want to do, you need to decide how to get there. There are lots of ways to reach a destination, it’s just that some are more efficient than others. You can take the Jeffy route (I have) or take a more direct route – the choice is yours.

Certifications for Technical Leaders

Technical leaders are different from other leaders because we are responsible for using technology to deliver business results. That means we need to be adept at both technology and business (in addition to leading people – easy huh?). Since we need to be at least functional in those areas, it makes sense to me that we need to be trained and stay up to date in each area.

I like to alternate between technical and business or leadership training / certifications. I recognize that I still need to be at least somewhat creditable with my engineers, so I feel that it is important to get technical certifications or attend technical training. Consequently, since I just finished a Masters degree primarily business focused, I’m looking at technical training and certifications from SANS; specifically their Cyber Guardian program.

Please do not get me wrong, this isn’t some random technical certification that earns me a certain level of creditability with my engineers. Rather, this is a technical certification that helps me further down my current career path of becoming an information (cyber) security people leader.

SANS Cyber-Guardian Program

The SANS cyber-guardian program is a technically focused program that attempts to build a cyber special forces cadre, ready to protect and defend our information networks and assets. The SANS cyber-guardian program consists of baseline training in:

• Intrusion Detection
• Forensics
• Network Penetration

A candidate must pass each of the corresponding certification tests, and then they must pass the tests for their area of specialty:

• Blue team: perimeter protections, securing Windows, securing Linux
• Red team: Web application penetration testing, wireless ethical hacking, and developing exploits for ethical hackers.

Finally, to obtain the Security Expert certification, the candidate must pass the GSE exam.

What Do You Think

I’d love to hear what you think. Do you have a career plan? How often do you think about it? How do you make sure you keep up with technology and business or leadership skills? If you’re in the security field, what do you think about the SANS Cyber-Guardian program?

I read an awful lot of articles, blog posts, and books and thought you readers might find at least some of them useful. Each week I’ll post links to the ones that I found most interesting or useful. I’ve also created a category, Reading List, so you can easily find and review these lists at your leisure.

Topics included this week are leadership, certifications and information assurance.

Leadership

• How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Adgenda very interesting read about managing Gen Y and Boomers, and how much they have in common. Includes specific information on pay and motivation.
• McCEO, article from Chief Executive about McDonald’s CEO, Jim Skinner. His leadership helped McDonald’s become profitable again by focusing on getting better, not bigger.
• Ethics Simulator from the US Naval Academy Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership.
• Indicators of Leadership Potential by Ram Charan. Think you have what it takes to lead? “Leaders aren’t born with the phenomenal breadth and scope of thinking that characterizes successful leaders of big companies, but those with a drive to constantly search for more information and see things from a broader view have the potential for it.”

Information Assurance

• Effective Digital Security Preserves Long-Term Competitiveness interesting point of view on how to position the value of security to management.
• Superhacker Max Butler Pleads Guilty hacker hacks other hackers and steals data they stole. He had 1.8 million credit card records when he was caught. Hopes he gets a chance to be a whitehat in the future. Would you hire him?
• Funny blog post from Layer 8 about security in the real world. Well worth the read.
• Improved FISMA scores don’t result in improved security. Time to change the process and the metrics used to measure security effectiveness?

Certifications

• Cisco Certified Architect (CCA) to require CCDE as prerequisite.

I received word of the new Cisco Certified Architect – CCA certification via Twitter from two different sources including @LearningatCisco. This certification ranks above the CCIE and CCDE. Here is a link to the Cisco announcement. You can read more on the Cisco Learning Center CCA page too.

Based on the announcement, the requirements for the CCA are:

• The Cisco Certified Architect certification will be administered as a board exam.
• Candidates will propose and defend an architecture solution to a set of business requirements, and the candidates will be asked to modify their proposals “on the fly,” based on additional requirements presented by the board.
• Prerequisites include a CCDE^TM certification, approximately 10 years of industry experience, and acceptance into the program via an application process.

What’s the Value to You?

• Who really needs this certification? Other than the cert junkies, and maybe the Cisco Partners who benefits from this cert?
• How different is this from the CCDE certification?
• As Steve Chambers pointed out to me via Twitter, this is still almost totally network centric – where is the integration piece with servers, virtualization, and the services that the network supports?
• How do you CCIEs and multiple CCIEs feel about this?
• Are you going to pursue this certification?
• If you’re an employer, do you want a CCA on staff? If so, how much would you pay them? 10% above a CCIE? 20%?

I thought I’d share the GNS3 files that I used to study for my CCNA. This isn’t based off of any lab that I know of, I just made them up. I created a blank Frame Relay network and a blank router network and practiced configuring them for Frame Relay hub and spoke, NAT, DHCP server, RIPv2, single area OSPF, EIGRP, and security.

GNS3 Frame Relay Network

What You Get

These are blank files in that they are connected, have host names, IP addresses and the DLCIs are configured in the Frame Relay network. They’re basically ready to configure for the items listed above. All passwords are cisco. The drawings have the IP and DLCI information on them.

You can download the zipped file here (7 MB). You can unzip them and copy them to your working file such as /Applications/Dynagen/tmp/ or wherever you put your working files. I used 3640 routers, but you can open the config files and modify them for whichever router you use.

You should be able to save the files, start GNS3, and then start the devices and be on your way. For Mac users, here is a link to setup your default terminal to open new tabs for each device.

Strategy

I did it this way to save time setting up practice networks. I used these blanks to get started, and then I’d configure NAT and EIGRP or maybe just NAT and a DHCP server. These were small, quick setups so I wouldn’t save my work after I made changes. If I were to do this for CCNP or CCIE practice, I’d save a blank file like this and save the work using a new file name. Just my thoughts. Let us know if you have a way that works better for you.

Disclaimers

I don’t think it matters, but these were created on a Mac.

I’m just throwing these out there for your use if you want them, and use them at your own risk. I am not including the Cisco IOS, or any warranties of any kind. I am happy to answer any questions you might have on a best effort basis.

Related Posts

• Mac OSX Leopard Terminal & GNS3 / Dynagen
• Certs!? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Certs

Despite the debatable value of certifications, I decided to use my two week school break to study and test for my Cisco CCNA certification.  In this article I’ll discuss why technology leaders should consider getting the CCNA (even if you can’t login to any of your equipment), and I’ll share how I prepared for the exam with links to all the tools I used. After reading this, I hope you’ll be motivated to get your CCNA, and you’ll feel confident that you have the tools you need to pass it.

Why Get a CCNA

I’m in management and don’t even have authorization to log into any of the equipment we operate, so why get a CCNA? Believe me, I asked myself this several times over the last few days when I was tired of studying.

The CCNA is not super tough but the time, effort and knowledge required to pass the exam demonstrates a commitment to your profession and to your people. I think your engineers will appreciate it if you put in the time and effort it takes to get the CCNA. They know what it takes, and they’ll respect your commitment if nothing else.

I decided to get it because as the manager of a group of network engineers, I thought I should have at least the associate level certification. If we’re asking our folks to get certified, shouldn’t we have at least a minimum level certification?

Does the CCNA make me any smarter or validate me in some way? Well, I did learn a few things that I didn’t know before, time based ACLs for example. I also gained a real appreciation for the effort required to get the certification. All of us in the tech industry have to learn continually, but there is a difference between self study with no test versus study followed by a $250 test.

How to prepare for the CCNA?

Preparation

I’ll share my preparation for those who are interested in getting their CCNA.

• I read Exam Cram via my Safari Books subscription and reviewed weak areas multiple times.
• Used the iCOD (see video below) and accompanying books to review ICND2 material. I connected the iPod to my Mac Book Pro so I could view it on a bigger screen. The iPod is good for portability, but given a choice I prefer to watch it on my laptop. Contact the folks at CCBOOTCAMP to get one of your own – you’ll even get lab rack time.
• Review modules on The Cisco Learning Center. There is a ton of good, free information on this site.
• Used GNS3 / Dynagen (on my Mac Book Pro) to practice routing, NAT, Frame Relay and DHCP pool configuration. I love this software and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be a network engineer or even those who are engineers.
• Took practice tests using Self Test Software and Pass For Sure

Are You Ready to Go For It?

What do you think, is it worth it for someone in management to get their CCNA? I’ve listed several tools here to help you; are you willing to get your CCNA?

Do you think it’s  enough or should mangers go for their CCNP, CCDP or <shudder>CCIE</shudder>?

A question a lot of people in the technology industry have is, “how valuable are certifications?”

SANS – ISSA Presentation

On Monday, I attended a joint SANS – ISSA presentation on the value of certifications. The presenters were Terry Daus and My-Ngoc Nguyen. Interesting facts the presenters pointed out included:

• More than 75% of people who responded to a salary survey have a bachelors degree and 25% have a Masters or PhD
• People with education, experience, training and certifications have considerably higher (approximately 20%) salaries than those with no training or certifications
• A certification provides a certain level of creditability when applying for a job
• The certification that is considered important or very important is the CISSP, the CCIE was second
• If you are competing for jobs with people who have a degree and certifications, you should strongly consider having at least the same education and certifications

They also suggested rounding out our credentials to include certifications such as ITIL or PMP Project Management certifications. I’ve included a copy of the presentation if you’d like to see it for yourself.

This is a Competition

We all know people who have certifications who can quote you chapter and verse but who cannot troubleshoot. Conversely, we all know people who do not have any certifications but who have more knowledge and ability than people who do have them. That is why I feel that certifications are simply a data point to be used in evaluating people for hiring or promotions. Personally, (I cannot over-emphasize this is my personal opinion) I am more impressed by the dedication and desire to learn continuously than I am by the actual certification.

Does having a degree or certification mean that you know more than people who do not hold a certifcation? Of course not, and I’m sure we can all name a few people we know who can prove that point. Nevertheless, when applying for a job or promotion we are competing with people who do have degrees and certifications, and human resources and hiring managers do pay attention to both. You might not like it, but the reality is without one or both, you are at a disadvantage.

I originally posted this on the Cisco Powered Technical Community Forum.

I thought I would share some recent experiences with locating training for people who are fairly new to Cisco networking. We’re trying to stretch our training dollars as far as we can, so we met with a local training partner, CCBootcamp. They worked with us to meet our training needs by scheduling classes for ICND 1&2.

We’ve asked for leadership to sponsor individuals who will benefit from the training and have a good shot at success. I also have a couple of my engineers developing a short (6 hours) preparatory course on OSI and subnetting, so these folks can get through the class without spinning out on those subjects.

By combining these classes, Dynagen, and the Cisco Learning Center, we hope to have 15-20 people who will know Cisco networking at least at the entry level, and hopfully have a few go on to their CCNA and beyond.

What strategies are you using to help get training while working with a small budget?

I’ve updated the osascript to one that works better than the original one that I posted.

I just finished a 3 hour tangent to my CCNA studies. I was going to mess around with EIGRP and OSPF configurations in GNS3 / Dynagen, but was a little annoyed with it opening a new terminal window for each console session. I’ve got Leopard, which uses tabs so it seems awfully silly to open a new terminal each time.

I thought this would be pretty straight forward since it can be done using iTerm fairly easily. I found it to be somewhat simple to open a new tab, although I had to take a crash course on Applescripts. The real problem is you don’t seem to be able to name the tabs even though there is a property that should handle it (custom title).

I muddled around with the script editor, the script dictionary, and spent hours on Google looking for an answer. All that to come to the same conclusion as everyone else; it can’t be done with Applescript. I did find a wrapper and a SIMB plug in, but don’t really want to go that far for this application.

After all that effort, here is what I have decided to live with as the command to launch a new terminal tab for GNS / Dynagen. You can copy it and paste it directly into the Terminal Command section of the GNS3 preferences.

I make no claims of being an Applescript expert, so use this at your own risk. Your results may vary.

Edit your dynagen.ini file to look like this:

# Uncomment below of OS X with Terminal with named tabs (requires Leopard)
telnet = /usr/bin/osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to tell process “Terminal” to keystroke “t” using command down’ -e ‘tell application “Terminal” to do script with command “telnet %h %p ; exit” in last tab of first window’ -e ‘tell application “Terminal” to tell window 1  to set custom title to “%d”‘

Old setting opened too many unused windows. Included here for reference only.

# Uncomment below of OS X with Terminal with named tabs (requires Leopard)
telnet = /usr/bin/osascript -e ‘tell application “Terminal” to activate’ -e ‘tell application “System Events” to tell process “Terminal” to keystroke “t” using command down’ -e ‘tell application “Terminal” to do script with command “telnet %h %p ; exit ” in last tab of first window’

Related Posts

• Certs!? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Certs
• GNS3 Files for CCNA Level Practice