Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting

Re:Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting by Cyph0n on Sunday June 25, 2017 @05:51PM (#14632390)

I'm currently doing a PhD in electrical engineering. I've just finished my first year, and I'm starting to realize that the work I'm putting in to research projects isn't being appreciated monetarily. In other words, I feel like my time is worth more.

I like to think of myself as a decent programmer, but I'm not well versed in software security (more of a hardware person). I've also never had a full-time job as I jumped straight from my BS to a PhD.

I'm considering taking some security-related courses next year and getting my MS. I have two options after that: 1) look for summer internships in the field of software security and see if I like it, or 2) look for full-time positions and withdraw from the program temporarily to test out the waters. The issue with 1) is that there are less intern positions available, at least based on what I've seen.

Am I approaching this correctly, or is there something else I could do? Any advice is appreciated!

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Re:Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting by tptacek on Sunday June 25, 2017 @05:56PM (#14632424)

If you were going to get an internship position anyways, getting an internship at a security company isn't a bad plan. I wouldn't take an internship rather than a starting-level full-time position though, if internships weren't already your plan.

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Re:Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting by Cyph0n on Sunday June 25, 2017 @09:15PM (#14633284)

Yeah, assuming I stick to the PhD, the default plan would be to do an internship every summer. I guess I'll start looking for potential companies before searching for something full-time.

Thanks for the advice :)

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Re:Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting by joegosse on Monday June 26, 2017 @12:21PM (#14637946)

>I've also never had a full-time job as I jumped straight from my BS to a PhD.

Not having any work experience means you'll go through "University Recruiting" (vs experienced hire) recruiting channels at any large company. This gives you tremendous freedom to explore a variety of careers as employers will only be able to judge you by your academic credentials and you won't be pigeon-holed by your professional experience. Use this to your advantage and explore as many careers & companies as possible.

Your internship will be your first professional anchor point so choose wisely - you may consider starting with a broader, more general software engineering experience before specializing to keep your options open.

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