Re: Is Infosec for me?

[Stephen Mullins <steve.mullins.work () gmail com>]

Bottom line is you never know until you try.  The worst that happens
is you get shot down and are in no worse a position than currently.

The clearance process can be long, especially if they run into
difficulties.  If a company is willing to take a chance on you and you
fail the clearance/background check and get fired a year later, well
you just worked for a year at a decent salary and got solid real world
experience.  You come out way ahead in that scenario.

What people are saying is correct, though, about the "rock star"
hackers who got busted and now have companies trust them, much to the
chagrin of some of the white hats out there.  I don't foresee any of
these supposed "rock stars" getting government clearances any time
soon though.

People in certain regions might be more willing to overlook the drug
related charges.  I think you'd have better luck with that on the West
Coast than say D.C. or trying to work for the military.

You've gotta bring something pretty significant to the table for
someone to take a chance on someone with a record when they could just
as easily hire one of the multitudes of college grads who are majoring
in "Information Assurance" and the like these days.

Good luck,

Steve Mullins

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Bob Smith<chown777 () gmail com> wrote:
> Hello all. I was contemplating entering the IT security field. I do
> have some experience in IT in general and I have seen some good
> questions lately on this list about how to get into security. My
> question has not really been covered.
>
> I was reading the book entitled " Infosec Career Hacking" and I came
> across a part that if true is a problem for me entering this field. I
> wanted to post it out here to see what others thought rather than just
> giving up based on the author's opinion of the subject.
>
> When I was young I did some real stupid things. I had a bad drug habit
> which landed me in prison for a felony sales charge. Now I have a
> felony for life. I have long since passed that stage in my life and
> have not even gotten a speeding ticket since then. I know it was
> stupid but I cannot take it back now and ultimately that problem got
> me off drugs so something good came out of it. In the above mentioned
> book it basically said pretty bluntly that if you have a felony you
> can forget ever having a job in this field. My question to all of you
> is what is your experience with this if any? Can any of you in the
> field attest to or deny the relevance of that statement?
>
> I am putting myself out there so I would hope everyone on this list is
> mature enough not to pass judgment for my actions, rather just give me
> the information in a non biased manner.Should I forget it before I
> even think about making the jump or is there hope for me yet? The
> charge I am talking about has been over 10 years ago and I have been
> off of parole for almost 5 years.
>
> Thank you all in advance for your time in responding to this matter.
>
> Bob
>
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