The 'I work in I.T' thread

Donny_Dog said:

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AI is killing us on the recruitment side. We’re doing offshore interviews and the number of candidates blatantly using it is off the scale. We had someone typing the interview questions into their laptop and just reading what it said 😂

charltjr said:

AI is killing us on the recruitment side. We’re doing offshore interviews and the number of candidates blatantly using it is off the scale. We had someone typing the interview questions into their laptop and just reading what it said 😂

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We recently took on a new BA. Was in the job a couple of weeks then mysteriously wasn't. Turned out he'd added three fake jobs to his CV and the companies were all registered to some flat in London lol

cupguy said:

We recently took on a new BA. Was in the job a couple of weeks then mysteriously wasn't. Turned out he'd added three fake jobs to his CV and the companies were all registered to some flat in London lol

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I f**king hate business analysts

Jobsworths

Advikaz said:

I f**king hate business analysts

Jobsworths

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You must be a dev

cupguy said:

You must be a dev

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Wash your mouth out.

But also, nobody likes BA’s 😆

Could use some opinions here. I have a job opportunity - different discipline & industry. And I'm mulling it over.

As some/no-one may know, I am a Network architect. Been doing networking (mainly) and security since 2006. Engineer, senior, team leader, pre-sales, consultant and so on.
I've been in defence about 4 years. Business is booming, sadly, but obviously a safe industry to be employed in as it stands.

I've been offered a job in the aviation industry (tour operator). Not something I've been in before as contractor or permy. So I'm a bit wet behind the ears with the sector. But, that's not usually an issue (in terms of learning) but not sure how stable it is.

Not only is the industry different, but the role is purely security architecture. So, it'll be overarching, not just networks. Technical design authority for various disciplines in IT. Apps, servers, storage, cloud, networks blah blah.
Obviously there is some learning to be done, which is fine. Fresh challenges and all that, new skills.
But.....

My main issue is - is this a more future safe discipline and role to be in? Security, rather than just Networks AND security (mainly network security TBF - which does encompass a fair bit of overall infra security).

My reasoning is... There is little new innovation in networking. It is not like the 2000's. Innovation has stagnated. Cisco are not the power house, RFC creator they were. It appears to me, unified security is just on the rise. Cyber security in particular is (and has been) a booming chapter in the last decade. Cloud hosted solutions and cloud in general seem to have lit the touch paper.

If I'm leaving networking, (fully) it's a big deal. I'm trying to crystal ball gaze, that the aviation industry will be ok for the next decade + security roles (senior ones) also will. AI is here and that plays a role, not sure if good or bad, in security either.

Any thoughts?

My mates a network architect and he’s on £1,600.00 a day in finance.

I wouldn’t be jumping out of defence into aviation myself… tbh.

Id not jump ship either with the way the market is at the minute. Do the security creds as a side line and skill up.

Struggling to think of a sector which is as nailed-on for growth as defence TBH.

Aviation is vulnerable to economic shocks, fuel prices, etc and I wouldn’t want to bet against a rocky decade on that front. That’s on top of the already absolutely savage levels of cost savings.

Depressing really!

I work in a part of defence as a software engineer/tech lead and I would say it’s the safest job ever, to the extent where I think if I were made redundant at 9am I have a high confidence I’ll have a new job by the end of the day (probably with the same end customer and users just being paid by a different person!). However I’ve said my next job is going to not be in the sector I’m in. As said aviation I would class as risky, especially with the eco warriors piping up.

I currently work in aerospace, technical lead / solution architect for hosting infrastructure, annnnd getting laid off next week... Stick to defence!

Looks like I’m going to be asked to move back into technical team management again.

I’m a bit torn to be honest. I love being a techie and I hate the stress of management bullshit, but on the other hand I can see they are absolutely sinking and need an experienced manger to sort stuff out.

Kinda feel like I’d be putting the good of the team over my own personal wellbeing. Hmmmmm. Decisions decisions!

charltjr said:

Looks like I’m going to be asked to move back into technical team management again.

I’m a bit torn to be honest. I love being a techie and I hate the stress of management bullshit, but on the other hand I can see they are absolutely sinking and need an experienced manger to sort stuff out.

Kinda feel like I’d be putting the good of the team over my own personal wellbeing. Hmmmmm. Decisions decisions!

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What kind of technical/team/discipline?

Thanks for the input.
Defence is obviously a safe bet. Only... There isn't security architect as a defined role where I am. It's just in addition to everyone else's role. That's part why I can't see myself staying. It's not taken seriously and they can't see the shifts in architecture and design trends. It's all a bit laboured, like I'm getting left behind.
Networking is dying, so I need a plan.

I've spoken to my gaffer and said I've got an offer. Given details + direction I want to go in. He said, they'll come up with something on Monday after hes discussed it with the CIO.
Be good to have two options, but I'm doubtful they'll come up with something dynamic as a counter.

Donny_Dog said:

What kind of technical/team/discipline?

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Enterprise application support in fintech with a lump of AWS on the side.

It’s unusually deep dive support, digging through stack traces etc.

The team are really good, but demoralised and generally beaten up by offshoring and years of being under-resourced. I’d want commitments on being able to mix things up and make improvements before taking the role.

Donny_Dog said:

Thanks for the input.
Defence is obviously a safe bet. Only... There isn't security architect as a defined role where I am. It's just in addition to everyone else's role. That's part why I can't see myself staying. It's not taken seriously and they can't see the shifts in architecture and design trends. It's all a bit laboured, like I'm getting left behind.
Networking is dying, so I need a plan.

I've spoken to my gaffer and said I've got an offer. Given details + direction I want to go in. He said, they'll come up with something on Monday after hes discussed it with the CIO.
Be good to have two options, but I'm doubtful they'll come up with something dynamic as a counter.

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I can’t really comment on the defence vs aviation sector aspect, but on the security front, having been in the profession for 9 years I would have to say it’s a really good place to be.
There’s a lot of aspects to it which make it interesting and it definitely is evolving constantly so rarely feels stale, unless you love writing policies!
If you’re coming from a technical background then that puts you in a pretty desirable place.
I’m currently the lead security architect for a media organisation and while there’s some bad days, it’s pretty enjoyable and certainly interesting.
Any questions just holla.

boultonn said:

I can’t really comment on the defence vs aviation sector aspect, but on the security front, having been in the profession for 9 years I would have to say it’s a really good place to be.
There’s a lot of aspects to it which make it interesting and it definitely is evolving constantly so rarely feels stale, unless you love writing policies!
If you’re coming from a technical background then that puts you in a pretty desirable place.
I’m currently the lead security architect for a media organisation and while there’s some bad days, it’s pretty enjoyable and certainly interesting.
Any questions just holla.

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Fantastic, many thanks.
Yep, technical background although less so, in the last 3 years. More TDA, strategy/roadmaps and transformation projects.

I'm actually excited about the shift.
Would you recommend CISSP for someone coming from technical architect to security architect? (Any other training?)
I'll be the only sec architect (if I accept this role) and so I want to use my notice period to get serious and try be useful from the first few months.

Donny_Dog said:

Fantastic, many thanks.
Yep, technical background although less so, in the last 3 years. More TDA, strategy/roadmaps and transformation projects.

I'm actually excited about the shift.
Would you recommend CISSP for someone coming from technical architect to security architect? (Any other training?)
I'll be the only sec architect (if I accept this role) and so I want to use my notice period to get serious and try be useful from the first few months.

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TDA, governance and strategy are still likely to be a big part (and probably stuff like producing patterns) but then also the more technical lower level stuff (not going to try and list this s**t).
I’d say CISSP is solid, I got it in 2021 and while not super deep it does a good job of making sure you know the fundamentals of pretty much every InfoSec domain.
In terms of extra training, if the org uses a cloud provider, I’d take some time to get a deeper understanding of the specific one (unless that’s something you’ve been really close to before). For me we use AWS so been focusing on AWS certified solutions architect as well as a lot of their free material.

boultonn said:

TDA, governance and strategy are still likely to be a big part (and probably stuff like producing patterns) but then also the more technical lower level stuff (not going to try and list this s**t).
I’d say CISSP is solid, I got it in 2021 and while not super deep it does a good job of making sure you know the fundamentals of pretty much every InfoSec domain.
In terms of extra training, if the org uses a cloud provider, I’d take some time to get a deeper understanding of the specific one (unless that’s something you’ve been really close to before). For me we use AWS so been focusing on AWS certified solutions architect as well as a lot of their free material.

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That's solid advice and actually quiet reassuring that it echoes some of my colleagues opinions also. Many thanks.

How did you find winning over the hearts and minds? Some folk don't like change and see added security or governance as a blocker to innovation.
I've got my own approaches to this - as I was in pre-sales and also senior engineering so amassed a pretty stoic resolve. But I know friends who have gone from tech centric roles into management or compliance and just failed to implement change effectively.

Donny_Dog said:

That's solid advice and actually quiet reassuring that it echoes some of my colleagues opinions also. Many thanks.

How did you find winning over the hearts and minds? Some folk don't like change and see added security or governance as a blocker to innovation.
I've got my own approaches to this - as I was in pre-sales and also senior engineering so amassed a pretty stoic resolve. But I know friends who have gone from tech centric roles into management or compliance and just failed to implement change effectively.

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It might sound basic but just remember that security is there to support the business objectives.
Never goes down well throwing the book at some engineer when all he’s trying to build is a postcode checker.
Establish some sort of security risk management framework so the business can take informed risks as they choose. It can be hard if the culture doesn’t integrate with security but more and more places are opening up to it so being pragmatic and collaborative tends to work.
It’s not about building the most secure system possible, it’s about building the one that’s secure enough.

boultonn said:

It might sound basic but just remember that security is there to support the business objectives.
Never goes down well throwing the book at some engineer when all he’s trying to build is a postcode checker.
Establish some sort of security risk management framework so the business can take informed risks as they choose. It can be hard if the culture doesn’t integrate with security but more and more places are opening up to it so being pragmatic and collaborative tends to work.
It’s not about building the most secure system possible, it’s about building the one that’s secure enough.

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Woah now, what’s all this common sense I’m hearing? Are you SURE you work in security 😉

We’re definitely getting there now at my place, but getting the security/risk stuff in place…. well….. let’s just say a bit more of that attitude was needed.