It has been a while since I posted and I want to update the journey blog on my studies, job hunting and my love of interviews.
I’ve had a break recently with a week away and then various events and things happening at home, so the best part of two weeks went by with little studying. I made myself a new desk (pictured below) out of furniture that we were getting rid of, to aid my studies, but little actual time spent watching videos about pentesting or cybersecurity.
I had initially set a goal of completing all my certs by the end of May, but that changed the middle of last month when I started to focus on other studies. I spent more time on TryHackMe and then the RangeForce Community SOC Challenge came up, which was a lot of fun and I was keen to do more of that. Then the two week break kicked in.
Now I am enrolled on the SOC 1 & 2 Battlepaths at RangeForce, about halfway through SOC 1 and really enjoying it, and it feels like I am learning a lot. Once I have done those then I’ll finish the CompTIA certs, though I might park pentest+ and do CySA+ first and in the mean time start looking for a job.
On that note, I have done a lot of networking on LinkedIn, though it is easily a full-time job in itself. A change of focus from information gathering and one eye on future employment, I’ve started to have more conversations with industry professionals and recruiters, including a chat about some possible voluntary work. There have been some very encouraging telephone conversations and I am happy with my progress on that front.
With the help of the community, an overwhelming response really, I have identified the type of organisation that I want to work for (you can read the post here), and in part thanks to that I feel I can focus again on getting myself ready to work as a SOC Analyst. I’m resigned to the fact that there will always be more that I want to learn, but at some point I need to take the plunge.
A very interesting person pointed out to me that there is a balance between the amount of experience someone has and the amount of certs that will help in that stage of their career.
Interviews are like torture, and you’ll never convince me otherwise
The idea of interviews fills me with apprehension. As someone who is modest by nature and find it uncomfortable talking about myself, I have never enjoyed them, and I think people that do must be masochists. I’ve led teams, made presentations, chaired meetings, given best man speeches with aplomb, but interviews are another matter. I enjoy conducting interviews, and you’d think that experience would help, I know it’s a two-way street, but nothing makes me at ease with the alien encounter of interviewing for a potential job.
Most of my experience is with competency based interviews and they should be done away with in my opinion. I’m not sure what it is, but I get tongue-tied, my mind goes blank and no matter how many times I’ve gone over them, I can’t remember any of the great examples I’d prepared. I know one of the things being assessed is the ability to think on my feet and work under pressure, which I have no problem with – it’s a key requirement of many of my previous roles, but I just leave the interviewer with the wrong impression.
I do like to hear the experiences others have had in interviews, so please let me know how you have gotten on.
Securing the Cyber World 
Have to agree with you on the Competency based interviews – is it Competency when they ask you to give an example of when you were faced with “X” situation?
What if you haven’t faced “X”? You can’t answer that question very well – but it doesn’t mean that in a situation you’ve never faced before, you will not cope or deal with it professionally, successfully, accurately etc. It’s not a fair assessment. And quite often this question is based on a real-world scenario that one of the interview panel experienced, so it was possibly unique to them anyhow.
On another note – look at interviews as a way of assessing if YOU want to work for their organisation. You have skills and attributes that clearly got you to the interview selection shortlist. That’s halfway there already. Personality should be at the forefront of the requirements – integrity, tenacity, desire to succeed, passion…. showcase these talents and you can shine above others. Then it’s down to you to assess THEM and the company standards (do they match what you expect from an employer – training, development, growth in role, challenge, working environment, flexibility etc). They need you as much as you might need them…maybe more!
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Glad to see someone agrees! The idea that you can assess competency for a role based on described experiences is nonsense. As is the idea that it is a fairer way of testing candidates. The number of interviews I’ve sat in on that were just awkward because of the setup and seen great candidates fall apart.
Perhaps because of my empathy with their situation, if I’m interviewing and someone is missing the point of the question or struggling with their answer, I’ll reframe the question, or ask further questions to delve deeper in to their experience. I’m not interested in testing their memory or their performance, unless I’m interviewing for the stage and screen! I want their best answer to give me an inkling of what they might actually be capable of in the real world.
I’ve personally seen too many examples of people selected or rejected being a poor decision, because of competency based interviews.
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