I was an optician before I went into Information Technology. Being a single
parent, I couldn't afford to go to a trade school full time or take a lesser
paying job on a help desk to get my foot in the door. I also couldn't afford
to have the sort of equipment needed to learn on my own. While still
grinding lenses, I approached the local school board regarding their
interest in receiving recycled computer equipment. With their desire for any
equipment and their non-profit status, I started a non-profit that accepted
used PC's and printers from businesses and individuals.
In my spare time I made phone calls to the larger companies in town who were
more than happy to get rid of their outdated equipment, junk to them, gold
to the schools. I spent my evenings and weekends pouring over Scott
Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PC's book, slapping together a dozen or so
systems. I brought them to the school board with the request for a disused
class or storage room that I could set up shop in and find additional
volunteers to staff. I contacted the local paper and they did an article on
our little setup. This well received attention brought in more equipment
than I could handle.
From there, I approached the adult school in town with teaching a class in
repairing PC's. The idea was to use the donated equipment to teach the
class, have the students build PC's from assorted junk and by the time they
graduated we would have a fully functional PC per student. Que Publishing
even donated 30 copies of Scott's book to the class as our text-book! If I
had a particularly adept class, I would contact the local paper to let them
know we would repair home PC's for a nominal donation to the schools. To
augment our other marketing efforts, I did a few articles for the paper on
different aspects of home computing, like virus prevention, choosing an ISP
or protecting your kids online. I did all of this, nights and weekends,
until I had about 2 years of experience and could talk my way into working
for a local VAR selling and installing SoHo PC's and networks. That was 10+
years ago and I'm now the ISO (also working on my CISSP) for one of the
leading ecommerce developers in the nation.
Get creative and be willing to stick your neck out. Make it a win-win for
whoever you approach and you'll come up with something. Good luck!
Joseph Pierini | Mgr. of Security Eng & Compliance
MarketLive, Inc.
<mailto:joep@mmlive.com>
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry.G.Turner@pmusa.com [mailto:Terry.G.Turner@pmusa.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 11:17 AM
To: CISSP-Discuss@yahoogroups.com
Cc: tgturner@carolina.rr.com
Subject: [CISSP-D] Need ideas to volunteer some time
Hey all!
Here is a little background information and then my question.
I work in Operations for a Fortune 100 company. My background is
in management. Three years ago I decided I was going to "EARN"
my way into an IT position in the company. I've been involved
indirectly with IT for many years as a part-time college
instructor and informal support helping others in the work place.
Information Technology is a very enjoyable, challenging, and
demanding environment. Right were I want to be!
I'm providing the bio information, because maybe, it will help to
answer the question at the end.
The plan I created three years ago contains three strategies:
academics, get more hands-on experience, and find an IT mentor at work.
Academic accomplishments: completed 18 graduate hours in networking,
earning a Masters degree in IT Security (70% complete), completed 8
months of CCNA training at a Cisco Training Academy and passed the CCNA
exam. Other certifications: Security+, IT Project Management+, and
passed the CISSP exam. I'm an Associate of (ISC)2. Attended SANS
Security Essentials training.
Participated in a mentoring program with an IT manager for 18 months.
The conversations were extremely rewarding and fulfilling.
An active member in 2 professional IT organizations:
Infragard - http://www.infragard.net/ <http://www.infragard.net/> and ISSA
- http://www.issa.org/ <http://www.issa.org/>
GETTING EXPERIENCE has been a challenge. Volunteered and participated
on several company IT projects. Been looking for opportunities to volunteer
some time in the IT area outside of the workplace. Could be non-profit or
assist a small company. VERY DIFFICULT! Never thought it would be so
difficult to volunteer my time. Naive ness on my part.
QUESTION: What other ways could an individual volunteer their time to gain
IT experience? It could be local or telecommuting. How would you go about
this?
Thanks in advance for comments, thoughts, and ideas.
tgturner
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