How do I land a jr-mid security/linux job?

[Deleted member 19858]

My ultimate goal in IT has been to become a security admin working with Cisco, firewalls, IDS/IPS, penetration testing, etc. I would also like to get out of the world of Microsoft or at least have it only be a small percentage of my job.

I currently have a bachelors of science in network and communications management, A+, MCP, and about 4 years of real work experience as a network administrator. I have a lot of Widows, Exchange, AD, networking, and all the normal network admin stuff but have not had the chance to focus on security and linux anywhere I have worked.

Can anyone that is in this type of job give me some advice on what I can do to get there. Things I should be reading, certifications I should get, things I need to learn, etc. I plan on getting my CCNA and CISSP as well as some linux certs soon. I know they don't mean a whole lot but at least it'll say something for me.

 

[COKE CAN]

My ultimate goal in IT has been to become a security admin working with Cisco, firewalls, IDS/IPS, penetration testing, etc. I would also like to get out of the world of Microsoft or at least have it only be a small percentage of my job.

I currently have a bachelors of science in network and communications management, A+, MCP, and about 4 years of real work experience as a network administrator. I have a lot of Widows, Exchange, AD, networking, and all the normal network admin stuff but have not had the chance to focus on security and linux anywhere I have worked.

Can anyone that is in this type of job give me some advice on what I can do to get there. Things I should be reading, certifications I should get, things I need to learn, etc. I plan on getting my CCNA and CISSP as well as some linux certs soon. I know they don't mean a whole lot but at least it'll say something for me.

I would suggest making the move where you currently work if at all possible.

 

[JayAre]

I'm at a very similar point in my career. I've taken CCNA 1 and CCNA 2 and I'm getting ready to take part 1/2 of the CCNA exam. I wouldn't say it's helped a TON, but it's definitely new related material that I've picked up. I think it's going to help me get away from the MS World.

I've also been playing around a lot with Linux firewalls and Ubuntu.

I'd recommend the CCNA class though. CCNA 1 is very dry boring material so go into that expecting that. It's a good refresher of the OSI/TCP-IP model.