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Week 10 journal

I would have to say that overall, my project was a success. I passed the SSCP exam and I am set into a program that will help me transition from the academia into the professional world. The process felt long and difficult at first. I had a lot of personal difficulties and I was unsure how I would complete the financial requirements of my project. But it did not prevent me from studying, which was essential for me to sustain if I had any hope of passing the exam. The most difficult task in my project was documentation. There was a couple weeks where my computer had issues that made it inoperable and a big part of that was a drive failing. It caused me to lose some of my work and wholly prevented me from getting some things done in combination with my inability to go to the school to use the resources there. On top of that, I often had to be at a location with no internet. When those issues were resolved, I was able to start getting my stuff turned in and catch up on the late work. Fort...
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week 9

I have been talking with many people about my project, because of all the outside help I have had to seek. My sister is the one who has paid for me to take the SSCP exam. She is proud of me and the reason she helped me cover the cost is because she knows it will help me establish my competence with a higher certificate than the Security+ I already have. My job coach at Worksource also sees the benefit of me obtaining the certificate and has been supportive. She has been emailing me links that are more closely related to the information security industry, such as job positions that are available and seminars I may want to check out. My parents have provided encouragement as well. As far as my progress in my project, I have spoken to them about my studying routine and my career preparation. They have given me excellent advice and resources, but most of it has pertained to the career prep. The most influential feedback I got was when I was letting personal life interfere too much with...
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Week 8 Journal

A couple weeks ago, my task was to come up with a networking strategy for my professional future. I had done a few things already, such as attend the job fair. In fact, I have been contacting several of the contacts I made at the job fair, such as Kitsap Bank, who is in need of a Network Administrator. But now I am a part of a job and career search program sponsored by the employment security department, which requires me to dedicate 32 hours a week towards finding a job. This includes seminars where I can develop skills, make contacts, and learn how to apply for high level jobs at places like  the shipyard.  I am interested in working for the DoD, however, I have found it tough to do so without already having obtained a secret or top secret security clearance. In order to get clearance, you need a sponsor, but most of the jobs require you to already have the clearance before applying. I am still interested in talking to Mike Hamilton of Critical Informatics again, but I h...
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Week Seven Journal

It is difficult to determine what projects to include in my portfolio. The biggest one would be my capstone project from my associates degree. This project involved migrating a web server and sql database over to a new host and new operating system. It was the first time I had completed this specific task and it held many challenges. There was a point where my partner and I worried about whether it was even going to work correctly. The other three projects are much harder to choose. If I obtain my SSCP at the end of this senior project, I will definitely include it as well. It is an important entry level certificate that will pave the way for the CISSP and a better career. My third and fourth projects might be from the classes we had with the OLRM students. These were challenging projects because it was hard to work with the students from the other classes. It was here that I realized that I have strong leadership skills when I apply them. When I noticed how disorganized we were and ...
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Week Six

This journal is to address my plans to build my network and work on my post school job search. I will be seeking state assistance to help me complete the quarter and enter into a job search program at Worksource Washington. They have lots of resources for improving my job search and building my portfolio. I am hoping that they will make it easier in obtaining a sponsor to get secret security clearance at the shipyard. I went to the job fair and met many contacts that I will be contacting as well. Some of the most promising include Booze-Hamilton, Central Kitsap School District, and the Washington State Patrol. Another organization that I want to get in touch with is Critical Informatics. They would be ideal because they are in Bremerton and information security is my primary interest. I will be updating my resume further and working on getting some more appropriate attire for interviewing with these organizations. I really hope to leave a good impression and improve my ability to com...
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Week 4

This week has been less stressful, as my girlfriend is starting to recover from what had her so sick. I am having issues with my home computer now and I will have to fix it over the weekend. My secondary hard drive is failing and it is making my computer boot very slowly. When My computer finally loads up windows, it hangs forever trying to read the contents of the bad drive. Once I disconnect the corrupted hard disk, the computer runs fine. Unfortunately, this is my primary internal storage. I have another 1TB HDD in my spare computer that I can replace it with, but because all the broken links and shortcuts it will cause, I decided that I will reinstall my OS and go to Windows 10. Still going through the textbook as a study aid and have done the practice tests on 6 of the chapters so far. I stopped to review chapter 2, because I had a lower ratio of correct answer on that test, but the other chapters were really easy and I more or less reviewed them for fun. I had my interview wi...
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Week 3

This senior project has been very challenging so far, but mostly because of my personal life. This week I was in the emergency room with my girlfriend one night and at the doctor the next morning. She has been very sick and I have been having to spend a lot of time taking care of her and her children. On top of that, I had to prep her house for an exterminator to come on friday, which required everybody and the pets out of the house. Despite having to run around and not have much time by a computer, I have been studying from my SSCP preparation textbook. That has been going well and I hope to test a better score when I take the practice test again after reviewing all the chapter quizes.  I am still trying to figure out how I will pay for the test. I have applied for several workstudy positions at the school and two have contacted me. The library told me the position was filled and the workfirst department scheduled me an interview for next week. I will keep submitting application...
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