Senior Project blog

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...

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...

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...

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 ...