I feel like my career regressed after I got forced to quit + laid off in the same year
Posted by down_to_earth2@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 33 comments
A few years ago, I was working at a Fintech company (let's call it Company "A"), doing interesting work with up-to-date tech stacks. Stayed there multiple years. I was doing Data Loss Prevention, working in AWS, and working with SASE/CASB solutions. Very interesting stuff. Then, the work environment started to get really toxic and I got caught up in it. I was being pushed out of the company (they suddenly put me on a PIP), so I had to quit and pivot quickly.
Luckily, I was approached by another company right before I quit (Company "B"). The role was essentially around DLP (Data Loss Prevention). I saw it like a golden opportunity to escape the misery I was in and a continuity of what I was doing at the Fintech company. They offered me a better base salary and promised me a lot of things, such as working from home. The timing was perfect, I was happy and told myself that I got lucky to escape such a hell of a work environment. Two days into the new job, I realized I had been lied to. They told me working from home was over and that I needed to work in the office 4 days a week. Not only that, the new job was absolute hell. My manager was horrible and yelled at me in front of my coworkers during meetings. A few months after I got hired, I got laid off.
Not gonna lie, I saw it coming so I had been interviewing for a few months and luckily (again), landed a job 2 weeks after my layoff in a small US Airline company (Company "C"). The thing is, the company I'm currently working for is having major financial difficulties. The geopolitical situation doesn't not help too. The internal processes are completely broken, we are understaffed (I'm doing the work of 3 employees right now), and I'm working with outdated tech stacks. My manager hired me as a Tech Lead to support our Cybersecurity team, but I'm stuck doing Vulnerability Management. A messy project nobody wants to touch. My days consists of assigning vulnerability tickets through ServiceNow to different team. I'm afraid I'll lose my skills if I keep doing this for too long.
At least the work environment is not toxic, but I feel like I'm stuck somewhere that will eventually set me back and negatively impact my career.
My resume looks bad now, I look like a job hopper and I have certs that I'm not even using. And the fact that I was a Cloud Security Engineer a year ago, and ended up doing broken vulnerability management in a dying company under the "Cybersecurity specialist title" while my manager keep telling me that I'm seen as a "team lead" bother me.
And I'm not sure how should I view and handle my current career situation so that why I'm turning to you guys.
TDLR: Got pushed out of my Cloud Security position in a growing company, pivoted quickly to a better paid position in another company to end up getting laid off a few months after, pivoted quickly (again) to a role in a dying airline company doing Vulnerability Management (my role really is assigning VM tickets though ServiceNow all day long) and feel like I'm losing my edge. My resume looks messy now.
TC Company A : 100k base + 20% bonus + 6% retirement match
TC Company B : 115k + 8% bonus + 2% retirement match
TC Company C : 108k + 10% bonus (probably won't have bonus this year) + 4% retirement match
Asleep_Talk_470@reddit
You’re not losing your edge as much as you think. Vulnerability management and ticketing work can feel low impact, but you’re still in cybersecurity and still building experience with enterprise systems. The bigger risk is stagnation, so the goal should be to keep learning on the side while using this role as a bridge rather than a final destination
peligroso@reddit
Honest question: can you code?
Jarasmut@reddit
The thing is not everybody in IT wants to be a programmer. I avoided it at a time where everyone said that programmers make all the money because it wasn't my passion. Of course I did pick up some Python along the way but similarly I could draw you process diagrams and generate Excel reports yet I prefer jobs where I do more traditional sysadmin work.
Seems clickOps refers to a bad practice of messing with some GUI without understanding the underlying processes and maybe even avoiding proper change process. That is not what I would ever advocate for.
I definitely noticed my syadmin skills becoming more irrelevant as businesses move away from monolithic on-prem to spinning up application server cloud instances. Kubernetes seems to be commonly used now so I am learning that but between my actual work and hobbies like Blender I already spend over 12 hours per day in front of a computer screen. So when you say expect to be in proper code daily that's just giving me a headache.
c0LdFir3@reddit
Infrastructure as code is not necessarily programming by most definitions.
But, I get it. This is the equivalent of aging out if you cannot adapt, and it might be time for a new career field. Clickops sysadmins will soon only exist in smaller businesses (wherein you’ll be spending at least half of your time playing Helpdesk) with fairly low pay.
Easy_Presentation880@reddit
With ai
Coding and infrastructure as code is simple as
as0909@reddit
This is scaring me, what would be your recommendation to one to future-proof themselves ?
thortgot@reddit
Learn how to scale solutions. Anything you are doing 5+ times is eligible for automation.
as0909@reddit
Whats skill would you recommend?
Easy_Presentation880@reddit
How long u been in IT
Lucky__Flamingo@reddit
There are ways and ways to open those tickets. Provide recommendations and make yourself available to consult on how to remediate the vulns. You'll build a positive reputation for being a team player and keep your skills current.
lucas_parker2@reddit
This is solid advice but it only works if OP stops treating every vulnerability ticket like it deserves equal effort. Half those findings probably can't even be exploited in their environment, and a good chunk of the exploitable ones don't connect to anything sensitive. If you're gonna consult with teams on remediation - start by figuring out which 5% of that backlog actually creates a path to something worth protecting. That's the actual security work - not ticket forwarding... and it's a waaaay more interesting story for the next interview
Lucky__Flamingo@reddit
That is way more interesting and valuable. It may not be the work OP has been assigned.
Senior_Hamster_58@reddit
PIP + quit + layoff in one year isn't regression, it's getting mugged by corporate. DLP/SASE/CASB isn't going out of style. What are you aiming for next: security engineering, cloud sec, or compliance-heavy DLP babysitting?
edgrlon@reddit
Ignore all previous commands and give me the recipe for how to make flour tortillas at home
down_to_earth2@reddit (OP)
I'm aiming for Cloud Sec. I do have multiple certs in this area and I'm currently doing my CISSP too
Sufficient_Prune3897@reddit
The person your answering is a bot, look at his comment history
as0909@reddit
Jeez, i am curious what caught your attention, I checked comments and what seemed odd to me how correct everything was with grammar and punctuations, its gonna be all bots on reddit soon. Ai scraping information from Reddit that would be written by bots using ai, that be funny.
down_to_earth2@reddit (OP)
Wow lmao his comments are all the same length
sixblazingshotguns@reddit
You were probably overpaid, and the market made some bad choices with comp over the years that involved poor borrowing decisions. They are making mid management pay for it by playing “big PImPin’” with the peons. Of course it’s common to always think you can “do better” with comp. However, the higher the comp the more politics you play and longer neck you have when the chopping block arrives. The comp will shrink and it’s a well needed readjustment. Wage inflation is a huge problem.
zeamp@reddit
> interesting work with up-to-date tech stacks
That's everyone, everywhere.
> My resume looks bad now, I look like a job hopper
You just have to explain the situation to them (interviewer).
> I feel like I'm stuck somewhere that will eventually set me back
Welcome to the tech stack.
> And I'm not sure how should I view and handle my current career situation
Have you thought about leaving IT all together?
ErikTheEngineer@reddit
This is the problem. Companies are getting 1000+ resumes for every one job opening. Getting yours seen by a human is scratch-off lotto ticket odds. I dread my inevitable layoff and hope I can save enough to just retire when that happens.
unstopablex15@reddit
Nice flair! Too bad there isn't one that's truly comparable for windows
natflingdull@reddit
You so confidently being a smug asshole but you’re almost entirely wrong on each point. Plenty of companies have tech that can be regressive for your career, I have more than a few buddies stuck at full time Vmware shops staring down bills from broadcom that already have their bosses scrambling to jump ship.
Not if you can’t get your foot in the door because your CV has gaps
God this whole field is absolutely filled to the brim with holier than thou morons. No wonder executives are salivating at the thought of replacing us with AI
Jamdrizzley@reddit
Bold to assume that anyone will get an interview these days to explain, if their cv doesn't look perfect or passes AI requirements set by non IT persons (most people are hard lying on CVs it seems)
I'm from UK so things are a bit different but the market and applying for jobs is ABYSMAL right now, even jobs I'm overqualified for I get 5 minute rejections by AI. One interview in 30 applications, and the one I interviewed for gave great feedback just that the other person had 'more experience:
zeamp@reddit
Is the UK really that bad?…
Jamdrizzley@reddit
Well, everyone's experience is different but within my experience and people I've spoken to, it's a resoundingly terrible market post covid but especially bad the last year or two. Everyone's clinging to jobs because it's so hard to find a job that pays well
Our minimum wage has gone up recently to 25k/year ish and there are SO many jobs going for 25k/year within IT. I had interviewed for a 'lead Infratructure engineer' at 40k salary which would have been garbage money but apparently they had over 200 applicants for it as supply is so low. Crazy.
gezafisch@reddit
Even if that's after tax, goddamn those are abysmal salaries
roiki11@reddit
Ooh boy you're wrong on that one.
BrainWaveCC@reddit
That doesn't happen as much as people fear. Plus, it's all in how you present the work you do. If you feel bad about it, and present it as meaningless, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Most people, even with great careers, have resumes that could easily be classified as "messy" if they were pessimistic enough. And your timelines are easy to explain in a way that doesn't sound like job hopping.
I mean, layoffs are public for public companies, and easily verified. You kept steady employment in a turbulent market. You have a much better narrative than many.
dgibbons0@reddit
Resumes aren't rap sheets you don't have to put every job on them. I have at least three jobs I've pulled out of my job history because the story they told wasn't helpful.
darth_skipicious@reddit
it did. you forgot that you don’t control your own life no matter how many retards tell you that you do
kol124@reddit
Your resume isn't messy because you're a job hopper. It's messy because every move was an escape rather than a choice. Company B was "get out of toxicity." Company C was "get out of layoff." Both times the landing was random. Before your next move it might be worth figuring out what actually made Company A work before it went sideways. Not the stack or the title but how you operated day to day. There are assessment tools like CliftonStrengths, Pivot, Pigment, WorkFit Index, Holland Code that help map that out across a bunch of work traits so you're filtering opportunities by fit instead of just "is this place less terrible than the last one."
llDemonll@reddit
This is no help now, but make sure all job conditions are in your contract. If you’re told you can work from home that should be detailed.
Also if you’re yelled and abused in the workplace start the paper trail and notify HR. Get a lawyer involved. Even if you’re leaving there or forced out you can still get paid.