💡 Guidance & Resources for Breaking Into Tech

Purpose & Outline:

This article serves as tech guidance based on my experience. My goal is to aid you in your journey of leveling up or breaking into tech! I hope you'll find this informative, inspiring, and entertaining. There are three main sections that will be continuously updated:

1. My Content List
2. General Guidance
3. My Favorite Resources

Thank you for being here Tech Fam!

All my best,

Ivan

⓵ My Content List:

• 🎥 YouTube Channel - making videos soon (👉 LINK)
• 📚 Tech Articles - my write-ups on LinkedIn (👉LINK)
• 🐈 GitHub - my personal projects, code, docs (👉 LINK)

⓶ General Guidance:

[section update in progress]

⓷ My Favorite Resources:

--- ✅ Last Update: 7/05/23 ---

Below are my personal favorite tech resources that enabled me to start my tech career. I still use many of these resources today, and I highly recommend them to anyone starting out in tech or even professionals who need refreshers.

💡NOTE: This part of the article is verbose, so each section will have a TL;DR / Section Summary at the top. The rest of the section will elaborate accordingly. It will look like this (sections are listed in no particular order):

TL;DR / Section Overview:
-------------------------
> CompSci & Programming
> Information Technology
> Security 
> Cloud
> Data
> Business
> Appendix        

💻 CompSci & Programming:

TL;DR / Section Overview:
-------------------------
> Colt Steele: GOAT instructor
> freecodecamp: free projects and courses
> Harvard Free CompSci Courses: Harvard + free = $$$
> ByteByteGo: engineering and system design
> Codewars: primer for leet code         

Colt Steele: Anything this man puts out is pure gold. I utilized Colt's classes (on Udemy) during my CompSci degree program, and he single-handedly saved me many headaches during my first couple of classes and kept me from quitting (I really struggled in my 1st semester of CompSci). Thank you, Colt, for making my learning so fun - you are forever 🐐 'd!

freeCodeCamp: Another amazing free OG resource that also helped me through my CompSci degree, and I still utilize it to this day for tech projects/project ideas and keeping my SWE skills intact. All techies should check this channel out at least once!

Harvard University Free CompSci Courses: What more to say, free and from Harvard = legit. Used this to supplement my studies during my CompSci degree alongside Colt's courses.

ByteByteGo: My newest fav engineering and architecture resource. I'm a visual learner, and the concise video explanations accompanied by diagrams the team has provided have saved me hours and hours of research time. I love their system design course - highly valuable for any SWE or security engineer/architect IMO. Alex Xu and the team are killing it!

Codewars: The main platform I utilized to practice coding. I love the gamified approach they use. Before I went all in on security, I was using Codewars as my Leetcode primer. *Pro tip: join a clan, it's wayyy more fun with people.

📱 Information Technology

TL;DR / Section Overview:
-------------------------
> PowerCertAnimatedVideos: free legit IT visuals
> Professor Messer: free IT fundamentals courses
> Google IT Training: OG fundamentals course         

PowerCertAnimatedVideos: This channel paired with Professor Messer got me through all the IT fundamentals. I personally love this channel because I am a visual learner, and I really enjoyed the animations he created for every topic.

Professor Messer: One of the OG IT YouTube channels. I never took any CompTia exams, but the Prof's videos were extremely helpful alongside PowerCertAnimatedVideos and labbing when I was first learning the basics of IT.

Google IT Training: This course was gold when it first came out, and I believe it has aged very well. I remember learning a ton. You also have the option to audit the class for free!

🔐 Security

TL;DR / Section Overview:
-------------------------
* Resources used when I first started:
> SANS: FREE cyber resources + programs, paid courses
> HackerSploit: OG redteam YouTube instructor
> OG Instructors: Mike Chapple, Lisa Bock, Nathan House

* Resources I recommend but did not have when I started:
> Google Cyber Course: legit, can be audited for free
> Dr Gerald Auger: YouTube playlists + GRC course
> TryHackMe: Streamlined labbing experience
> Destination Certification: Security mindmap course
> Certification Station Discord: legit discord server        

SANS Institute: SANS has been aiding me in my journey ever since I was a security intern. Aside from their paid courses, they also have a ton of legit free resources for the community (scholarships, whitepapers, YouTube channels, events, posters, etc.) that I recommend checking out. I gotta thank and shout out the staff that's been always encouraging & guiding me: Brandon Evans, Frank Kim, Dennis Scandrett, Lara Dawson.

HackerSploit: The first security YouTube channel that I subscribed to. Alexis Ahmed (hackersploit himself) is an OG security content creator. This man was my TryHackMe when I first started since TryHackMe wasn't around back then.

These were the OG instructors that I utilized the most. Their content is still very relevant, and I highly recommend anything they put out:

• Mike Chapple: 👉 LinkedIn Learning Page: Dr. Chaple taught me about the core security domains in CISSP
• Lisa Bock: 👉 LinkedIn Learning Page: Ms. Bock taught me pentesting & wireshark
• Nathan House: 👉 Udemy Instructor Page: I used Mr House's courses during school to supplement all core security topics

⭐️ Current resources that I didn't utilize/have when I was starting but highly recommend:

• Google Cybersecurity Training (👉 Coursera course link). From my experience, Google training never disappoints. You can audit the entire course for free, but if you want the labs and assignments you pay to be enrolled.
• 👉🏼 Gerald Auger, Ph.D.: Best GRC course, and I love his series of success stories about people transitioning to cyber from non-traditional tech backgrounds. (👉 series LINK).
• TryHackMe: I had to learn by doing old school labbing: setting up a hypervisor homelab & network (I used esxi + sec onion). THM takes the 'old school' work out so you have a streamlined labbing experience. Tons of free content and well worth the subscription if you're new.
• Destination Certification Inc.: YouTube channel (👉 LINK). Their mindmap series is amazing, and I highly recommend it even if you are not taking CISSP due to the outstanding job of pairing security domains with visual info. The partner Certification Station Discord is also legit.

☁️ Cloud

TL;DR / Section Overview:
-------------------------
> SANS Cloud Ace: Free resources, paid course(s)
> Cloud Security Alliance: Free resources, CCSK
> AWS: skillbuilder, cantrill, marek, davis, cloudquest
> GCP: skillsboost, gcp youtube, ammett, antoni, in28
> Azure: learn.msoft, savill, cantrill partner
> Devops: roadmap.sh, kode/mumshad, nana youtube        

[section update in progress]

⓸ Appendix:

💡 Future content ideas:

> Series where I talk about my tech journey, stories
> Personal tech day-in-the-life/overview series 
> How I prepared for "___" series (certs, interviews, etc.)
> Interviews/conversations with legit tech professionals 
> Career in tech guidance/talks series        

❗️ NEXT UPDATE:

* NEXT UPDATE: Cloud Section
* ETA: Before July 2023

Pending content for missing sections:
- Cloud
- Data
- Business
- General Guidance