if im in over my head

[ripper1237]

hey guys I’m a fellow graduate to NST program and pending cybersecurity program. I’m wondering if what I’m feeling is normal per say. going into school i didn’t have any it history and so when i went to college for network security technician i was a little blind but i did get my diploma and then i continued with school into cyber security I haven’t completed it all yet i still have my practicum (hour) to serve anyways I’ve realized that security is a jack of all trades in a sense were you need to know a bit of everything now that’s fine but not having a solid root or history of a specific area its hard to apply for jobs in a sense of i don’t know how any of these jobs are done. I know how to educate people to a certain point but i feel if you go into something like cyber or network security you should know at least one department very well for the fact of applying for jobs can get very daunting

[bbigford]

What you’re feeling is perfectly normal, you’re being challenged. At points in your career, even at the upper most level, you’ll feel the “imposter syndrome” (like you don’t belong, you question your ability, etc). In your early stages of real-world experience, there is no real expectation from employers other than lower level/entry level work, so don’t psych yourself out.

When you join an employer at a certain level and perform a certain role, they’ve already vetted you. They know your abilities from the interviewing process and they know what experience level you are at. If they are totally surprised and over-hype you, that is their fault at being terrible with vetting/interviewing and not uncovering those things; that’s not your fault entirely.

Just chill out, you’re fine, just keep moving in the direction you want to go. Continue to apply and interview at places you want to work, in areas that are interesting. Everything will fall into place when it’s supposed to.

[weirdfish]

All normal feelings. We all feel it, no matter our specialty. I’ve been professionally in the field for over 25 years, and I still sometimes question what I’m doing and whether I really belong here.

You’re not expected to be the expert at this stage of your career. You’re just starting out, and you’re still learning. While you may experience disappointment with job applications and not getting considered, that’s also part of the learning experience. What’s important is to get hands-on experience, even if it’s not obviously and directly in what you think you should be doing. Everything is related, even if not obviously so.

And make connections. Networking – not the CAT5e/CAT6 kind – is critical to career success. Meet people from across the industry and at other organizations. Learn from them. Take their experiences and incorporate them into your own day-to-day. Establish a rapport with people who can act as your mentors. Ask questions. Growth comes from learning, not from isolation.

[Ecrawf099]

You’ll get there. I think I can speak for most of us here in that we all feel as though we suffer from “imposter syndrome” from time to time. If you’re not being challenged, you’re not growing.

[lbentley]

I’ll echo what the others have said. What you are feeling is what most of us have felt at some point. When I was in college we had a former grad come back and speak to our networking class and tell us that at graduation we will probably only know 5-10% of what will will know after 1 year of real work. Not only was he right but his estimate was probably too high!

Every situation you encounter will be a learning experience for you. Just stick with it.

[roger-knowbe4]

Yes, you’re feeling normal. Here’s an article I wrote years ago that doesn’t really apply directly to your situation, but it may have some useful hints: You Have No Experience and Want a Cybersecurity Job?

[tim-smith]

Welcome to SpiceWorks, welcome to the broader IT world, and welcome to the never-ending and completely normal felling of being overwhelmed. You won’t feel it every day, but a good chunk of your time will be spent envying people you perceive as “smarter” than you. It may be that they know about one subject than you do, but you will know more about another subject than them. If you can learn to work with it, you’ve got it made.

Respectfully, the only critique I would give is to take an English class (unless English is not your first language, in which case you did quite well). With only 3 periods in your entire post and haphazard capitalization it was very difficult to read. One thing the business world greatly values is an ability to communicate clearly. I can provide several examples of guys who were brilliant but skipped over for promotion because they couldn’t spell or form complete sentences.

[c-t]

I have the same feeling often with my new position. I went from help desk to what we have labeled the Server team, but it’s really more of a systems administrator. The company that I’m at I’ve been at for a little under two years but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity, so I applied anyway thinking I wasn’t fully qualified for the job, but I have the foundational knowledge to be able to get myself up to speed and most importantly I know when to ask for help instead of winging it and breaking something. It was a bit easier to interview with people I have already been working with, however the same nagging feeling of " I don’t want to drag the team down" kept surfacing. Even in my interview I was very transparent and let them know not to expect much from me until I learn. I’m still going to school and learning, and my new team has been very understanding of where I’m at. Part of this is just setting boundaries for yourself personally and for the job you are applying for and those you interview with. Let’s be honest, school, certificates, even a home lab doesn’t quite prepare you for the enterprise setting of IT. It gives you foundational knowledge and so that you can understand what’s going on to a degree, even if you don’t know how to fix it. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can replace the value of experience and most people understand this. Prime example, on my new team, I have the most professional certificates out of everyone by quite a long shot, but I am also the most clueless (for now). Why? Because you need to show that you are self-motivated to go and attain the knowledge, have a thirst for learning and then you get the job where the real learning begins when you can apply some of the knowledge in a real environment.

[chrisdavis8]

Perfectly normal - real world experience, ie getting thrown into the frying pan and served a full on s-sandwich - is probably the best way to truly learn your job and its ins and outs.

Hell I’m feeling the same way as I start grad school for my Master’s in Bioinformatics next week and I haven’t touched a biology-based textbook in almost 15 years.

[Repairatrooper]

Overwhelmed is pretty much a normal state in the beginning and will come around often even later in your career, because this is one of the fastest changing professions. Think that a short 30 years ago, IT security was barely on people’s minds. Name another industry that has seen that radical amount of change.

[randomparts]

I started a new job a couple weeks ago and I feel imposter syndrome. Went from a couple hundred users and 2 locations, to thousand of users world wide and my coworkers have been there for years. At times I don’t always follow what they are referencing. At times you’ll feel like you don’t know anything, just keep learning. Everyone starts at the bottom for something and as they learn more, they become the go-to person.

[jeffnoel (ghijkmnop)]

We all go through bouts of impostor syndrome–I do pretty much every time a boss asks me a curveball question.

[smalltownitguy]

For someone just starting out, I’d be more surprised if you didn’t feel like you were in over your head. Even after years in IT I feel that way quite often. Any employer should realize that it you are just out of school you know next to nothing (sorry, being blunt) beyond the foundational courses. Just like how you should not expect a CTO or CISO role right out of school (baring starting a new company), the employer should realize that you are not a tech with 20+ years experience either.

This is a great time to find what aspects you like, and focus on those, although employers may have their own ideas of where they want you to focus. School is only the basis to build your career on, not what your career is. One thing I would recommend is to watch out for new/disappearing technologies, when I got out of college I really liked Novell administration (don’t remember why anymore), but within 5 years it had basically disappeared, so if I had focused too much on that I would have had to start over.

[justinforveritas]

The trade school I went to for A+ cert prepared me pretty well. They had hands-on practice and images for all the windows they were educating. I felt prepared for my job but there was still a lingering of that feeling you are talking about.

You might think about setting up a home lab with cheap used tech. This might help you with confidence. What do you think?

[michaelface]

It sounds like you are off to a great start. These feelings are normal and you will get used to them popping up from time to time. Like others have said, don’t get discouraged if your interviews don’t initially lead to a job that you desire. It is all good experience, even terrible interviews are a learning moment. Consider taking a help desk role if you want to get some hands-on experience to bolster your skills and resume in the mean time while you hunt for the “perfect” position.
Good luck and don’t forget to leverage this community (as you already have) in the future. There are many fantastic and highly skilled wizards here that have your back.

[tiffany-for-intel]

I’ve probably suggested this article at some point in other threads here but it came to mind again while reading your post- Others have already brought up “imposter syndrome” a bit and something from this article that really helped me reframe it for myself was to think of it as a good thing - Because it’s all too easy to feel the strain of self-doubt when you’re still learning any particular skill/subject. The good news is that those feelings tend to stem from people who are actually very driven, intelligent, and successful at what they do. Precisely because they are facing the challenge of new things.
Wishing you lots of good things on your efforts here, OP! Sounds like you’re on a great path toward where you want to go to me

@ripper1237

[davecork]

Yep. Normal. I’d like to take this a step further by using the analogy of cars. You’re taking driver education. During the course, you learn how to drive, but you are also introduced to changing tires. From there, you can learn about the engine, the transmission, exhaust system and so forth. Your shade tree mechanic will be able to do most of it. However, some people become focused strictly on engine work. Others specialize in transmissions. The generalist will know a bit about most of these systems, but the specialist will have deep knowledge in one certain area. There are people who know one specific vehicle inside and out. One size does not fit all.

[The-Sith-Admin]

I believe that school is there to show you are able to learn the concepts.

Experience is where you learn to apply those concepts to real world environments.

Just remember that in the beginning you are not going to be thought as an expert.

[dennissnyder (Dennis5701)]

Overwhelmed is good. If you were comfortable straight out of school there would be no challenge and you’d be bored. You now have constantly moving goal posts to provide direction to your career. Keep in mind that those who chose other areas of IT also have to learn security, so everyone has a similar baseline and gives you an opportunity to make new friends as you learn from each other.

[dzee]

Expertise is learning 30% from reading or formal education, 30% more through doing, and the last 40% comes from your mistakes.