Hello Hoodies! I completed the AZ900 course on the hoodiechallange.com app. In the last lesson (Day 50 on substack) it says, "Find the full-length AZ-900 exam in your dashboard..." But I cannot seem to find the exam in the dashboard. And when I click on the Lab for Day 50 I get a 404, perhaps that's where it's supposed to be? Has anyone been able to find it? Thanks

Applying to dozens of IT jobs on places like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, etc. is a grind. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll keep doing it until I get a hit and another interview. BUT, I found something that might increase our chances. It’s called, MPS. MPS stands for: Managed Service Providers A Managed Service Provider is: “is a third-party company that remotely manages a client's IT infrastructure, such as networks, security, and cloud services, often on a subscription basis. The goal is to proactively maintain a client's IT environment, allowing them to focus on their core business.” Apparently, MPS’s are always growing by adding new contracts constantly and they often hire quietly without public postings on Indeed and such. So what are you and I going to do? We’re going Cold! And by cold I mean cold-applications. Do you remember when you were younger and you would go into a business and ask for the manager and nervously hand them your resume? Well we’re going to do that, but digitally. Here's how: 1. Web search the term “managed service providers [your city]". 2. Pick a business and go to their website. 3. Look for a “Jobs” section tab, or scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and look for “Careers”. 4a. Find where they post job postings and apply. 4b. Or do what I did, email them saying you are interested in any openings in entry level positions that may open up in the future (get a GPT to help you with this). 5. Repeat until you get a job. This is a new strategy I just started today and it gave me energy, like I found a "secret" way to apply to jobs and I can let those other 1000s of suckers apply on Indeed (I will still apply there as well lol). Good luck out there, we'll get hired eventually. UPDATE: after I made this post, I got an email back from a place I cold-applied to: "Hello Devon, Currently we are a new company without ability to hire yet but I will keep your resume on file for when we are able to hire. Regards, " See, it works!

An email I got this morning from the place I did a face-to-face interview at: "Hello Devon, This email is in follow-up to our recruitment process for the role of Service Desk Technician. Regrettably, we will not be moving forward with your application for further consideration. We sincerely appreciate your interest in our organization and want to thank you for participating in the process. We wish you much success in your job search. Kind regards," I have a feeling I'll be getting a few more of these emails throughout my career transition process. Gotta have a thick skin. I will continue to apply to other helpdesk roles and study for certifications. Onward and upwards.

Hi everyone. I am Albert, I joined this community because I want to learn and talk with similar people in my field. I just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity. I have been studying for my Security+ and applying for help desk roles in the meantime. I previously interned at my university’s IT department and have done multiple labs (posted on my site albertdepierro.com) to practice the basics. I know the roadmap usually says Net+ before Sec+, but I found this community after I had already started with Security+. I plan to take the exam within the next week or so. As for what I want out of cybersecurity, right now, I really just want to land my first role and continue building experience. I haven’t chosen a specialization yet, but I know I don’t want to get stuck in a SOC long-term since those are often the lowest-paid roles. I’m very interested in Cloud Security, though I’m still figuring out whether I should start with Azure or AWS. I also feel like I have a lot of theory knowledge from school, which is why I’ve been doing labs and projects. I want to learn how to apply what I know in real-world situations. I know I still have a lot to learn, and I’m here to grow and connect with others.

They said they'd get back to you in a week or two. You're getting antsy. That's okay, you're just excited. You want to make that new career transition and you want to keep that movtivation and momentum going. You've kept applying to other jobs in the meantime, but you want to know if you got the job or not, so you can move on mentally. Write a follow up email. I just wrote one (with the help of BowTiedCyberGPT of course). Here is my follow up email I sent at 8:03am this morning: "Hi [Director of HR], I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to thank you again for the opportunity to interview for the Service Desk Technician role on September 5th. I really enjoyed our conversation and I’m very excited about the possibility of contributing to your team. It was mentioned that decisions would likely be made within a week or two, so I just wanted to follow up and ask if there are any updates you can share. Please let me know if there’s anything further I can provide to assist in the decision-making process. Thank you again for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. Talk soon, Devon" I got a reply at 9:32am: "Hello Devon, Thank you for following up. We are still assessing candidates and it’s taking a little longer than we expected. Kind regards," I then sent a short reply back, just to end the email-loop: "Thanks so much for the update, [Name]. I appreciate you letting me know, and I’ll look forward to hearing back once things are settled. Have a great week, -Devon" As far as I can tell I'm still being considered for the role. Fingers crossed. I heard that September is the busiest month for IT hiring. The best thing we can do is be patient, keep applying to jobs, and send follow up emails when the timing is right (not too soon, and not too long after the interview, I'll let you and a GPT figure out the best timing for that). Good luck.