
Ask HN: Security job without a degree? - failarmy
Hi everyone,<p>I have been working as a freelancer and in some firm as a penetration tester. From the last couple of months, I&#x27;ve been trying to make a switch since I want to explore and learn more. 2 years back I had zero knowledge about the word security and if someone said words like &#x27;hacker&#x27; etc, the only thing that came to my mind was terminal screens with super fast scrolling text in green. I was blessed with a friend who taught me few stuff about mobile application testing which led me to keep learning about new things on my own. The issue is that I come from a non-IT background, with no degrees to back me up which has been a major roadblock for me in securing my next job due to which I grabbed up few technical certs from Offsec and eLearnSecurity to back me up in my next job hunt. I am fairly competent and have good hands on offensive part of computer security. I&#x27;m trying to contribute on my blog which also acts as my personal notes on : offensivepentest.com<p>The one thing I do not have is a degree which is acting as a major roadblock everywhere. Even for organisations that say that they hire without a degree, in the end, ask for a degree. My applications have been ditched even before landing at the interviewer&#x27;s desk by the HR alone. Even if somehow it went through and even the managers are ready to hire, HR comes to the rescue again and kicks me out. Even if somehow both agrees, they want me to work for them at a much lower pay which wouldn&#x27;t be the case if I had a degree. Even if I manage to pass all the challenges put up the employing agency to evaluate the candidates technical expertise, I will be the least preferred option against someone who was able to crack less than half of it.<p>All I am, is looking for a job. My finances have been dwindling and the job market in my country is not so good. I am ready to work almost anywhere and am ready to face interesting challenges into tactical information security and all I need is a platform to perform.
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kubbity
I work as software tester for a security company. Don't have a bachelor's
degree in CS, but I always tried to "beat the computer" and find workarounds.

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gregmorton
Maybe, from an employer point of vue :

If you hire someone with a degree and he fails, you can sue him or your
insurance could work.

If he has no degree, you could be told that only an asshole hires a security
expert without a degree.

