This elitism is not helpful. There are finite employers in the world, and many of them do screen based on keywords. That's reality. Applicants who are entering the job market might not always have the luxury of disregarding n% (where n most likely > 75) of their potential employers based on stuff like "oh well any real company wouldn't screen my resume..."
The security industry is remarkably small. If you're going to spray your CV and hope for the best, sure, having as many certs as possible will get you past the first interview.
But chances are if someone is browsing HN they're at least genuinely engaged enough to do better than that. You're advocating for people to shoot for average, I'm suggesting to not settle.
> You're advocating for people to shoot for average, I'm suggesting to not settle.
From my perspective, I'm advocating that people don't inadvertently shoot themselves in the foot. They might not yet be qualified to work at Matasano or [insert top tier security shop here] : not everyone is.
Assuming someone isn't (yet) qualified to work with their dream employer, what do you suggest they do? "Don't settle" in that scenario sounds a lot like "be unemployed". I'm straight up saying it's better to build up skills at a job - even if that job isn't their endgame.
I'm generally on board with this point - encouraging everyone to shoot for the top 10% inherently means letting down 90% of people.
But I think in this case, the issue might be that rather than one job being the first step to the other, we're talking about two totally distinct tracks. If a company is sufficiently shoddy and certification-happy, it's possible that they don't even provide meaningful experience for someone seeking the top-tier options. You might be better served by hardening systems at some general software job than getting an entry-level security job and blindly throwing Nessus at client's systems.
This elitism is not helpful. There are finite employers in the world, and many of them do screen based on keywords. That's reality. Applicants who are entering the job market might not always have the luxury of disregarding n% (where n most likely > 75) of their potential employers based on stuff like "oh well any real company wouldn't screen my resume..."