Dev and Security Walkthroughs

Another Pokemon Capture Salesforce Certifications remind me of Pokemon. There are 25 different certifications to pick from. They range from easy to hard. Some have prerequisites before they can evolve. Some gyms (jobs) want you to collect 2 or more. They are hard to catch but easier to keep. I passed my Advanced Admin today. That marks my forth Pokemon capture. I picked Advanced Admin because it is on the Q Branch list. Otherwise I would have pursued it much later. A big regret of mine is not getting these certifications sooner. Many Salesforce Developers stop at PD1. I stopped at PD1. I started Salesforce mid-2018 and only had PD1 for 1.5 years. I got my Admin January 2020. When I was job searching most jobs wanted a combination of PD1, Admin, App Builder, Sales, Service, and PD2. I got the Admin Pokemon in January to accompany me on my job search journey. Late 2019 was a bad time to realize 'Wow these Salesforce certifications seem important. What have I been doing?...

Time I studied for 2 weeks before taking the test. I wanted to take it on April 30th, the last day of April. Why App Builder? Work and personal pick related. I failed the PD2 twice and decided to take a break. I'm going to wait for the PD2 test to update itself. The PD2 went from a passing cutoff of 62% to 70%. I wish I took it sooner before they made it more difficult. I heard the App Builder was easier and needed a confidence boost. Work also likes it and that was my next pick anyway. It also seems to be in high demand like the PD1 and Admin. Resources Superbadges. The App Builder has three superbadges. I got the Process Automation and Security Specialist superbadge. I didn't get to App Customization. Focusonforce.com Notecards Difficulty This one felt the same as Admin. I got 1% better on Admin then App Builder.

Time: I studied for a total of 14 days. I wanted to take the exam in 7 days. However I couldn't keep up the 200mph @ 200mph pace. The Security+ took a dent and I needed to stop at a Rest Stop for 3 days. The Admin can be a bit dry and and sometimes I found myself looking at the screen for 10 minutes at the same question. My Security+ date was not meant for Dec 23rd but Dec 27th. I took it a week early so I could study an extra week for Admin. This was a very smart decision as I needed the extra week. Cost Cert: $0. Work paid the $200. FocusOnForce: $20. How To Study I used FocusOnForce and googled topics I didn't know. For example if a question said "Salesforce Knowledge" or "Duplicate Rules", I would look that up on YouTube and then do a trailhead or experiment on it. I used these Resources: 1. FocusOnForce 2. YouTube 3. Trailheads 4. Experimenting around in my Free Developer Org If you mix it up, studying is better. Difficulty I ...

Security+ Review Time I studied for two weeks. I took a break in the middle to run a phishing campaign. Campaign Video Cost Exam: $265.00 from SuperVoucher.com with an expiration date of June. I was not paying $399. Boson Practice Test: $80 Dion Exams: $29. The Boson practice test was higher quality than Dion. You also need to do the full 90 questions on Dion to get the explanation vs 1 question at a time with an explanation from Boson. Strategy I watched Professor Messer videos while making notes on the Exam Topic PDF. www.professormesser.com This is my third attempt at the Security+. The Security+ was always my 2nd Pick and each time I was too busy to continue. I thought 'Oh great, this guy again'. Then you will see Messer for 7-14 days straight. You will become best buds. I definitely did not want to revisit for a 4th attempt! Difficulty The Security+ is the easiest exam I have taken in 2019. I could have probably passed it without studying. Its sim...

Time I studied two hours everyday for two weeks. I took Cisco 1 - 2 classes at Lakeland Community College. Materials 1. Boson Practice Exam 2. Cisco Labs 3. Cisco ICND1 Syllabus 4. Youtube Positives Studying for the CCENT filled gaps in my knowledge base. I was doing switchport modes wrong. I know end-devices are switchport mode access now. I figured out how to calculate wildcard submasks. All I knew how to do was 0.0.0.255. I didn't know what full or half duplex was. My subnetting skills were rocky. Cisco labs don't do a good job at explaining concepts. The lab sheet will say "do X command". The Boson practice exam will explain concepts much better. "Oh thats why were doing that" is the feeling you'll get. Regrets I wish I would've took the CCENT over winter break after Cisco 2 was finished. Oh well. Tips I used this to generate a subnet problem: https://www.lammle.com/ip-subnet-practice-page/ And this to validate answers: https:...

I did a presentation on Internet Privacy at work. I want to document it here so I don't forget about it. Which I would. The presentation went okay. I forgot the words "sidewalk", "parking garage", "convenience", and a few others. I have a tendency to forget words while talking. Sometimes I can cover it up. I think this problem would go away if I said more than ~200-1000 words a day. My sentences can be said in the wrong order too. I remember forgetting words mid-speech around 11 years old. The act of presenting was meh personally. I learned a few new things. I can't imagine doing these every month. Once or twice a year sounds good to me. Link to PDF Presentation

Background I signed up for Cisco 1 and 2 this Fall semester. I just finished Cisco 2. David Durkee the instructor offered to teach the Tri-C team during Midwest CCDC. He barged into our room and said something like "hey you guys need help! Tri-C isn't too far away from Lakeland Community College. You should take some classes with me! I know my stuff". It's not everyday a networking professor barges into the room and offers to teach you. I couldn't pass this offer up. Also note: We left our very knowledgeable Cisco/Windows/Linux team-member Mohammad Ali in Cleveland. Our router and switch would have been better protected with his insight. We had no Network Admin during the competition. Area Lakeland Community College is far away. Its located on the East side of Cleveland in Kirkland. I live in Brunswick. It takes 35 minutes to get there from work and one hour to get home. The area is very nice! I used to live in Willoughby when I was a little kid. It was nic...

Backstory I’ve seen blog posts of interns writing reviews for big tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft. I thought Hurricane Labs deserved one too. This link describes what HL does: Hurricane Labs. I was the only person left without an internship my sophomore year. A group of Baldwin Wallace University (BW) students and I were at the BSides security conference. They were all working at Hurricane Labs, Secure State, and other places. I was the odd one out working at Walmart. I felt envious but reminded myself these students were juniors and I was still a sophomore. I was very late on the summer internship game. I didn’t want to take on an internship until I felt ready. I thought if I did a bad job, I would block out other women. If I did a terrible job I wouldn’t just hurt myself, I’d hurt all the future women trying to get a job at the same company. If a company has repeated bad experiences with a group of people, I think they’d just stop hiring them. This is what I thought back ...