Insights from Evan Ottinger on Building Skills, Networking, and Job Hunting

06/09/23 • 25 min

Phillip's guest in this episode is Evan Ottinger, a senior security engineer at TCM Security. Evan shares his background and journey in the technology field. Evan shares his experience in the military as a Middle Eastern linguist and how it sparked his interest in cybersecurity. He emphasizes the importance of foundational knowledge and hands-on experience in systems administration. The conversation also touches upon resources for learning, including Professor Messer's free YouTube (@professormessercontent) and platforms like TryHackMe. They discuss the benefits of networking, attending conferences, and local meetups for career opportunities. The interview concludes with a reflection on the challenges of job hunting and the need for more realistic job listings in the industry. Overall, the conversation highlights the value of diverse skills, continuous learning, and building connections within the cybersecurity field. Evan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eottinger/

Previous Episode

Casey Ellis: Pioneering The Bug Bounty Platform To Empower Ethical Hackers

Casey Ellis, the founder of Bugcrowd, is interviewed by Phillip Wylie, who admires Casey's connection to the hacker community. Casey shares his background in technology and how his curiosity led him to become a hacker. He emphasizes that he always exercised caution and avoided causing harm. Casey shifted his focus to network engineering after leaving a nuclear medicine degree program. He enjoys the challenge of thinking like a criminal without engaging in illegal activities. Casey Ellis, an Australian entrepreneur, pioneered the bug bounty platform to tap into the creativity of the white hat hacker community and enhance internet security. He began his career in pen testing, transitioned to sales, and ultimately founded Bugcrowd. Casey explains that Bugcrowd was created to connect companies in need of bug bounty programs with the hacking community. He aimed to address the disadvantage of individuals competing against a crowd of hackers with diverse skills and motivations. Phillip Wylie, a former ambassador for Bugcrowd, highlights that while some individuals may still engage in malicious activities, they risk losing their participation on the platform. Bugcrowd provides a secure and efficient way to connect organizations with hackers for bug bounty programs. Casey's social media: https://twitter.com/caseyjohnellis https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseyjohnellis/ Bugcrowd social media and resources: https://www.bugcrowd.com/ https://twitter.com/Bugcrowd https://www.linkedin.com/company/bugcrowd/ https://www.youtube.com/@bugcrowd Disclose.io social media and resources: https://disclose.io/ https://twitter.com/disclose_io https://www.linkedin.com/company/disclose-io/

Next Episode

Talking AI and Content Creation with Daniel Miessler

Daniel Miessler, the creator of the "Unsupervised Learning" newsletter and podcast, discusses the importance of content creation for building a personal brand and breaking into the industry. Miessler believes that having a visible brand can help connect with others and lead to new opportunities. He recommends immediately capturing ideas and always having a place to do so. Miessler's podcast and newsletter cover security, technology, and human news. He believes that tech and science are subordinate to humanity and is interested in how they impact humans and what humans care about. Miessler emphasizes the importance of pursuing one's interests and doing what resonates with oneself rather than creating for the audience. He encourages being honest and transparent about the learning process to build credibility and trust with others in the industry. Miessler recommends working for oneself as soon as possible, allowing for more control over one's work and the ability to focus on what matters. He notes the power of micro-podcasting and recommends having a website or a place to talk about ideas, as Twitter may not be the best platform for longer-form content. Miessler believes that AI will lead to digital assistants that will know everything about you and interact with the world, collecting things that matter to you, and then bringing them to you in the way that's best for you. He recommends owning a domain and having content on that domain, making sure that it's easy to import and export. Miessler emphasizes the importance of having control of one's content and recommends having a website as a home base. He suggests linking out from the website to different brands and syndication sources, such as Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter. Miessler warns that platforms can change at any time, and creators cannot trust them to keep their promises. As a result, creators should make sure that their core identity is at their domain and their own website. Miessler also notes that the importance of SEO and having content on one's own website may decrease due to AI's ability to parse and model information. In the future, digital assistants may be able to answer queries without needing to access websites directly. However, Miessler still emphasizes the importance of owning a domain and having control over one's content. He discusses the potential for AI to summarize books and present information in a way that is tailored to the user's preferences. Daniel's social media and resources: https://twitter.com/DanielMiessler https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmiessler/ Unsupervised Learning https://danielmiessler.com/⁠