Ep 45 Senior Penetration Tester TechPenguin
Hello and welcome back to USB our Guest, Cyber Security tips. I’m Theo, here to help you break down cyber security news and hacks and how they affect you. However, today I am interviewing Tech Penguin who is a Senior Penetration Tester We recorded the interview in an open discord voice channel with video while monitoring chat with Text-to-speech developed by Security_Live. The Tech Penguin has 5 years experience as a penetration tester with an different entry to Cyber Security and We are very excited to talk to him. Also, I send people I interview a list of questions to answer, and the Tech Penguin did that, offering well thought and honest answers. Find the document linked on the episode page, on my Github. This is a little longer than my normal format so feel free to speed it up. Thank you for listening and enjoy.
- Timezone:
- CET
- Availability
- is mostly weekends/fridays
- medium
- i'm fine with camera and voice depending on what we talk about,
- location:
- netherlands
- age:
- 27
- What do you do in your downtime? Hobbies, sports, video games?
- previous jobs: N/A
- current role and can we deep dive on what this entails?
- senior pentester (small comp so flexible job requirements/titles etc)
- education level - High School, university?
- (mostly irrelevant i don't have anything official)
- What you taught yourself
- Prior to getting your job?
- languages - how did you make the jump to proficient
- and after?
- as a interviewer - a combination of things that help get hired
- foundational knowledge -
- github, projects
- enthusiasm
- coding
- Prior to getting your job?
- What's your go-to comfort movie, the one you can watch repeatedly without getting bored?
- Toy story 2
- How important are certifications?
- certs are a nuanced discussion on what's useful and for whom
- just one of the puzzle pieces to helping getting a job
-
- How you did you land your job in cyber security to get in the industry?
- i got my job by getting my foot in the door, and get a 6 month internship / got a mentor on the job and afterwards i was hired
- How necessary/important is Building relationships/Networking? LinkedIn, Discord, in person?
- takes effort¶
- The importance of stepping out of your comfort zone?
- ???
- What are your employers expectations in your current role?
- employers expectations are somewhat of a long story, but i work at a small company so it's more personally tailored
- Hours
- I work normally 32 hours a week, but i'm very flexible(this does get called upon occasionally) and i learn for myself in the weekends aswell
- Working with others?
- working with others is a fun / longer subject we can talk about that requires some getting into how we do pentests
- Burnout -
- advice to avoid
- counting days to vacation
- spend spare time doing things you enjoy
- advise i would have to think about for a while
- ???
- Pentesting & consultancy -
- difference
- pentest -
- hack
- break things
- consult - social work
- educate customers
- rea - be a resource
- How do you provide value to your customers?
- what are your clients paying you for?
- find vulns
- but also patch mgmt
- if never done pentest, perhaps do an automated scan?
- if always doing pentest, perhaps do a more advanced pentest
- what are your clients paying you for?
- What do your customers value scoping estimations etc?
- ask questions to advise
- different company security levels and laws will dictate/necessitate the type of service
- Entry level pentesting vs more advanced types of pentests