Well let me say this is my first post, I have been reading through many of the topics gauging through all the ends of forensics.
Let me introduce myself, I am a Senior at Champlain College where I will be receiving my Bachelors in Digital and Computer Forensics in May (god willing) and I have been always been trying to best prepare my way to be highly employable upon graduation. I am currently working my second consecutive year at a Fortune 500 company doing forensics/networking/web security type stuff for them, and I have also worked for a government contractor so I have also passed for a government clearance. I dream big, and I am planning to have an answer to where I will be employed by Jan 2010 (i know I reach for the stars) but at the same time I feel I am well prepared and am a capable candidate for a good entry level forensic job. Personally I prefer the private sector over the public, but I think I could make something work. I think I want to do some consulting early on that way I can get my feet wet early and open to everything.
All the same I am thinking about possibly taking the plunge and going to get my Masters in digital computer forensics. It is a decision that I have had little help as the industry is booming and at the same time the better I am qualified the better, right? Again I have seen people on this forum with the certifications, but not the experience, which I think is more valuable. I have looked at doing the research master program at UCD as I studied a semester abroad and got a good base knowledge of how Europe treats cybercrime and how things are done across the pond. I am itching to make a jump to do either or, but I don't want to dump energy into both because I feel it wont be beneficial for me to do so.
If you have any insight as to what direction might be best from your experiences just gauged upon my brief introduction I would greatly appreciate it. If you know of another accredited school that has a good format for a masters degree in forensic computing those suggestions would be greatly appreciated as well. I am also looking forward to learning a great deal from this forum and hopefully being able to contribute all the same.
Thanks,
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
My advice would be go for the experience. I was in a similar situation to you where I started working at a large corporate while at Uni. I did not initially start in forensics but through a serious of fortuitous events I fell into a team that did cybercrime/forensics/investigation/incident response work. I 'officially' moved in the grad program once I finished Uni and then moved to another company about six months later. Since then I have moved to the UK from Australia and successfully got a job a couple of weeks after I arrived.
My thinking is that you can always go back to Uni - thats the great thing about it. I know a lot of people don't like to take time out of their careers to go back to study (including me) so now a lot of larger corporates have great programs where you can study part time around your work. They understand its of benefit to both parties in the long run.
The other benefit that might not be something you had considered is that by studying later it actually can help with other certifications. A lot of certs have a requirement for ongoing training when it comes to the renewing them, and I see no reason why Postgrad studies in forensics would not count towards this.
If you have a good chance to secure permananent employment upon completing Uni (which judging by a lot of other posts on here recently is not the case for everyone) then grab it with both hands and run.
My .02c
Good Luck!
Hello - though I am new here please let me chime in.
A Master's degree is nice, but I would suggest getting some certificates first… Champlain will give you a great foundation, now you need to complement that undergrad with vendor neutral certs and start accumulating those. Even graduate certificates will suit you better than immediately jumping into graduate studies. You are also getting experience by working - nothing will replace that, especially since you're combining it with a respectable degree…