Feb 28th-Mar 4th

This week I was fortunate enough to interview Ms. Renne Farrow of the Defense Cyber Operations (DCO), at JOINT STAFF, Suffolk, VA. I did this in order to gain a better understanding of the contract field through a civilian eye. I wanted to weigh the pros and cons of each side of the field. Ms. Farrow stated her job consists of penetration testing and scanning networks in order to discover vulnerabilities. This requires her to be familiar with the Security platforms used to conduct the scans. In-depth knowledge of the network assets and IP range is vital to her success. Although Ms. Farrow, has a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, she stated that most of her training was on-the-job training (OJT). Ms. Farrow stated, ” the degree will get you in the door, but you must be able to grasp concepts used in your hiring companies security platform”.

During my second 50 hours, I was allowed to interview Mr. Danny Smith, a government contractor. Through his experiences, I saw that government workers have a lot of different options when it comes to choosing work and traveling. Ms. Farrow spoke highly of her field. She is a civil contractor as opposed to Mr. Smith, a government contractor. What her job entails is monitoring different networks for different clients. She and her team ensure that these networks aren’t vulnerable to various threats. The pros of her career are that she doesn’t have to travel as much. The cons of civil jobs are they tend to be more erratic and unsteady. The contract you are working on can come up for renewal every five years. If your company does not win the contract then you can find yourself looking for work. There are also many other benefits to being a contractor in the civil world rather than a government contractor.