Well, I'm learning a lot of random information here. Most interesting are everyone's IT-related backgrounds (with the winner being lao tzu). And I appreciate the suggestions. To be clear, I'm not planning to move into IT (well, necessarily). The position I'm targeting is digital forensics, specifically within law enforcement. People filling this role enter through two pathways:
(1) Law enforcement: Some agencies take LEOs and send them to advanced training to do it. Essentially, they're teaching cops some IT skills. This can vary a lot by agency and/or position. At the basic level it's seizing and packaging digital devices, then using tools to do data extractions. Other agencies are training cops to do some pretty fancy stuff.
(2) IT professionals: Some agencies hire civilians with IT backgrounds, send them through more specific training and arrive at the same place as the most highly trained cops (and let's be honest, the IT guys usually know their stuff better than the badge-holders).
I'm just wanting to learn more and see how far I want to take it. I found one school that seems interesting - Western Governor's University. But it's much more effort or money than I'm willing to dump into it at this point. I'm also looking for brick and mortar (probably community college level) schools offering AS degrees in IT, so I can price it out and see what my options are. For now, I may just study and go after the A+ certification. As long as I'm not investing too much money into, I don't care if I never use it. I just can't keep my day job and also get experience in IT very rapidly, so I'm left with training.
(1) Law enforcement: Some agencies take LEOs and send them to advanced training to do it. Essentially, they're teaching cops some IT skills. This can vary a lot by agency and/or position. At the basic level it's seizing and packaging digital devices, then using tools to do data extractions. Other agencies are training cops to do some pretty fancy stuff.
(2) IT professionals: Some agencies hire civilians with IT backgrounds, send them through more specific training and arrive at the same place as the most highly trained cops (and let's be honest, the IT guys usually know their stuff better than the badge-holders).
I'm just wanting to learn more and see how far I want to take it. I found one school that seems interesting - Western Governor's University. But it's much more effort or money than I'm willing to dump into it at this point. I'm also looking for brick and mortar (probably community college level) schools offering AS degrees in IT, so I can price it out and see what my options are. For now, I may just study and go after the A+ certification. As long as I'm not investing too much money into, I don't care if I never use it. I just can't keep my day job and also get experience in IT very rapidly, so I'm left with training.
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