r/SecurityCareerAdvice • u/mikulotski • 2d ago

Aspiring SOC have an interview

Hello! In dire need of career advice.

I have an interview next Saturday for a SOC L1/L1.5 role.

I have exprience in Cisco Switching and Palo Alto Networks Firewalls specifically policy making.
I have also collaborated with SOC team to setup our MSOC but specific task only on creating accounts, limiting their access, vpn setups, setup syslog in PA for them.
I also read logs generated by our PA and blocked most depends on the (forgot exactly but I do hope you get what I meant)

Basically my job is like network security BEFORE restructure happened and changed my NetSec role to Building Infrastructure Engineering (Low volt).

I am now given a chance to have an interview for a SOC role but I am currently panicking for my interview next week.

What things should I learn, study, or expect the least for questions? I really want to push and pass this interview so I can leave my current work (things getting political here).

Thank you and best regards.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

4

u/my_peen_is_clean 2d ago

honestly you’re more prepared than you think. focus on basics: osi model, tcp three way handshake, common ports, difference ids vs ips, siem use cases, what incident triage looks like, how you’d handle phishing, brute force, malware alert. tie everything back to your firewall experience and reading logs. they care more about how you think and learn than perfect answers. researching all this while working is already a lot, esp with how crap hiring is right now

1

u/mikulotski 2d ago

I usually get tense and stressed before the interview day and usually forgets the basics. Thanks for this! I’ll try to remember everything and notes it up.

2

u/AddendumWorking9756 2d ago

Honestly the firewall and log work you've already done covers a chunk of SOC L1. What they're testing is whether you can take an alert and walk through investigating it without freezing, so spend this week running real-log cases on CyberDefenders and practicing that narration out loud. The thought process matters more than the tools they use.

1

u/Substantial-Mix9508 1d ago

Hey, man. I'm a 21y brazilian doing computer science at the uni.

Could you get me some tips about finding some jobs that pays in dollar?

I know how to speak and write enough to sustain a job, and im not expecting loads of money, just looking for some experience.

Some of my abilitys skills are Py, C, Assembly, SQL and i can learn fast.

If any of you could get me some tips of websites or stf like that, i would be greatfull.
And for my resume, just Dm me or some. (not really in to reddit)
Tks anyway

1

u/mikulotski 1d ago

Jobstreet, linkedin, glassdoor, and indeed are your friend. Don't know much if you can directly apply to other countries but you can find remote jobs there.