[shw1n]

I’ve found two ways to rekindle my love for coding/programming after I experienced similar disillusionment:

1) switched to information security. I found reverse engineering, doing CTFs, and hacking things in general brought back the sense of joy I’d lost.

So I took a job reverse engineering/exploiting embedded devices with half the pay and loved it, which ended up being one of the best places I’ve worked (and the pay quickly increased as I loved what I did)

2) Eventually left that role (sadly) and built my own business — this is the only time I’ve truly had my building itch scratched, as the only limit was my ability.

Granted, this requires some soft skills like sales and business acumen to be profitable/sustainable (i.e. knowing “what” to build is harder than building generally) — but incredibly satisfying.

[throwaway99923]

> switched to information security. I found reverse engineering, doing CTFs, and hacking things in general brought back the sense of joy I’d lost.

This really resonates with me. I did a binary exploitation class in my M.S. where we did weekly CTFs. I really, really enjoyed this - thanks for reminding me. Do you have any tips for breaking into the industry?

[shw1n]

I did the OSCP, a 3-month course + exam that teaches an overview/the basics of infosec and more specifically pentesting

It’s a fairly well-regarded certification (and a tough 24-hr exam), and got me interviews for Senior Security Consultant roles at firms like NCC Group with no prior security background

I think a typical progression is something like Security Consultant/Pentesting at a consultancy and then transitioning to Security Engineer/Security Researcher at a more specialized firm

I was actually able to bypass this and somehow land my dream job (binary/IoT reverse engineer) immediately after seeing them post on the r/reverseengineering subreddit and just going for it

Besides the OSCP, what helped me land the role was playing microcorruption CTF

Happy to help if you have more Qs: [e-mail]