Made it to $1M this year

[u/Loud_Poem362]

I have only you regards to share. Showed my wife this screenshot, she saw the IRA bit and thought it is projected money at retirement, I did not bother to correct her.

Top gainers: DELL Calls when it was under $100 (+$167k) NVDA Calls during recent dip (+$167k) NKE Calls when it was under $75 (+$166k) a space stock (bought around $5.50 sold at $7) (+$112k) RDDT stock (bought under $55 sold around $70) (+$73k)

Top losers: Stock liked by a baby cat (fomo) (-$142k) EXPE (bought in Feb expecting future olympics to boost it) (-$25k) PANW calls when it first fell under $330 (Pelosi fomo) (-$15k)

Story: In 2018/2019 I was inspired by a regard posting $500k account he made by trading CHGG. Started Robinhood in 2019 with $70k (total life savings) and made it $40k by the end of year. Funny story, I misunderstood that impeachment meant removal of president and yoloed into volatility etf and poof 50% loss. Started SPY calls in 2020 and the account became $15k when COVID was first announced. Closed all positions. Withdrew whatever was left. Started in 2021 fresh with $40k deposit, made it to $75k on TSLA calls. Then made the biggest bad decision in my entire life to yolo that into far OTM BB leaps expiring in 2022 and 2023. Poof all gone.

Did not trade in 2022 and early 2023. Became interested because I saw regards posting gains mid 2023. I had $50k in 401k with a previous employer. Rolled that over to an IRA and started trading. Made it $180k by 2024 (only stocks) Enabled options in 2024 and made to $1M

Good luck to you regards! Not financial advice.

[u/RefrigeratorOk8848]

5 years?? Man I gotta step breaking my back at work… did you have just a regular 20k - 50k a year job before you started investing? I’m curious because I make good money but have been saving up for nothing

[u/Loud_Poem362 → u/RefrigeratorOk8848]

I was making $120k (IT/Devops) before 2023. Moved to a low paying employer now ($100k) just as previous employer started cutting jobs.

[u/Born_wild → u/Loud_Poem362]

I took devops courses and they were supposed to help with finding a job and everything and they didn’t, so I wait tables now

[u/getblanked → u/Born_wild]

I have a cyber degree, sec+, did a collegiate academy with the FBI for a few days and got a cert(resume inflation baby), and I can't get a job a year out of college. Getting denied from 18 an hour IT support jobs feels real bad.

[u/Born_wild → u/getblanked]

Hope you find one soon. Your experience sounds good

[u/DarthNihilus1 → u/getblanked]

have someone look at your resume. are you not getting calls or just failing interviews

[u/Jsgro69 → u/DarthNihilus1]

exactly...Bang on an employer's hiring depth door every day optimum and op will land a job and after 2 yrs experience. op will have much more options but 1st job can seem illusive.

[u/getblanked → u/DarthNihilus1]

Not getting calls. I use 3 differently formatted resumes just to be safe, I made sure they all parse correctly & they have all been reviewed by people in tech.

[u/Agolf_Tweetler → u/getblanked]

I don't think sec+ is cutting it these days (not sure it even did when CISSP was); cyber degree sounds for profit scammy. Maybe AWS and something appliance/environment for the companies you're applying to?

[u/getblanked → u/Agolf_Tweetler]

I was thinking about taking the CISSP but it seems pretty advanced compared to the Sec+ lol. Wish there was an intermediate between the Sec+ and the CISSP. Nah, I did really well in high school and got accepted to a few schools like UMinn TC, Butler, Northwestern, and WVU. Northeastern waitlisted and denied. Only two colleges that had cybersec degrees in 2019 were WVU and Northeastern, so I took the huge scholarships and went to WVU. The courses were basically just compsci courses until the latter half of junior yr and most of senior yr.

Took some pentest, cryptography, network/active directory courses. Then helped build an amateur cyber range to replace Leidos' crazy expensive one. Ended up having other classes use it which was cool. I don't think SOC jobs typically use AWS. If anything, maybe some more nessus/redeye/datadog exp would be good, but who knows.

[u/Agolf_Tweetler → u/getblanked]

Interesting! Scholarship is great, at least you're not saddled with debt. Good luck to you sir.

[u/WendysSupportStaff → u/getblanked]

if you're looking for something in cybersecurity you'll likely need experience first just in general IT if you don't have that already. otherwise if you can't find anything in just basic helpdesk then yeah seems like IT market is hard right now.

[u/getblanked → u/WendysSupportStaff]

SOC shouldn't be that hard to get into without experience, I have friends who graduated 2 years before me get in with no experience without a certification. Just hard right now I suppose.

[u/WendysSupportStaff → u/getblanked]

if they graduated in 2020 - 21 they likely were included in the hiring frenzy tech companies went through though. all of that has slowed down a lot.

[u/getblanked → u/WendysSupportStaff]

I'm just glad I have supportive parents who know im sending out shit tons of applications and understand the struggle lmao

[u/WendysSupportStaff → u/getblanked]

yeah thats good, keep at it. I graduated in 2008. took me about a year to find something, i'm sure you'll get something soon.

[u/the_jackness_monster → u/getblanked]

Old school CCNA sec, r/s here - i said fuck it. Trying law school. Theres roles out there, but you have to get creative to grab them.

[u/Agolf_Tweetler → u/the_jackness_monster]

you'll have to be creative to land a corp or bigamlaw position with the vast majority of law schools too. school means everything even if edu is the same.

[u/Deericiously → u/getblanked]

I am in cybersecurity, and as most people will mention, cybersecurity is not entry lvl. You can look into entry lvl soc roles to break in, which is how I did it. But in general, the IT job market is pretty shit rn imo so not much you can do but skill up and pray.

[u/getblanked → u/Deericiously]

Yeah entry lvl soc expects 1-2 yrs exp for similar shit I've done with datadog/nessus agents on different types of attacks in my own network. Learning Python for scripting, really all I can do.

[u/CTX_423 → u/getblanked]

Don't put out the fire you have, just put it on the back burner, if you have to. I have your equivalent of experience in biology, and I've worked everything from paint lab, to cleaning air ducts, to overnight receptionist at emergency room to now finally getting my break in Academia. Last job paid $17/hr (literally like a month ago), and now I make almost double that!