Notifications
Clear all

Depth vs Breadth

6 Posts
4 Users
0 Likes
592 Views
(@daman)
Posts: 13
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Hello All,

I am talking about the concept of knowning a lot about one or two topics or knowning a little about all topics.

I find that similar to the general Networking/Computer field, you need to make a choice.

Dive in deep and become a specialist, say in data discovery or imaging.

OR

Get your feet wet in the whole spectrum and become a generalist who can do a bit of everything.

Which path are you on? What led you down this path?

 
Posted : 28/09/2005 12:09 am
keydet89
(@keydet89)
Posts: 3568
Famed Member
 

Speaking only for myself, I am something of a generalist, in that I'm familiar with imaging drives, running searches, etc. I'm familiar with several of the popular commercial forensic analysis tools.

I have also written my own tools. I do a significant amount of research specifically in the area of forensic analysis on Windows systems.

HTH,

H. Carvey
"Windows Forensics and Incident Recovery"
http//www.windows-ir.com
http//windowsir.blogspot.com

 
Posted : 28/09/2005 1:16 am
(@daman)
Posts: 13
Active Member
Topic starter
 

No one else wants to weigh in on this?

 
Posted : 29/09/2005 9:13 pm
arashiryu
(@arashiryu)
Posts: 122
Estimable Member
 

I consider myself a generalist. I have over 10 years of various IT experience. I can walk into any company and basically do everything from client, server, telecom, information security etc. In my opinion to be a successful forensic analyst, you need to be prepared for diverse enviornments. Which I believe comes from experience and passion for technology. My only shortcoming is coding. Which I am not too worried about since I have a lot of friends that code.

I have been doing investigations and forensic analysis for a manufacturing fortune 500 corporation for about 3 years. Let me tell you my friend, all the previous client, server, telecom etc. experience comes in very handy when doing forensic tasks.

I am in chat mode…enough said.

 
Posted : 29/09/2005 9:50 pm
arch17c7
(@arch17c7)
Posts: 4
New Member
 

I am a generalist. Although not the most lucrative position to place oneself in, there are too many areas where I have an interest to pin myself down to one area. The job market has not been as kind to generalists, however; most of the positions that I look at have been targeted to one or two specific areas.

Employers do not usually take into account that a generalist will learn quickly about any subject that they need to deal with. If it's job security you're looking at, neither one is outstanding, but the specialist is more likely to be what HR often looks for. /RANT (or depression, not sure which at this point).

 
Posted : 30/09/2005 1:34 am
(@daman)
Posts: 13
Active Member
Topic starter
 

So have you been hired as a forensic expert in your companies or are you the "security guy" that happens to do some forensic work as well?

 
Posted : 03/10/2005 8:40 pm
Share: