Lessons learnt from COVID-19

I think this will be one of the major health disaster of the 21th century. It has shows that in our hyperconnected world, it would not be difficult to spread a virus.

No need of a some people (activist or terrorits) to spread it, as shown in the movie "12 Monkeys".

We just need a virus with a long incubation time to allow people with no symptoms to travel before being sick...

Anyway, let's get back to the topic of this post, the lessons learnt from this period.

1 - Appreciate simple things

Being confined at home gives you time to appreciate things you would not noticed in the "pre-COVID" lifestyle.

2 - Keep contacts with relatives, friends, colleagues.

Also, it was not possible to physically meet, you can message/call or do a visio to discuss. It is different, but it is better than being totally in lockdown.

3 - Do not keep in the same location, positive cases and negative cases

Unless you want the positive cases to contamine the negative ones. It is like having zombies in a building with non contaminated people ...if you watched World War Z, you have a lot of times this situation, like that one

Or for IT people, it is like leaving a compromised machine with a worm in the production network waiting all the machines get infected.

4 - Believe in a cure.
Eventually, scientists will find a cure.

Multiple vaccins are going to be released.

My thoughts about the CISSP exam

Last month, I took the CISSP exam and I got an unexpected result : I passed.

By "unexpected", I mean I was expecting to have 150 questions, and the exam ended by itself after I submitted the 100th questions.

My notes for those preparing this exam:

- take you time to answer to the questions
It does not worth the risk to rush out the exams and failed it.
Better to take the time to answer to each question carefully and get the positive outcome after 100 questions, than rushing out thinking it will take 150 questions, and get a negative outcome after 100 questions.
When the exam ended for me, it remained about 50min for the 50 questions...

- for technical profiles, focus on the theorical and processes points
You have the weight of each domain available on ISC2 website (it will change next year by the way). And although the textbook I used (official study guide from Sybex) discussed about practical examples, most of the questions were theorical (just question checking the understanding of a notion definition) or processes oriented.
I advise you to write down while you're studying the different processes seen, the inputs/actors/expected outcomes/objectives of each process, it position related to other processes... Something I did not do, but I think it is more interesting than some cheatsheets I found online which contains just keywords and brief explanations.

- schedule the time to set a deadline
I had to take 2 exams during the past 3 months, and for technical reason I had to reschedule one. This change the study planning for the CISSP. When you study for the exam, you keep the knownledge in your short term memory, it means you need to take the exam when you still have this knowledge. It does not mean you don't have the knownledge in your long term memory, just that the amount of data will not be the same (on PAN-OS, it is like detailled traffic logs and summary traffic logs, the short term memory is like the traffic logs, detailled but covering short amount of time compared to the summary traffic logs, aggregations of traffic logs (information lost) covering larger period of time).

- don't waste your time on "silly" points
On one of my questions, I felt there was a mispelled word on a word which affect the asnwer of the question. At the end, the answer I selected was not related to this mispelled word, as another word in the question was the main point of the question.
Just note the mispelled word with the question ID and give it at the end of the exam to the proctor.

Resources used:

- the Sybex - CISSP official study guide, it is great for people who cannot sleep at night.

- the videos on LinkedIn learning from Chapple (one of the author of the official study guide), I advise to watch the video after finishing the book to refresh the memory. (you can pass the first 5min of each video where Chapple is selling the book).

- CISSP cheatsheets, see my comments above.

For me, I an currently in the endorsement process, so certification in process.

And good luck for those taking the exam.

3E au Vietnam

Ca faisait un petit moment deja que je voulais ecrire un billet afin de faire un retour d'experience de la methode '3E' utilisee lorsque j'etais au Vietnam.

Cette methode repose sur 3 axes :
- Education
- Exposure
- Experience

1- Education
Il faut s'assurer que les membres de l'equipe savent un minimum de procedures propres a nos differents clients.
Pour cela, un wiki a ete mis en place contenant les differents procedures propres a chaque client. Des article de type "How to" ont ete ecris.
A la fin a cause du nombre croissant de procedure a connaitre, j'ai fait un petit quizz dont le but etait de tester le savoir-faire.

2- Exposure
Un mentoring etait en place de telle sorte qu'un nouvel arrivant etait avec une personne avec une certaine experience sur le client.
Le but est de permettre a chacun : de transmettre et de poser directement des questions hors de cadre formel.

3- Experience
Lire des procedures, discuter avec son mentor c'est bien, mais on apprends plus vite en appliquant ce que l'on apprends. Des que la personne est en confiance, et qu'elle se sent prete a aller au feu, elle pouvait commencer a prendre des tickets.

A ces 3 points, j'ajoute Enpowerment.
Chaque membre de l'equipe est responsabilise : elle peut, et elle est encourage a ecrire du contenu dans le wiki. Toute l'equipe est consulte afin de savoir s'il y a des points en particulier a remonter au client.

Long time no see

Hello all,

This is a short update regarding my profesionnal life.
I am still in Singapore, but I jumped into a new industry : I am Technical Support Engineer at Palo Alto Networks (basically, I am TAC engineer).

Doing a cool pose in HQ

Wanted to write something regarding my previous experience in Vietnam, now I have to write about my previous experience in Vietnam and about working in an international organisation.
Consider it as ... work in progress

Finally, I will also share some tips and tricks I learnt in my new job.

Stay tuned.

New year, new job, new country

2017 is well started already, and as I stated it in the title, this year start with a lot of new things.

After spending 2 years in Vietnam, sharing my tricks and my knowledge to my colleagues, solving problems and hacking the different internal tools, it was time for me to take a new challenge.

So I landed to Singapore, doing what I know and what I don't know yet for an international organization. 

I don't know if I'll succeed but one thing is sure : I am doing my best.

And later this year, actually it is supposed to start in March (really soon), I will follow the e-learning program about the CCNA CyberOps curriculum as a Cisco Global Scholarship recipient.

Anyway, it is late here so ...

Stay tuned.

Making the move

This is a post I have just published on LinkedIn Pulse about the new chapter in my life.

From December 2014, I will be in Vietnam. Currently I do not know if I will stay there for the rest of my life (I do not see future), but I will take the best of this experience.

At first, you have to know that I had the opportunity during my studies to move in TianJin (China) and in Oxford(UK). That was a great experience: travelling, discovery new cultures, practicing my english, and meeting new people.
At the end of my student life, I worked as network engineer on contract for different companies. The last one was for a bank in Paris. I have to admit that after my studies, I regret I did not have the opportunity to work abroad and that may be one reason about thinking to move abroad.

I had a job while some people could not have one (unemployment rate in France was around 10% for Q1 2014 - INSEE). I am lucky enough (or unlucky, it depends on context) to be single and with no kid. I did not have loans. And I was only 26.

So ... I quitted my job and started to look for a new one abroad.

Why?

First of all, when the decision to make the move has been taken, the problem waswaiting the job opportunity in a foreign country or quitting the job to search it.

What will you do if the job opportunity never come? Are you ready to wait 1, 5, 10 years in your current job waiting the opportunity that would may never come?

By quitting the job, I force myself to make the move and if I receive a job opportunity in the meantime, that's good as well.

Another reason about quitting the job was the notice period. In France, depending on the contract type, the notice period is different and in my case, the notice period was 3 months.

Is there any employers who can wait 3 months to hire you? An employer, who could search locally instead of relocating a foreign worker.

And in my mind the answer was "NO". I resigned, did my notice period, and at the end, I was free to work for any company.

I have the perfect situation to make the move: single person to relocate, visa application for only one person, no financial string.
And I am young: if working abroad will not be a good experience, I can easily come back.

Finally, after quitting my job, searching a job for months, I get a job abroad starting next month.

To conclude, what I learnt during these last months:

• Stay focus on the objective: if you want something, don't hesitate and do your best to get it.
• Prepare the backup plan: if you can find the job remotely, get a visa and take a airplane ticket to get it there. In my case, I was thinking about applying for a Working-Holiday Visa as my backup plan.
• Do not repeat History: if Napoleon failed to conquer Russia, one reason for that is because his soldiers were not prepared to endure this frozen winter. In our case, do not search a job when most HRs/headhunters/recruiters are on holiday (July to September).
• Use your network: I got LinkedIn connections to some recruiters through friends, it was not successful
• Do not close doors: I searched in China, but I got contacts in Europe, and finally I will relocate in Vietnam.