My experience for the position of Information Security Consultant....how I failed miserably..

 

Few days back I got an interview opportunity with one of the big 4's thanks to one of the friend not only for the opportunity but also because this opportunity made me realize as to where do I stand and making me realize that I have just climbed the first step on the stair and still has rest of stair to climb, a stair for which I do not see the end.

 

It was like a dream coming true initially as I was waiting for such an opportunity for some time. Whole purpose of me starting my career into IT was to move into Compliance and Consulting at one stage in my career but seems like its still a distant dream.

 

I was called for a Face to Face interview, everything started pretty nicely. Was asked question out of my resume, my experience and some general questions around firewalls, VAPT and my opinions on certain InfoSec related scenarios...It was going good however when it came to some firewall rules I made a silly mistake failed to explain Stealth and Cleanup rule, then I made a mistake by not answering an architecture based question, I knew the answer to the question but for some reason that moment I lacked the confidence and chose not to answer it just because I never had opportunity to work practically on such scenario. Not sure what else went wrong and till date I don't know the results of interview but I know inside me that I have missed this opportunity.

 

Though I might have missed the opportunity, following are something's which I have gained out of this interview and I think those are pretty valuable:

 

1. Don't just give up, if you know something then speak out, just because you might have not worked on it doesn't mean you don't know it, tell the interview that you have worked on it but this is how you see it, any good interviewer will appreciate your knowledge if you answer it logically. Your answer might not be complete, but if its a close match you'll have a plus.
2. Before you appear for interview try to get as much better understanding about the job, department and company as that might help you to judge and prepare for interview, do some guesswork on what type of questions can be asked.
3. Failure is not bad, take good out of it and prepare on things where you lacked, so that you can crack an interview next time.. As the saying goes "Girte hai sahe sawaar hi maidan e jung mein, Wo tilf kya girenge jo ghutno ke bal chale".

I think its the point where I should stop boring you guys and let you go, I know I am a pathetic writer so thanks for your time if you even read few lines...