Know what you are getting in to, make the best of it, learn, and move up or get out.
Pros
-Very laid back atmosphere and incredibly relaxed dress code -Great for entry level/no experience as you will learn a lot -Can work as much overtime as you want as long as you pick up shifts -Get to learn on various SIEMs (looks great on resume) -The training program (3 weeks) was good and everyone was very helpful if you asked any questions afterwards -Certifications are paid for but ONLY if you pass them which is completely understandable (was told training materials were paid for as well) -A lot of downtime on second and third shift which you can use to study for certifications or learn more about the job/SIEM -Lunch meal was paid for once a week and snack room was always stocked with soda and other various items (could request snacks as well) -Pet friendly offices -It seemed there were always positions to move up to (specialist or higher) -I saw multiple people getting promoted to other positions and it seemed quite easy to move up after spending a short amount of time there by simply doing your job -They had SOPs for every client and they were easy to follow (always check the SOP before you perform your investigation and especially before reporting the incident as you may not have to report/investigate anything or there are specific things to report to the client) -There were multiple people there who I could tell took great pride in their job, wanted to help everyone, and constantly updated the SOP they were in charge of -Several SOC 2 Analysts made themselves available to shadow and provided some mentoring which was encouraging -They were in the process of opening two additional SOC offices and moving almost everyone to 10 hour shifts (4 times a week) -I could tell management truly cared about her job and valued her employees by trying to find anything to improve upon constantly -I would not have the job I have now if I did not work here as so many other companies want you to have some sort of SOC experience and knowledge
Cons
-Turnover in the SOC was very high and it showed in both the quality and amount of work -Pay is low BUT that is because you are not doing what you really would in a "real SOC" but instead learning and getting experience. You check incoming alerts, do some pivots, provide recommendations, and then send email to client instead of actually doing remediation in an actual SOC. This makes sense as they are hiring people with almost no experience and you are only doing about a third to half of what you would do in a "real SOC" -Severely understaffed and it showed in the work as I found multiple instances where something should have been reported per the SOP and was not because they were either covering too many clients or just did not care -I overheard a SOC 2 Analyst talking to someone about how all the new hires are "stupid" which was one of the main reasons I left -Almost every single SOC Analyst was talking about leaving for other job opportunities every shift and had almost nothing good to say about the company -You could tell there were some clients who cared about the work you put in to your reporting but many others who did not ever respond or do anything in the SIEM -You will find out (very quickly) some people don't pull their weight or simply just close alerts and nothing is done about it due to being understaffed -Multiple SOPs had spelling errors, incomplete/outdated instructions, or were almost never updated with new alerts which was not a big deal but can be frustrating to a new employee when someone only points you to the SOP whenever you ask a question -The no personal devices policy was a complete joke as I observed almost everyone with their phones/laptops on their person and the work issued iphone/ipod touch could have easily been used to extract information as well since you had access to email and pictures on those as well at home
