4 ms·

What industry? Over in infosec, they seem to just do courtesy interviews to suss out if I did some ecrime the feds are sniffing about, find out they were incorr

What industry? Over in infosec, they seem to just do courtesy interviews to suss out if I did some ecrime the feds are sniffing about, find out they were incorrect, then not even have the common courtesy to drop the act and offer to pay me as a consultant rather than treat job interviews as fishing expeditions.

mwint 4y ago
I’m having a hard time parsing this comment, can you expand on who’s doing what?
- dontbenebby 4y ago
  Oh, I'd have someone connect me with say, an interview with the Software Engineering Institute or RAND. They'd have me speak to between six and twenty people about say, how I would work to secure CERT's vulerability stockpile. Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions. In parallel, folks with non-US passports would obstruct any applications I made in private industry in favor of those with their same passport. It was all super frustrating, since my CV had the appearance of someone with a deep commitment to nonprofit work, when it often more than I made decisions like "Being a PhD student pays slightly better than a Papa John's employee and I'll eventually find something more permanent doing the latter". Lately, looking back, I wonder if I'd have been better off saving up then moving to Thailand like one of my old drinking buddies did. (I don't drink alcohol anymore, and I'm spending the afternoon reading HN as I work on some technical projects I'll probably never put online, since it seems no amount of code publication leads me to a fair interview -- all it does is give tools for others to use in their "work") Happy to reply again if the above is unclear -- I made sure to not use a nym that doesn't include my legal name, for privacy -- I could have been much more detailed :-)
  - ForHackernews 4y ago
    > Happy to reply again if the above is unclear ... > Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions. This paragraph is exceedingly unclear and may hint at the reasons why you are struggling to get hired. This reads as some mix of narcissistic personality disorder / conspiratorial thinking. You write like a native (or near-native) English speaker, but your composition is all over the place. I don't mean this unkindly, but have you ever spoken with a mental health professional? Many technical folks are neuroatypical and this can sometimes be a barrier to traditional stable employment.
    - jstarfish 4y ago
      I get the impression they are being deliberately obtuse, but that's not uncommon in this field (to be fair, so is schizophrenia/NPD). This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them. Snowden would receive the same treatment.
      - ForHackernews 4y ago
        > This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility... Hacker news does attract some singular individuals from time to time, but I would suggest the more plausible scenario is that this person has untreated mental health issues.
      - dontbenebby 4y ago
        Deliberately obtuse. Also schitzophrenia and NPD are... not remotely similar. You probably shouldn't risk a slander lawsuit if you're so uneducated on diagnoses, paired with never having met me. Now, bristly replying aside: I also DO have anxiety, and wrote my comments earlier after too much caffeine. >This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them. To give a real world example: one of the reasons I was pushed out of an NGO is I annoyed the lawyers pushing them to put MFA on their email accounts. Later we were one of the few not to be penetrated by the Russians... digitally... but when I watched that one Mr. Robot plotline where the one agent is increasingly unclear why her supervisor is not taking her concerns seriously, she finds out they are an agent of a foreign power. Also I did a master's thesis on anonymity technology, so obligatory "it's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you". >Snowden would receive the same treatment. Snowden is stuck in Russia, a totalitarian hellhole. I live here, in the Paris of Appalachia, where I wander around sipping cortados and banging hipsters. We are not the same. What often happens is I get a mix of people who respond in good faith (have no idea who the hell I am), paired with those who do, and say things in bad faith about my mental health. (Reoccuring income would solve those issues overnight, email if you want a CV. I'm a decent pentester, can code in languages like Python and bash, and have an OSINT certification from Bellingcat.) But often since my skills are more... qualitative (eg: I cannot write exploits well), people schedule an interview to treat it like a free consulting session (ask the one question an FBI agent would have if they could supoena me slipped in with the rest to clear me as a suspect in some bullshit), then don't actually hire me on... and the cycle repeats in 3-6 months. Hence my supreme annoyance and occasional trolls. Oh -- almost forgot -- in addition to the above, years ago, before I was doing brain experiments on undergrads alongside former Israeli snipers, I was in therapy. I found out at that therapist's funeral that he was a member of a motorcycle club. So sometimes... odd people boosted me through my career in civil society, and sometimes it feels like when I hit a wall, it's because someone in the past was supporting me for unsavory reasons, and doesn't have a good explanation for the sudden shift in allegiance. I'm happy to explain further as needed, but all you really need to know is I ended up at a libertarian NGO despite being anything but, for reasons I don't fully understand, then got stranded in Appalachia by people who never want to admit they're wrong, even as I turn on the TV and see teachers who used to claim I was a menace to society running up on the capital. TL;DR: I'm anxious because I'm a skinhead, in the antiracist sense, and a leftist, and the people who could assist me in my goal of being independent choose not to. I could join a firm like Mandiant or whatever tomorrow, be assigned some work, and be off HN and happy, but folks make the emotional decision to not allow me to do that, despite very clearly being qualified to, then question the mental health of a first generation PhD student with a dwindling bank account. Any other questions? :-)

mwint 4y ago

I’m having a hard time parsing this comment, can you expand on who’s doing what?

dontbenebby 4y ago
Oh, I'd have someone connect me with say, an interview with the Software Engineering Institute or RAND. They'd have me speak to between six and twenty people about say, how I would work to secure CERT's vulerability stockpile. Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions. In parallel, folks with non-US passports would obstruct any applications I made in private industry in favor of those with their same passport. It was all super frustrating, since my CV had the appearance of someone with a deep commitment to nonprofit work, when it often more than I made decisions like "Being a PhD student pays slightly better than a Papa John's employee and I'll eventually find something more permanent doing the latter". Lately, looking back, I wonder if I'd have been better off saving up then moving to Thailand like one of my old drinking buddies did. (I don't drink alcohol anymore, and I'm spending the afternoon reading HN as I work on some technical projects I'll probably never put online, since it seems no amount of code publication leads me to a fair interview -- all it does is give tools for others to use in their "work") Happy to reply again if the above is unclear -- I made sure to not use a nym that doesn't include my legal name, for privacy -- I could have been much more detailed :-)
- ForHackernews 4y ago
  > Happy to reply again if the above is unclear ... > Then they'd refuse to hire me, refuse to address the issues I discussed, and then sometimes one of the interviewers would pass that information to the Russians or Chinese leading to a massive break ala OPM or Solarwinds even after Senator Wyden sent Chris Soghoian or someone of similar skill adjacent to the Omnidynar group to go ask some hard questions. This paragraph is exceedingly unclear and may hint at the reasons why you are struggling to get hired. This reads as some mix of narcissistic personality disorder / conspiratorial thinking. You write like a native (or near-native) English speaker, but your composition is all over the place. I don't mean this unkindly, but have you ever spoken with a mental health professional? Many technical folks are neuroatypical and this can sometimes be a barrier to traditional stable employment.
  - jstarfish 4y ago
    I get the impression they are being deliberately obtuse, but that's not uncommon in this field (to be fair, so is schizophrenia/NPD). This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them. Snowden would receive the same treatment.
    - ForHackernews 4y ago
      > This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility... Hacker news does attract some singular individuals from time to time, but I would suggest the more plausible scenario is that this person has untreated mental health issues.
    - dontbenebby 4y ago
      Deliberately obtuse. Also schitzophrenia and NPD are... not remotely similar. You probably shouldn't risk a slander lawsuit if you're so uneducated on diagnoses, paired with never having met me. Now, bristly replying aside: I also DO have anxiety, and wrote my comments earlier after too much caffeine. >This individual claims to be somehow involved in two high-profile national security incidents. It's not beyond plausibility that they are being exploited for information by companies who don't want to be seen associating with them. To give a real world example: one of the reasons I was pushed out of an NGO is I annoyed the lawyers pushing them to put MFA on their email accounts. Later we were one of the few not to be penetrated by the Russians... digitally... but when I watched that one Mr. Robot plotline where the one agent is increasingly unclear why her supervisor is not taking her concerns seriously, she finds out they are an agent of a foreign power. Also I did a master's thesis on anonymity technology, so obligatory "it's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you". >Snowden would receive the same treatment. Snowden is stuck in Russia, a totalitarian hellhole. I live here, in the Paris of Appalachia, where I wander around sipping cortados and banging hipsters. We are not the same. What often happens is I get a mix of people who respond in good faith (have no idea who the hell I am), paired with those who do, and say things in bad faith about my mental health. (Reoccuring income would solve those issues overnight, email if you want a CV. I'm a decent pentester, can code in languages like Python and bash, and have an OSINT certification from Bellingcat.) But often since my skills are more... qualitative (eg: I cannot write exploits well), people schedule an interview to treat it like a free consulting session (ask the one question an FBI agent would have if they could supoena me slipped in with the rest to clear me as a suspect in some bullshit), then don't actually hire me on... and the cycle repeats in 3-6 months. Hence my supreme annoyance and occasional trolls. Oh -- almost forgot -- in addition to the above, years ago, before I was doing brain experiments on undergrads alongside former Israeli snipers, I was in therapy. I found out at that therapist's funeral that he was a member of a motorcycle club. So sometimes... odd people boosted me through my career in civil society, and sometimes it feels like when I hit a wall, it's because someone in the past was supporting me for unsavory reasons, and doesn't have a good explanation for the sudden shift in allegiance. I'm happy to explain further as needed, but all you really need to know is I ended up at a libertarian NGO despite being anything but, for reasons I don't fully understand, then got stranded in Appalachia by people who never want to admit they're wrong, even as I turn on the TV and see teachers who used to claim I was a menace to society running up on the capital. TL;DR: I'm anxious because I'm a skinhead, in the antiracist sense, and a leftist, and the people who could assist me in my goal of being independent choose not to. I could join a firm like Mandiant or whatever tomorrow, be assigned some work, and be off HN and happy, but folks make the emotional decision to not allow me to do that, despite very clearly being qualified to, then question the mental health of a first generation PhD student with a dwindling bank account. Any other questions? :-)