u/MohnJaddenPowers

I've been in IT for 24 years. The last 8 years have been pretty much all Azure cloud engineering. I'm thinking of pivoting into infosec since I have a couple of current CISSP holders who can vouch for me and the security related projects I've worked on in those last 8 years. I also recently got my MS Certified Azure Cybersecurity Architect cert and have an older Security+ that's still active.

I'm studying for the exam but I'm curious for how others have made this kind of career change. My hope is to be hands-on-keyboard in Azure, not so much a "thought leader". I want to be the one who says "look, this has to happen for our compliance requirements, I'll help with the work, let's get it done" and actually work on the Azure parts. It's what I do well, but since it's getting tougher to find Azure cloud engineering roles, this seems like a natural move.

Has anyone else done this? What was your pivot like? I'm guessing I'll have some serious resume re-architecting to do in order to highlight what I did for infosec projects as opposed to business as usual, but what else should I be prepared to do? Is it realistic to go from senior cloud engineer to senior cloud security engineer or am I facing pay cuts to start from junior level?

I've been in IT for the last 24ish years - started from the helpdesk, got experience and certs, fits and starts, etc. I've been doing Azure cloud engineering for the last 8ish years.

In my previous job, I was asked to spin up an Azure Databricks test environment for our data science/data engineering teams. It grew, it got more mature, and by the end of my time there I was doing a lot of the administrative stuff - cluster policies, cost management, provisioning through SCIM, and the occasional technical question. I don't really have a background in databases or development; I've never written anything in Python or my own SQL queries but I've had plenty of situations where a dev/DBA would walk me through their code or query and show me what it did, after which point I'd break it down for troubleshooting.

My current role with Microsoft has a subject matter expert team in Azure Databricks. I joined up with the team, had a lot of training on how the back end operates and how the data science/eng functionality works with Python and otherwise. I've been taking tickets with this SME team and done pretty well. I took the beta exam for the DP-750 Azure Databricks data engineering cert and just found out yesterday that I passed.

Cloud engineering has become a lot less lucrative or Azure-focused as it was a few years ago and I've been exploring pivoting into different parts of IT. Apparently I know Databricks decently, but I know that's not nearly enough to find a data engineering role.

Has anyone else been in this situation? How did you make your pivot? Did you take on projects in your current roles and spin them on your CV as data engineering work? Did you take your experience with DevOps pipelines and parlay it over to ETL pipelines? Any guidance or input would be much appreciated.

I've been in IT about 24 years, cloud engineering for 8 of them. I'm thinking of pivoting into security and looking at the CISSP. I have two CISSPs that'll endorse me and I'm told my previous jobs dealt with enough infosec to qualify for the 5 year requirement. I've also got the MS Certified Cybersecurity Architect cert (SC-100).

The issue is that my company won't pay for the CISSP or CE courses. It's a bit pricey to stare down $1000 for the exam + Peace of Mind, $135 membership fee, and now the cost of CE courses. Webinars look like they only count for 1 CE credit, and not all of them seem to carry it.

How much do you all spend either out of pocket or expensed to meet 40 CE credits per year? If I'm looking at doing all this on my own dime, and still have to figure out how to redo my entire resume to focus on any security-related projects and such, I want to at least get an accurate idea of actual costs.

Does anyone happen to have an STL or STEP file of the mount plate on an X7? I'd like to add on a servo pen holder to use mine as a pen plotter, and I'd like to get the pattern of the screw holes and slider so I can swap it with the laser. If anyone has the file, I can use Tinkercad to do the designing part pretty quickly.

I've implemented the Harry Plotter setup and it's velcro'd to the side of the laser but that's not really stable enough for pen plotter work.

I'm doing some vector traces of an Assault Gunboat (XG-1 Star Wing for the Armada and X-wing tabletop crew) and I wanted to put in some Aurebesh text for specs. I'm going to run it through a pen plotter, so I'd need a single-stroke font to ensure it draws each character individually rather than as a series of vectors. Boldface won't do the trick, it would just be a drawn-in scribble with the pen which would gum up the gel ink.

Does anyone know of such a font that exists as a TTF? It's for personal use but I don't mind paying a few bucks for it.

I'm a newbie with vector art and Inkscape. I'm using it to make blueprints. For some blueprints, it's fully symmetrical, and when I copy/paste paths, they don't always join at cusp nodes or endpoints, so it messes them up when I run them through a pen plotter.

Is there some way for me to draw a shape, specify end points/cusp nodes, and designate any and all paths I draw to automatically spawn at their mirror image at the other end of the shape while still joining paths together?

For example - the rectangle here would have all the paths spawn and connect as they go, forming a mirror image on the other side:

https://preview.redd.it/s7zmqfyw40zg1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=51830b2bcffb47ccd975df1b7374d7081524a439

I have some Nema17 steppers I took off a 3D printer. They have fully round shafts, not the D shape. I want to repurpose them but all the pulleys for other designs call for D shape shafts so the pulley grub screws can align properly.

How do I reuse these? Just glue the pulleys on once they're in place?

I'll be at Micro Center today anyway, worth an ask.

I have an Atomstack X7. I put a Harry Plotter pen holder onto it as a proof of concept for pen plotting. So far it works well enough but I lose about 50mm of working area given how it attaches to the side of the laser module.

Has anyone ever found a 3d printable or laser cut centric replacement for the laser module? The Atomstack laser can unscrew off but it's got some kind of slider that it attaches back onto, and none of the pen holders I've seen attach back onto it.

Mods please feel free to delete if this wasn't kosher, I didn't see any rules prohibiting this type of post.

I've futzed with plotting via my MPCNC and a Harry Plotter add-on to my Atomstack engraver. I think I'm at the point where I want a dedicated plotter and was hoping to find one secondhand. The market is quite thin for known good plotters that are A3 size, so I was wondering if anyone here was looking to sell one.

I was hoping to spend $300 ish plus or minus, local pickup in northern NJ or I'd pay for shipping.

Ebay doesn't have anything reliable in my price range and I'd rather avoid the Aliexpress ones unless anyone can vouch for one directly.

I came across an Ender 3 Pro for parts locally for super cheap. I was hoping to use the frame, steppers, V-rollers, and any other parts and components to make a pen plotter. There's a few designs out there which use some of the parts but then call for others - mostly linear rods and LM8UU bearings.

Is anyone aware of a design for a plotter that hinges entirely on Ender 3 parts? Laser engravers like Atomstack use what looks like the same steppers, idlers, rollers, pulleys, etc. but I can't find anything that has a complete BOM or usable files.

I have another 3D printer, CNC, and laser engraver so I can make parts as needed, but I was hoping to keep extra purchases down and have an existing guide rather than invent stuff.

Anyone know of anything like this?

I've been futzing with my CNC machine and laser engraver and white gel ink pens on blue paper to make blueprints. It's a bit mechanically frustrating. Apparently they make cyanotype paper in the size I need and I'm open to giving it a shot.

I'd need to plot or print on some kind of transparency film to make this happen. Has anyone ever done this before, preferably with technical pens, 0.7mm black ink pens, or Sharpies? I should be able to use those in my CNC or engraver without the same issues that have plagued white gel ink pens. Any recs for transparency film on which to print would be super helpful as well.