Why? A very good friend of mine (@carnal0wnage) has taught me a lot of valuable lessons in my life, a recent one is how there is enough good to go around for everyone. Just because someone got X (that job, bonus, or ShmooCon ticket (sales go live this Friday)) doesn't mean you can't get X too or Y (well, not sure if that applies to ShmooCon). Anyways, I have personally and professionally had so many great opportunities in my career so far that has propelled me into where I am today (not saying I didn't work my butt off for them, but luck and life played parts as well). So, in honor of that lesson and as a thanks to the universe for my success this is what I'm doing.
While I won't do any background checks or OSINT on you, if you could easily pay for the OSCP yourself please don't apply, everyone else is more than welcome.
Note: These vouchers expire in 9 months, so if you aren't going to be ready to start the labs within that time perioud please do not apply (I believe they give you a while before you have to take the test after the labs so don't worry much about that)
I personally put four traits above all else (for myself):
- Respect (of time - it's the one resource none of us can add to).
- Perseverance (and knowing when to move on)
- Humility (not self-deprecation)
- Resourcefulness (to be good at infosec you need to have eyes wide open and see everything as a resource, just like movie spies using a bread pan to fight off a skilled knife fighter)
So the three people who demonstrate those three traits through the following challenges will win the vouchers.
Challenge 1: 2 (also known as "two", or II, два, dos, दो, zwei, or اثنان) Twitter direct messages (DMs are open so no requirement to follow) from people you have worked with (be it a professional environment, a project or CTF, etc). They need to tell me about you and why they think you'd need the PWK voucher. This challenge is about humility (to ask people to do this for you), respect for people's time (you need to let them know that you appreciate them taking the time out of their busy day to do this for you), and perseverance (finding two people to do this for you isn't always easy). If the people you have worked with don't have Twitter that's fine. Email: (mubix at hak5.org with subject line of: PWK Voucher Contest) - Remember to have them mention your twitter handle or however you are contacting me so I can correlate who they are talking about.
Challenge 2: Email or DM me one infosec topic you are passionate about (no length requirement, but it needs to be long enough for me to understand that you have the drive and passion to complete the PWK/OSCP). Topics can be as broad or as specific as you want.
Challenge 3: If you complete Challenge 1 and 2, I will pose a technical question to you, one I would ask in an interview. No rules apply here (other than, you know, laws... and common decency but the questions shouldn't steer you in that direction anyways)
- If you have more than 2 endorsements sent to me I will assume you don't respect my time and disqualify you due to the tenants of the contest. I am a single person looking through every person's submissions in this contest. I don't have infinite time to do so.
- If you cannot seem to follow the directions as they are laid out in the above document, you will be disqualified. Read carefully.
- Random mentions sent to me on Twitter are not Direct Messages, people vouching for you, or endorsements this way will be ignored and not count towards your contest submissions.
Note: "Person X asked me to shoot you a DM endorsing them for the contest you are running. This is that DM" is not a ringing endorsement. If you put half an effort into asking for endorsements, those who endorse you will probably do the same. Just an FYI.
Really cool man. I applied.