Reddit mentions of The Trusted Advisor

Most current information you are going to want to read online. There is no substitute for that. The books I'm currently reading through are:

The Web Application Hacker's Handbook 2nd Ed

The Tangled Web

Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide

Webbots, Spiders and Screen Scrapers

NoStarchPress fanboy all the way :)

Keep in mind, though, that the technical requirements are only half of being employable. You also need to be a good employee, who can work with the client and keep them satisfied. For those, I recommend:

True Professionalism

Trusted Advisor

Start by being viewed as an advisor instead of a supplemental worker.

Two things - Immediate term and long term:

Immediate term:

It sounds like she has a vision she wants executed. She's already mapped out how it should go in her mind, and doesn't know you / trust you well enough to allow you to have input into designing the plan. The real question is why she's bringing in your consulting firm to execute instead of having her staff do it.

Does she have staffing issues and her team is already at capacity? Is she looking for a scapegoat in case the project goes poorly (e.g. "Boutique Public Sector Consulting firm said we should do it this way! Blame them, not me!")

Long term:

You need to be viewed as more that someone who will execute on the vision. You need to be viewed as someone who's input is valued and important. You need to be someone the minister can trust. How you do that is way beyond the scope of a reddit post. Read this book instead:

The Trusted Advisor
Link: http://amzn.com/0743212347

The Trusted Advisor

Yeah, this book is called "The Trusted Advisor."

I have a few recommendations for you:


Master the Business of Photography with Sal Cincotta: This class will give you a good primer on the business side.


Build Your Lighting Knowledge with Peter Hurley: Peter will teach you simple lighting setup and whatnot.


Because I like books, I'll recomend some as well.

• Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington
  
  
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  
  
• The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister
  
  
• Ziglar on Selling: The Ultimate Handbook for the Complete Sales Professional by Zig Ziglar
  
  
  Beyond that: practice, practice, practice.

>Really? I'm looking to get into network security architecture with the goal of obtaining enough experience to start up a security focused MSP for small to medium businesses.

Good luck (I mean that) with starting up a company especially in security it can be hard to establish trust to get the first work. I don't really have much experience starting a business in the field (I was a magician previously though so I have managed clients) but one book I was to read when I started working in security was The Trusted Advisor
https://www.amazon.com/Trusted-Advisor-David-H-Maister/dp/0743212347 which has had an impact on my work as a consultant, you might find some value in it.

I work on the 'other side' writing software exploits so I can't comment on much specially, just once again, good luck.