Jobs as a Hacker

[LupoBHS]

Hello, I have one question. Can you get a job as a hacker?? and If so do you have to build a ton of reputation to get a job because I have heard you need big reputation in the hacker world and what is the top salary of a hacker? I read the topic on the forum, Who wants to learn to program viewtopic.php?f=36&t=853 and I read the article how to become a hacker, http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html , and I was truly inspired and did what the articles suggested by starting with Python and I decided that hacking is definantly something I want to do for the rest of my life but I want to make sure I can support my wife and kids while doing what I love.

[thedotmaster]

Hm well it depends what you mean by hacker. If you mean penetrating and gaining unauthorised permission to websites/servers then you can get a job working for the CIA/FBI or (in the UK) MI5/MI6/GCHQ.
However generally you'd need a Harvard/Yale/MIT/Oxford/Cambridge degree.

True hacking though cannot be done as a job. A paid hacker is sort of an oxymoron now (hackers at MIT in the 60s were paid around $1-2 per hour for things they'd have done anyway, but as research). I recommend reading Steven Levy's 'Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution'.