Here is the roadmap to get started in it in 2025, and it's been two years since I've made a video on this. Some things have changed, but first let's talk about what hasn't changed. This roadmap is aimed at getting you a job in it fast and on the path to landing your dream job. Six figures is absolutely within reach and you'll be surprised at how fast you can get there. No gimmicks. No shortcuts, just hard work on a clear path and also no college. You don't need it. Now,
similar to our last roadmap, the first three phases are for you. They're for everyone. The skills you learn here are foundational to it no matter what path you go down, but after that, the world is your oyster.
What I mean is that you can go down many different paths. I can't cover them all here, but I will be talking about one of the most exciting ones, the coolest ones, the ones you see on tv. Cybersecurity specifically. How do you become a hacker? Ethically, of course, and also, please know this may be a roadmap, but you don't necessarily have to drive all the way down in the same order. In fact, you may find a shortcut. We'll talk more about that later. And just so you know, this roadmap is hacker approved.
John Hammond looked at it and said, yes. This is John Hammond approved. So here we go. Phase one. Actually, no, no Phase zero. Yeah, we're doing things different this year and this might feel weird for phase zero. I want you to start applying for jobs right now.
I don't care that you know nothing. That's okay. I get it. It feels a bit cart before horse, but lemme tell you, you don't need IT skills to get that first job in it. Now I know many of these entry-level IT help desk jobs. It seems like they're asking for a lot. Look at this one, a help desk specialist in Houston, Texas.
They want you to have a year experience. They want you to have some strong technical skills already, but really all they care about is excellent customer service skills. Trust me. Alright, come here. Can I tell you a secret?
I got my first IT job without a certification to my name or really any IT skills, but I did have some fast food job experience and I was hungry not for fast food but for IT, for learning and proving that I could be of value to that company. Now, the reason I want you to apply for IT help desk or technical support roles is that it's the first job for most people in it. It's entry level. Can you skip it? It's possible. In fact, I encourage you to apply for jobs above that.
It's not going to hurt anything and you never know, but if you're fresh green, just getting started, help desk is an amazing place to be. You'll learn so much and you're not going to be there for very long unless you want to be. Help desk is pretty fun. At that point, it was the best job I ever had.
I actually had fun going to work and I really didn't want to leave. So right now, if you want to get started in it, polish up that resume for what you want to do, not what you have done. Tailor your experience to be very IT focused. For example, I worked at Starbucks, but you better believe on that resume I put on there, I fix their printer all the time. I was the guy they would go to Chuck,
the printer's broken again. I got you guys also on my resume. I was very upfront about what I was working towards, what I was studying. We'll talk about that here in a moment and if you want examples of what that might look like, I do have a video where I broke down some really awesome resumes and reviewed some LinkedIn profiles. Check those out here somewhere. The holdup. Why are we doing this? Why are we getting a job immediately before we learn anything? This reason, experience is king. It's gold.
Nothing looks better on your resume than experience. Also, what you learn on that job will be more valuable than anything else you study. So phase zero, polish up that resume and make your LinkedIn profile look awesome. Start applying for jobs right now, right after this video. Seriously,
it'll take you a couple hours and maintain a habit of regularly applying for jobs until you get that job. And guess what? It's okay if you don't get it. It's okay if you go on an interview and you fail. You're learning so much in this process and you're meeting people also just going through all these different jobs and seeing the descriptions and what they're looking for will teach you a lot. And also kind of a footnote,
one more thing you want to do is start networking the social kind, acquaint yourself with the IT world. Start following people on Twitter and get into Discord and start talking to people who are like you, who are studying. Start talking to people who are above you, who are mentors. The old adage is true. It's not what it's who. Most of the jobs I've gotten have been through relationships that I've built.
I know phase zero is weird. Might feel like a waste of time right now because all you want to do is learn it because it's awesome. Don't skip this if you're serious. So if you're in a place right now to where you can get a job and start working in it, if that's really what you want to do, phase zero, man, say it with me.
Phase zero. Sorry, phase one now I don't want you to move on until you've applied for at least two jobs. Also, leave a comment below if you get a job. Oh, I'd be so excited to hear that and how encouraging will that be for other people? Just do that. Now, phase one compared to my last video in 2023, it's changed a little bit, but it's still going to be about foundations developing those core IT skills. Now I'm a big believer in IT certifications and what they can do for your career. You'll see many of these on the roadmap. The first one I recommend for foundations is the compt A plus.
This essentially is the help desk certification that's going to help you land that first job. Can you skip it? We'll talk about that here in a second, but here's what you're going to learn and actually there's a new one they just came out with launching Spring 2025 exciting. But the A plus is an IT buffet. They're going to teach you so many things, which is great because when you first get started in it, you may not know which path you want to go down and there are a billion paths.
The a plus gives you a chance to sample everything. Programming may be a bit dry, but networking is delicious and you'll never know until you try it. Now for most people, getting the A plus certification is not easy. It's a lot of information contained in two exams each costing you $253 and yes, that's per exam and that's for the current exams. I'm not sure what the 2025 exams will cost. We'll see. Now I know for someone just starting out, this is a lot and that was the case for me.
I even failed one exam and had to retake it paying more money. That hurt. So it begs the question, is this worth it? Do you actually need the exam? Can't you just go study the knowledge, learn it, save some money? Yeah, you can, but here's the problem. How are you going to prove that knowledge? How are you going to prove that to the hiring manager? That's what the a plus is for. Compt has done all the marketing for you. They tell people, Hey, if someone has this cert, they know everything. So hr, all they have to do is go, oh, Aaron has the a plus.
He can probably do this help desk job. It gets you past that HR filter. So TLDR, you need the knowledge certification. It's optional, but it'll help you get that foot in the door and land that first job.
Now how do you get the A plus? Where do you learn this stuff from? There are free and paid options for free. You can't beat Professor Messer. He has an entire A plus course on YouTube. You can watch it right now. Now for a paid option, there's IT Pro tv, which I love. Link below. Actually now it's called IT Pro and also this will be a shameless plug for me. I'm building something which means it's not done yet, but it's going to be kind of different. You'll see. Just keep in mind,
it is still in the building phase and part of this new thing, my academy, there'll be an entire CompTIA a plus course, a training series that I'm pouring my blood, sweat, and coffee into. It's something that I wish would've been around when I first started my IT career and started learning. So if you like to start studying this as we're building it, check it out. Link below. It's currently 12 bucks a month and every penny is going towards making this thing awesome. And yes, I will be covering the 2025 compt a plus exams.
Now the goal with phase one is to get your a plus or at least equivalent knowledge, but we're not quite done yet. This is where my roadmap's going to start being a little weird compared to 2023, and by weird I mean awesome. Now this is optional because I don't want you to be overwhelmed, but while you're studying for your A plus, I want you to start learning Linux and not just Linux. I want you to start learning coding as well, specifically either Python or go Python's the favorite. So I go with that Python, I don't want to be confusing. Now again, getting the A plus is still your main focus, but I want you to start becoming familiar with Linux and Python.
Now what does that look like? How are you going to do that? Start simple. Maybe one day a week. Saturdays you'll spend 30 minutes learning Linux and 30 minutes learning Python or an hour each, two hours each. I don't really care what you do as long as you do something.
Now where do you learn? What are the resources? There are a bajillion out there for Linux. I have a free Linux for Hackers course. You could watch one episode a week for Python. I have a Python for everyone. Course these are both free on YouTube by the way. Now why Linux and coding? Well, you're going to see this everywhere at every step of your journey, start learning it now again, even if it's just a little bit. Now we're not done with phase one yet. You thought we were.
We're not also in phase one. I want you to start building out your home lab. This is where you get a chance to put into practice everything you're learning. Don't just learn the theory, take notes and memorize things. No,
do the things. For example, when you're learning about virtual machines in the a plus in your home lab, install virtual box and set up a virtual machine. Install Ubuntu as part of your Linux practice. When you're learning about networks, install a router in your house. Replace your home router with PF sense. Install a DNS server.
Most if not all of these things can be done for free and it's going to be this. Check this out. I call these projects resume building moments because you know what else you're going to be doing in phase one. You're going to be applying for jobs if you don't already have one.
Keep applying. Keep refining your resume. When you deploy a DNS server into your home, put on your resume a project that you deployed a DNS server into your house. That's cool. That's real tech, that's real it lemme tell you,
if you have a home lab, you look good. That communicates passion and drive. Man. When I saw resumes or people were putting their own projects in their house on their resume, I love hiring those types of people that they are passionate about this. Even when they go home, I know they're going to be thinking about this stuff and learning and growing. That's what employers want and that's surprisingly hard to hire for.
So if you can demonstrate that, oh my gosh. Now I know phase one, that's a luck, right? Feel free to cut some things out. If all you can manage is the a plus during this time, that's fine. You can do these in order. Finish your A plus the Newsome, Lins and Python,
implement some home lab ideas. It's up to you where you can do it all within one week. Now to fully graduate from phase one, I'm estimating it'll take you roughly two to three months. Of course this will vary based on your life, your schedule, how much time you have, but if you work hard, you can do it, but two to three months if you maintain a pretty consistent study schedule should be good. Now on to phase two. Yes, we're finally moving on to phase two. I know phase two is all about dipping your toes in the security water. It's kind of a cool brand name dibs.
The focal point of this phase is gaining the security plus from CompTIA. Yes, another IT certification, but this thing looks really, really good on your resume, similar to the A plus, the security plus will teach you a ton of information, but here it's security focused. They might be thinking, Chuck, I'm not going into hacking. I don't want to be a security expert. Why do I have to learn this? Listen, security will be part of every IT role you have. The more you know about it, the better. And for phase two, we're not going super deep into security, but we're giving you enough knowledge and enough credentials to find in land an amazing job. Now, why security plus why another certification?
This looker is going to do two things for you. Knowledge, there's a ton of it. This is a security buffet and similar to the a plus, you're going to find out about roles and paths, but just cybersecurity that you didn't know existed. It's a big world. Number two, this is definitely a checkbox cert. What does that mean? A lot of companies want you to have this. In fact, this is one of the most popular certs for people who want to work for the government in any capacity because it satisfies the DOD 85 70 directive, which lays out the minimum requirements for IT and cybersecurity roles.
The security plus is the easiest way to check that box. You'll find that most roles just want you to have it by default. Currently the security plus will cost you $404 and that's just one exam. And again, yes, you can learn the knowledge within the security plus without getting the certification, but the certification looks really good on your resume. Now where can you study for the security? Plus again, free and paid options, free Professor master coming in, he has an entire security plus course for free on YouTube for a paid option. I do recommend it Pro and know they're not sponsoring this video.
I just really do like them. And full disclosure, the link below will be an affiliate link, meaning that when you sign up you don't pay anymore, but I do get a small kickback for telling you about 'em. Now while the focal point of phase two is security, plus there's going to be more Linux. Linux becomes very, very important in this phase. And because we're in the security phase,
let's have you do some Linux that's security focused. There's a free site called Over the wire. This place is amazing and they have a path called Bandit, which when you go through it will teach you a ton of Linux basics. It's amazing, very, very fun. Check it out. Also in this phase, no surprise is more coding Python at this phase, keep learning the basics, but then I want you to challenge yourself to build some kind of thing, a project. Think something that you could add to your resume. Another resume building moment. One idea is to build a simple network scanner,
scan your network and look for open ports using Python. And again, similar to phase one, don't stress about the Python and Linux side of things. Focus on security plus get that on your resume. But if can, if it doesn't overwhelm you, one to two hours a week more. If you're crazy, the more Linux and Python you learn, the better It's going to be awesome for you. And at this point I'm going to start sounding like a broken record.
Do some home lab stuff, what you're learning in the security plus what you're learning through Linux and Python. Do some things in your home lab. Automate some things with Linux and Python. Get on YouTube and look for fun projects. I do all kinds of stuff in the home lab. Just do something and add it to your resume. And finally, keep applying for stinking jobs if you don't already have one.
And always keep that resume up to date. This space should roughly take you two to three months and I know what you're probably thinking. I would be thinking the same thing. Chuck, you're being very vague about how much Linux and Python to learn. How much do I do in my home lab? I'm doing that on purpose. I don't want to overwhelm you also, that would make this video way too long. But if you'd like me to make a more detailed roadmap where I'm like at this point do this project, at this point you should know this much Python.
If you'd like to see that, let me know. That may be a video I make in the future. So phase two, two to three months, which of course will be determined by how much time you have and other variables.
It's time for a coffee break and this coffee break in this video is sponsored by Bamboo Labs, which I'm actually really excited to talk about because I've been using Bamboo Labs forever. They're one of the first 3D printers I ever bought. And the reason I'm excited is because they're going to help you with your resume building moments, the chance for you to shine and show off your home labs. I got into 3D printing about maybe two, three years ago and I bought this 3D printer. I hated it. Took me forever to set up, almost pulled out my beard, thank goodness I didn't.
And the printing was slow, so I'm like there's got to be something better. And that's when I found Bamboo Labs. I bought this one. I don't think I worked for two weeks. I would just stand there and watch things. Print Bamboo Labs is one of those ones that it's advanced enough to make you excited about diving deeper, but it's simple enough for anyone to approach it. Like someone in my church, he just bought a 3D printer for his kids.
They set it up and just started printing everything. In fact, they bought this one here. The Bamboo Labs a one combo. This thing is ridiculous, super fast, easy to set up.
My team can set it up and they're not the most technical people. They're working on it. And the deal on this thing at the time of this video, it's $489 for the printer and then this a MS light. What that means is that you can do multicolor prints, you can design your model, slice it with a bunch of colors and it'll just change it out for you. Now back to home lab stuff. You can make your home lab that much more great.
Make your resume building moments a bit prettier, a bit more functional with a 3D printer. So when I did my travel mass video, I needed something that would house all my stuff, my SSDs and everything printed that sucker. And then me and my team 3D printed a few more things just to give you some ideas. This raspberry pie case, sure you can buy a case online, but making your own, printing your own, that's way cooler. It's SSD Mount for maybe whatever server you're going to be building, not as flashy but functional. This SD card holder, I've actually printed a few of these in the past.
We legit use these every day and as you're building out your home lab, you'll probably end up having a rack. So you'll want to rack mount your raspberry pie, print that and check this out. They have this thing called Maker World. It's a world full of things you can print and what makes it special is that when you select one of these, you don't have to change any of the settings or alter it for your specific printer, which you used to have to do. No, you just select your printer and the settings are already there.
So thanks again to Bamboo Labs for sponsoring this video. If you want this A one combo, check out my link below and now back to the roadmap. Now before we move on to phase three, just know that in phase one and phase two should also be continuing with networking, social networking, keep talking to people, keep rubbing shoulders. Again, you never know who is going to be responsible for getting you that next job, make friends, make contacts. Now speaking of networking,
let's talk about phase three. It's all networking. My favorite part, networking is the bread and butter of it. You have to know it and when you get into it, you'll find out that you love to know it. Networking is the best part. I know it's completely subjective and I'm completely biased. Network, Chuck. I mean you saw it coming, right? But you don't want to skip this.
It's like eating your vegetables, except these vegetables are delicious. Now with networking similar to our other phases, we're going to focus on a certification here. We actually have a couple of options. Now, if you saw my last video, there won't be a big surprise here. My favorite networking certification is the Cisco CNA.
This sucker right here is probably one of the best certifications you can get and put on your resume period. This chumps 'em all at this level. Anyway, employers love this one. It's the gold standard, but there is another option I want to shout out. And that's the CompTIA Network.
Plus it's another very, very popular networking certification. Now, why would you choose one over the other? Well, Cisco, it's harder. It's going to take you more time, take you more study, it might kick your butt a bit more. But the CNA is more valuable probably because it's harder and demonstrates practical skills. And one of the reasons it's so practical is because it's Cisco focused with the certification, you're going to learn networking inside and out, but you're also going to be learning how to use Cisco products, their CLI. You'll be learning about their automation products, their security products.
So this is the no-brainer if you're going to go down the network engineering path or network admin path. But if you're going somewhere else, CNA might be a bit too much for you. That's where the Network plus comes in. It's vendor neutral so you're not focusing on any one vendor and you'll still pick up networking knowledge, learning what a router is, a switch subnetting, they'll both look great on your resume. CCNA will make you look better. Also, it will only help you to know how to use Cisco stuff because Cisco is everywhere. A ton of companies use them. They have been dominant for a long time. Let's talk about pricing.
The Network plus will cost you $369. It is one exam and the CCNA will cost you $300. So it actually is the better deal even though it's harder. Now, where do you go to learn? Where can you learn this stuff for Network Plus, similar to the other CompTIA certifications, professor Messer co and Clutch has a free network plus course on YouTube for paid IT Pro has a pretty good network plus course. And then for the CC NA, I'm actually really excited to tell you about this.
There is a and paid option free. There's a channel called Jeremy's, IT Labs on YouTube and he has an entire course CCNA for free, which is kind of insane because the CC NA is very, very hard to teach. It's a lot of content. And Jeremy's a friend of mine, he's an awesome dude.
He also lives in Japan, which is very cool. After the paid option, this is what I'm excited about. I mentioned my academy earlier, my new thing, I'm building the thing that's going to be different. Well, I'm not building it alone and I don't think I've publicly announced this to anyone yet. So you're first to hear, I've partnered with a guy who taught me networking. That's where I learned everything.
I know he's the guy who got me so excited about it and really he's responsible for what I'm doing today. His name is Jeremy Charra. He's A-C-C-I-E. Incredible teacher. He's where I learned how to teach and he has created the most amazing CCNA course, the best one he's ever made on our academy. So similar to the A plus, it is currently on the academy. We're still in our building phase, but you can go there right now and become part of this as we're building it. But please keep in mind disclaimer, it's not completely ready yet.
We're building it, but I would love for you to come check it out and become part of what we're doing. It is going to be something different. That's all I can tell you now. So pick your poison CC A or Network Plus, and then you probably saw this coming more Python and more Linux. And in the networking phase, try to make your Linux and Python study be networking focused. A big part of the Cisco CC NA is network automation, which largely involves doing things with Python, logging into routers and switches and automating things they can do.
It's very fun. Set aside two to three hours a week and just spend time with it. Continue to get familiar with the Linux terminal programming and Python and just let those skills compliment the main focus, which here is networking. Again, doing this is going to make you super human. You're going to be amazing. I mean you already are, but this will make you that much better.
And of course in this phase we'll be doing more home. But here I want to give you a challenge. We mentioned in phase one, replacing your router with PF sense as an option. And this phase, I want to challenge you to actually do this. This is your homework. Replace your home network with another network.
This could be buying old Cisco stuff off eBay. This could be putting a PF sense router in installing Unify. And then I want you to do things like monitor your network, monitor your internet quality, be really nerdy about it, and then all that stuff you're doing, slap that onto a resume and keep applying for jobs. And then of course,
keep networking. Keep talking to people. Keep hanging out. Now how long this phase will take you depends on your certification choice. Did you choose CCNA? Did you choose Network plus CCNA will obviously take longer because it is harder. I would estimate two to four months to complete phase three,
leaning more on the four month range. If we're talking about CNA, this is a very aggressive timeline, being very consistent with your study, don't feel bad if you have to extend this out. Just put a date in there, be consistent. Show up every day. Now if you get to phase three and you're done, you're amazing. You've laid the most incredible IT foundation and from here you can go anywhere, pick any path. I believe you'll succeed. You'll be a rock star. But before you go anywhere else, before you jump into a new learning path, we've got just a little bitty phase to make sure you're where you need to be.
And that's phase 3.5. What? Yeah, no track. Track with me here. We're going to come down here and go to phase 3.5. It looks so weird. 3.5 this phase is called get that job. If you don't have a job by this point, then I want your full-time study to be get a job because if you've gone through phase one, two, and three, you've got more than enough to land a job and don't beat yourself down. If you haven't gotten a job yet, that's fine. I just wouldn't go any further. I would pour all of your efforts into doing this. So keep learning,
keep building up your skillset. Keep sharpening the skills you've learned and keep adding to your home lab. Keep doing labs and projects. Keep adding to your resume. Keep applying for jobs, keep going to interviews, practice, keep networking.
The whole point of all of this is to get you a job and frankly, when you're at the point of phase 3.5, you can apply for many, many types of jobs. The CNA, you look really good. And if you've got the security plus and a plus and you've got Python and Linux and you've been adding to your resume with projects, you look really good, entry-level beginner and intermediate jobs, you can apply for those and you're competitive. Now after phase 3.5, pick your path. There are a billion.
Hopefully by this time you've kind of figured out what you like or what you want to be. You may have fallen in love with security. Maybe networking was your calling system. Administration. You learn some things about cloud and cloud sounds awesome. Go do that.
These are all different paths that'll have different requirements and alas, I cannot cover them all. Did I just say alas? I did. I'm going with it. But if you do want me to cover others, let me know in the comments below. Right now I'm going to cover one path that is special to me because I'm going down it right now. And that's the hacking path, specifically offensive security or otherwise known as red teaming.
Ethical hacking pen testing. It has many names. It's the flashy stuff you always hear about. It is very cool. It's not the only path in cybersecurity, it's just one of many, but it's the most popular. You hear about learning.
Hacking is a whole journey in and of itself. But to get started, which is I'm going to be able to show you, it would take forever. I would target a cert, no surprise here. And actually three different certs. I would start out with a junior level cert. A couple I love are the EJPT or the pen test Plus, they're easier, more approachable, and it'll dip your toe into what it means to be an ethical hacker, which is a different mindset. Like yes, to be a hacker, you have to know phase one, two, and three.
All the skills you learn in those phases will be used the opposite way. Normally you're learning how to build it, protect it, defend it. Now you're having to reverse that thinking and go, Hey, how can I break it? The EJPT will be $249 including training for three months through INE because they run and operate the EJPT. And I believe you get two attempts, which is kind of awesome.
And if I had to choose between the PEN Test Plus and EJPT, I'd probably choose the EJPT. The PEN test plus will be $381, not including training, but it is a bit more well known. So if you're looking to put something on your resume, that will look good. Now I'm going to say this. There's only one hacking, sir, I'm going to list here that will actually look good on your resume. That will actually make people go, oh, they know what they're talking about.
Or at least they're starting to. The next one I would get the next phase of your journey would be the CPTS or the Certified Penetration Testing Specialist from Hack the Box. This is the one I'm working on right now. The CPTS is interesting because you do have to go through the Hack the Box Academy modules to complete it. That's what they tell you. I feel like. What is Hack the Box? Oh, if you want to become a hacker, this is the place you want to be.
Before they have their academy and their own certification, they were the place to go to practice hacking. They would create boxes that you can literally hack. It's very gamified, very fun. So when they created their own academy and then a certification to go along with it, oh, I'm down. I've been a fan for a very long time. I was trying to find the pricing therapist. $490.
I don't think that includes training. Lemme just find out. I think that's just for the voucher. Now the CPTS is fairly new, so it's not quite resume gold, not like the next one, which is probably the best hacking certification you can put on your resume, and that's the OSCP. Now, the OSCP is on my list to get, but I'm going with the CPTS first because it's a bit easier and I want to ease my way up to it. But for a long time, the OSEP has been the gold standard.
They do have their own official training course called the Pen 200, and they have an exam bundle that'll cost you roughly 1600 bucks. But that includes the course 90 days of lab access in one exam attempt, which is extremely practical along with the CPTS and EJBT. But I think the OSEP is probably the most practical, if not the most difficult.
Now at this phase, you're going to be using lots of Linux and potentially lots of Python. As you're going through these hacking certifications, you'll probably need a lot of these to be able to take the exam. What's interesting though is the OSCP has recently allowed you to use Chad GPT during the exam recognizing the fact that hey, modern engineers and modern hackers are going to have AI right there. Now this is just the very beginning of a red teaming journey.
Will this be enough to get you a job as a pin tester? I think so. Similar to the other phases, start applying immediately for what you want. Don't wait to get your first hacking certification. Just start applying and while you're applying, keep studying.
Now one note about this particular phase, the hacking phase. If you're confident you want to go down that, then I would also try to sprinkle in some more hacking CTFs or capture the flag events throughout your learning journey. There's an amazing free CTF software out there called PICO ctf. Very beginner friendly and you can interject that at any phase doing CTFs and labs that are pertinent to the phase you're at so you don't get overwhelmed. It could be part of your Linux learning, your Python learning and will give you a feel for what A CTF feels like, which if you're in the hacking realm, CTFs are how people practice their hacking skills.
It's a gamified attempt to hack something to capture a flag that's hidden behind security measures. But there is a vulnerability you have to exploit. Exploit. It's kind of funny. It's one of those words where you have to put emphasis on whether or not it's going to be a verb or a noun. It's weird. So here we are, the map phases one through three, that's for everyone.
Everyone in it will benefit from going through these phases and at every step be applying for a job, never wait to start earning experience. But now we're at the section where we're going to talk about shortcuts because not everyone's going to follow this roadmap sequentially, linearly. I mean initially you'll want to follow it just so because as a beginner you probably don't know much, but you may not be a beginner. So this roadmap, tailor it to you, make sure you have a good handle on the basics and the foundations.
But there are points where you could skip a phase. Like phase one, you might already know all this stuff. You've been playing with Linux and Python, you know how to build a pc. You've already got a home lab. Just start applying for jobs and move on to another phase.
Maybe you feel like you already know enough security, you don't need a certification, just skip ahead, jump into networking. Just keep in mind these certifications are there to make your resume look better. You don't need it to gain the knowledge, but you do need it to prove the knowledge in most cases. But it's up to you whether or not you want to skip any phase. Just know that. Let's say you skip phases one and two and you just go straight to CC NA when you get your CCC NA. No one cares if you have your A plus or your network. Plus all they see is the CCC NA and they assume that everything else or at least have passing knowledge. Also, keep in mind that when you get a job,
which again is the goal of every single step when you get a job that may change this roadmap for you. For example, you may apply for a job that you think you'll never get, like a SOC analyst job or a job in a knock and you're able to skip the help desk. And when you land that job, they may want you to learn something. They may want you to jump straight to the CNA cyber ops, which is a certification we didn't talk about because it is more specialist to blue Team Cybersecurity. But my point is that just change adapt to your circumstances and the opportunities that are presented to you.
Don't feel like you have to follow this just so, and when you get a chance to take a shortcut, take it now, I don't mean a shortcut to knowledge, always spend the time to learn something, but if you can jump into a job you're not ready for and they just hired you, do that, that's awesome. You can learn on the job. That's what most people do anyway. Now, what about college, university? I didn't mention any of this here. Are degrees worth it? Yes, they can be.
I didn't feature that on my roadmap because I'm a big fan of doing it this way. I don't have a degree. I didn't need one. But you might need one or want one, and that's totally fine. It will be valuable and it will open doors. It might be a very time consuming and expensive door, but it'll get you there. But keep this in mind. If you're going for an IT degree, many of these degrees when you finish, you're still going to need what's covered in these certifications.
They don't often include that in your curriculum. When you come out, you're going to be like, oh, I still need to get my CCNA and my security plus. No one's going to hire me without those. That's happens. That happens all the time. So my advice, if you want that degree,
find a degree program that includes certifications as part of your curriculum. So for example, one I love is WGU or the Western Governor's University. Part of many of their IT degrees is C-C-N-A-A plus AWS certifications for cloud.
It's like part of their final exam for the networking section of classes. You have to pass your certification. That's amazing. You get a degree and you get certifications, you come out a rockstar. Yes, it will be more expensive than just doing this yourself, but if you want a degree, that's what I recommend. Alright, so network. Chuck sent me his roadmap, a little 2025 plan to get a job in it. Maybe a little bit of cybersecurity.
So I did want to take a quick look starting off. He's saying, look, you should be studying Linux and Python early in the journey and then keep doing it all the way throughout. Not going to lie, I completely a thousand percent agree with this. Maybe it doesn't need to be strictly Python, but absolutely I feel like using the Linux command line and at least scripting in a language like Python or writing code or programming, automating in one way or another, that is something that should really be solidified. And so definitely worth starting as early as you can and still doing it all throughout. Those are skills that give you superpowers, not going to lie. And then Chuck goes into a lot about networking net plus versus CCC NA or if it is needed at all. So look, again,
I have to speak from just me and my experience. I don't know what CCC NA GOs darn is, truth be told. Maybe I'm out of the loop. I could very well just not be educated there, but I have not particularly needed a ton of in-depth, very granular networking insight and experience. I think from the hacking or cybersecurity sense, if you know, hey, what the heck IP addresses are, what a general cider, class C, class B, whatever network and subnets are, that's kind of enough.
You don't need to be building out any VLANs or crafting and architecting a whole blown network. Next is on the hacking path. Some of the certifications with EJPT, PENTEST plus maybe CPTS and OSCP. This is just John speaking. I don't know about EJPT these days. I don't know if it's alive and well, but I might very well just be out of the loop. And I have not personally taken PENTEST Plus, so I don't feel like I have any authority to kind of speak on that as much. I do think either of them are a good choice though.
Pentest plus especially might give you a little bit more runway because any of the plus CompTIA certifications are just generally well-known. But I would consider OSCP still the crown jewel I'd suggest look, if that's what you want to go for it, if you want some intermediary steps, CPTS or any others that you're interested in can still be stepping stones. But make sure you've got, this is your target in mind and don't hesitate drive towards that. Ooh,
the last one is spicy. His view on college, look, college, undergrad, school, university, whatever. I kind of agree with Chuck. Not going to lie, I think it is optional.
It is not needed in the absolute strict sense of the words, but it can be extremely helpful to go through. It's subjective. It's super subjective to you and your case for anyone tuning in. You can crawl, walk, and run just fine without a college degree or anything to kind of get your foot in the door for job hunting. You can find places,
occupations and people that will employ you without a college degree if you prove your merit and competency. But it is an extra notch on your belt. So there's nothing really wrong with that. As I mentioned, crawl, walk, run. Hey, you can get a little bit of a speed boost if you go for college.
Maybe that helps get things up and running at the start, but it's optional. College can be good, but I don't think you need it a thousand percent. So lemme end cap this. It's been a very long video, but times have changed and times are changing rapidly right now. What's going to happen with ai? Where are our jobs going to go? I don't know. No one knows. We can all guess.
But what we do know is that you need skills. The skills covered in this roadmap, foundational skills, and people still hire for those skills and I think they'll be in demand for a long time. And if they aren't, hey, you'll learn something anyway. And I know this roadmap ended up being very specific to hacking. What other roadmaps do you want to see? Cloud engineer, network engineer, more blue team, comment below. That's all I got. This is the first video of 2025. I hope you're doing well. I'll catch you guys next time.
2025-01-31 21:43