here is the only cyber security career root map you'll ever need starting from someone who is a complete beginner with zero background in cyber to getting your first job in cyber security Now this video is going to contain a lot of different courses Hands-On trainings and many projects you'll have to work on to get yourself job ready as a cyber security professional for most beginners I would say this road map should take about 2 to 3 months to complete depending on how much time you're dedicating to learning but by the end of this you'll be
one of the top job candidates for any entry level cyber security job so let's Jump Right In the first thing I want you to start out with is the ultimate beginners guide from trackme now this is a collection of 500 plus training Labs from trackme so I definitely don't expect you to complete all of them but I do want you to go through at least a 100 of them and I know that sounds like a lot but most of these you can complete within an hour or a few hours so this is great for beginners
when you're learning through different skills because it also covers different tools for example the sections I want you to focus on the most are specifically level two level four and level six now of course you can complete more than these but these are going to give you the basics of what you need to know as an entry level Cy secur analyst specifically on cyber security tooling like nmap Hydra Linux The oasp Zed attack proxy and met exploit then you can move forward to level four which is web application security where you'll learn about DNS SQL
injection how to use burp suite and a few other web application security tools that you can learn that you can also use in future cyber security projects that you'll be working on and more on the cyber security projects that you'll be working on later in this video level six in this pathway covers networking which is a very important part of cyber security don't sleep on this but I'll also be sharing another networking training later in this video that goes more in depth into specific networking tooling but try hackme does a good job of giving you
the basics of networking networking Services active and passive Recon Network traffic analysis and how to use snort so you can learn how to detect real-time threats and identify any network traffic anomalies all right so once you've gone through the try hackme training guides you should now have a basic understanding of popular cyber security tools network security and application security which are going to be the main two areas that a typical entry level cyber security analyst is going to be working on after this you should take the Google cyber security professional certificate this also happens to
prepare you for the compt Security Plus certification which is a certification that I would highly highly recommend you getting especially if you're a complete beginner this is going to help get your foot in the door for many cyber security jobs because it's basically the deao cyber security certification that HR and hiring managers are looking for in their job candidates and you're going to have a much better chance getting an entry-level job in cyber security with the certification compared to without it and there are definitely people who have been able to get an entry-level cyber security
job without their Security Plus but it just makes your life 10 times easier to get this certification but it is a very Hefty certification to study for as a beginner that is why I recommend getting the Google cyber security professional certificate first because it also provides you a discounted exam voucher for your Security Plus when you take it so it's basically a win-win because you get to learn the foundations through the Google cyber security search which will give you entry-level cyber security skills through Hands-On projects cyber security threats vulnerabilities how to mitigate them learning how
to use an S python as well as SQL so there's a lot packed in here not just for learning cyber security foundations but also learning python scripting skills and getting experience using an S which is very commonly used if you were to start a job as an S so analyst which is another very popular entry-level cyber security career now the Google cybercity search on corsera does say that you can complete it in 6 months at 7 hours per week but honestly you can complete this in a month or less pacing yourself based on the time
you have on weekends and weekdays they're basically recommending 1 hour a day 7 hours per week on this course personally I would do a few hours a day and try to get this course done within one to two months and then from there you should really be focusing on fully studying for your comp Security Plus now there are free resources out there on top of this Google cber security sear to help you prepare and I'd recommend Professor messers compt Security Plus course it is free you can find it on YouTube you can also find it
on Professor messer's website personally the book of my studying also came from the compt Security Plus all-in-one textbook I really recommend using a textbook as one of your study resources because because I did practice exams I watch video and I use this textbook and I would say that the textbook gave me the biggest confidence in myself in passing my certification on the first try because I knew that everything I had to know was in that textbook and I did all of the practice quiz questions at the end of every chapter and by the end of
all my study I probably already did hundreds maybe even a thousand practice Security Plus questions through different practice exams and questions I found online I'll also Share my video of how I passed my comp Security Plus certification linked in my video description along with all of the other resources and courses that I mentioned in this video now I know this sounds like a lot but trust me it is going to be worth it a career in cybercity comes with really good job stability very decent pay even for an entry-level role as well as really interesting
work that you'll be working on so if you already gotten through all the training to this point that is already assigned to you that this is the career for you so while you're wrapping up setting for your comp a Security Plus certification I would also start working on some Hands-On cybercity projects so I do have a video on the top five beginner cyber security projects that you should work on as a beginner to put on your resume I also include a few bonuses including creating your own s so Lab at home with an SI M
creating your own fishing attack simulator and setting up your own host-based intrusion detection system or an HIDs most of these projects are done using open source or free tooling so you don't need anything to start besides a VM and a laptop and good internet connection but I really really recommend working on technical cyber security projects because when you're starting to apply for jobs which we'll also cover in this video along with LinkedIn resume and interview prep you want to make sure that even if you don't have any previous cyber security experience on your resumé you
want to at least have cyber security projects on your res because then you can actually share bullet points on the things that you worked on on the cyber security skills that you have the cyber security tooling that you've used as well as just sharing your overall expertise in a specific domain in cyber security compared to just listing a cyber security course or a certification that you've completed so it just makes you a more well-rounded individual because you have more than just a course Ander on your resume you also have two to three maybe even for
cyber security projects maybe you also have some volunteer experience whether it be through cyber security conferences or or bsides which I highly recommend joining a cyber security bside especially if you have one near you they're basically cyber security meetups that host cyber security events workshops talks and you get to network with other cyber security professionals that may already be in the space or trying to break in which will make it a whole lot easier for you because you're already actively networking which may also give you more leads on cyber security jobs and other opportunities all
right so now that you have the basics what's next this is basically where your cybercity career road map focuses on what Niche you're actually interested in these specific Pathways that we'll be talking about are Cloud security defensive security offensive security and GRC or governance risk and compliance this is going to be based on which area of cyber security that you're most interested in based on the training and the courses you've already taken now another resource I want to share is simply learn simply learn has great boot camps and certifications in cyber security and they were
also recently reviewed and recommended by Forbes simply learn creates online cyber security courses with program Partners including Caltech the MIT sorman College of computing CompTIA and the CIS P these range from 1 month to 6-month programs that you can take with no experience in cyber security to being job ready the simply learned postgraduate program in cyber security is designed with modules from the MIT sorman College of computing and the EC Council this is a six-month fully online boot camp that was rated 4.5 stars on switch up as part of this program you'll attend live master
classes delivered by faculty from MIT as well as complete four industry case studies covered by MIT professors this along with 25 plus Hands-On cyber security projects to to help boost your technical experience and add onto your resume or project portfolio when you start applying to cyber security jobs the live lessons also covered the latest AI Trends and how this impacts cyber security roles you can check out their learner reviews directly on their website as well as the application process and selected candidates can begin the program within 1 to two weeks the next cohort starts soon
and I'd recommend checking it out in the link in my description if you're interested in learning more you can also get a 10% off scholarship for the program using my code Sandra 10 and with that let's get back to the rest of the video if you're interested in Cloud security then your next step should be the Microsoft Azure security engineer associate professional certificate as one of the most popular Cloud providers out there I highly recommend going through this Azure course if you're interested in starting a career in Cloud security this is one of the biggest
growing areas in cyber security so I do think it's worth it and get officially Microsoft Azure certified if you're interested in defensive security or blue teaming I'd recommend getting the Blue Team level one certificate this is for a junior s so or Security operation Center analyst this also happens to be a Hands-On training so you work directly with Hands-On Labs covering security fundamentals fishing analysis threat intelligence digital forensics SS and incident response and security blue team also has free courses that you can review directly on their website as an introduction to so and so analyst
work so I would highly recommend going through that as well now on top of this another option for blue teing is the hack box certified defensive security analyst certification I've personally gone through that course and it has a lot of information and a lot of labs for an S so or security analyst completing both of these courses will really give you all the projects and experience that you need to add onto your resume as anoc analyst especially considering that the hack the Box cdsa certification the exam itself is basically working as an S so analyst
and and is very similar to a job simulation but as an exam so I'd highly recommend checking that out okay so what if you're interested in offensive security you have a few different options for beginner certification courses for example the TCM security pnppt certification or the Practical Network penetration tester cert this is a great option since it is very Hands-On but if you're looking for the foundations of ethical hacking I'd recommend this Cera course by the EC Council for ethical hacking Essentials now I know in a past video I put the c as a certification
that's not worth it but it's not because of the material it covers it's because the exam just isn't very practical and that doesn't really help you if you're trying to become an ethical hacker but if you're a complete beginner and you need the foundations then because this course is on corsera and if you already have a corsera subscription from taking the Google Ser security search then this is basically free to you so I would go through the EC Council ethical hacking Essentials course to learn the foundations of security threats and vulnerability assessments password cracking social
engineering Network attacks web application attacks Wireless attacks mobile attacks iot and cloud computing as well as penetration testing fundamentals so it really covers the gamut of a general broad sense of your responsibilities as well as different branches of ethical hacking and last but not least for my viewers interested in GRC governance risk and compliance or auditing then the two horses I would recommend are created by Jerry Alder from Simply cyber for his JC analyst master class and Unix guy for his GRC Mastery course now both Unix guy and Jerry Alder are cyber security GRC professionals
with 20 plus years of experience so what it's going to come down to between picking either of these courses are which videos that you resonate with the most both their GRC courses are created for anyone who has no previous experience in GRC or even cyber security it gives you the rundown of everything you need from foundational cyber security and GRC Concepts hands on Labs assessments and quizzes and career resources so you have a lot to learn from either of these courses no matter which one you choose and if you watch both of their videos you
can understanding other teaching style and how they go about introducing different GRC Concepts especially because GRC is definitely one of the compliance heavy documentation heavy areas in cyber security so even though it's not a technical cyber security Niche it is still very heavy in material and different concepts I'll link both of these GRC courses in my description for you to check out as well as an in-depth review of the GRC Mastery course that also personally completed in my description below all right I know this road map is a lot to take in but we have
a few more steps to go so the final two training courses I want to recommend are free and these are the Juniper Networks IT training it and network security training as well as the clicked job simulation training Juniper Networks is one of the biggest it networking companies in the world and they have free training that is provided by their open learning program and as a cybercity professional learning networking is going to help you whether you're going into offensive or defensive security so this is one of the best overlapping cyber security skills to learn and especially
if you're interested in first starting a career in it before transitioning into cyber security as that is another very popular route for those just starting out in their careers the last training that I mentioned clicked they provide cybercity job training through the IBM skills build program in partnership with IBM you'll cover cyber security shadowing sessions from other cyber Security Professionals live workshops as well as even Hands-On Sprints where you'll actually get to work on a cyber security project with a team of other students so that you get to experience what it's like working in cyber
security and this whole program is free so I highly recommend checking it out I'll have a link to sign up for clicked for free in my description below Okay so we've come so far the last topics I want to talk about I promise I won't talk your ear off but these are on LinkedIn prep resume prep and interview prep this is basically the last hurdle you have to jump through as you start your career in cyber security because this leads directly to your first job your LinkedIn and your resume are basically how you're portraying yourself
to a recruiter to a hiring manager anyone who is looking at you as a job candidate you really want to make sure that all the months and time that you put into gaining the skills to put on your resume are properly and well portrayed to a hiring manager to a recruiter so they know exactly what skills you have exactly what projects you've worked on and exactly what you bring to the table if I talk about all of this in one video it's going to take a very very long time and we'll be sitting here for
hours so I'll link two previous videos I've made on my cyber security resume as well as how to optimize your LinkedIn to get more recruiters reaching out to you and revealing your profile last but not least I also have a video I can share on interview prep which gives gives you the foundations of how to prepare for your next cyber security interview and asit I also have a dedicated interview Prep course Linked In My description when you're ready to start studying for your cyber security interviews all right so that is it for this video this
was a very long one but hopefully this was helpful and gave you exact steps and the exact road map for the courses and certifications trainings and projects to take to get you job ready to start a career in cyber security thank you guys so much for watching let me know if you have any questions in the comments below feel free to connect on LinkedIn and don't forget to join our Discord Channel where we cover all things cyber security careers certifications courses as well as sharing wins on job offers and interviews if this video was helpful
please consider liking and subscribing as it really helps out the channel I post videos weekly and hopefully I'll see you guys in my next video bye [Music]
