r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	treeterracedhouses
Comment	Hey OP, I've worked in the industry for about 8 years now. I came from an IT background but self-taught Cyber Sec. I agree with other commenters, a degree apprenticeship is a good area to focus if you are lucky to wrangle one. A degree is good as well. I'm not too sure I would put much credence into places like FDM Group (I know someone who went through one of their programmes and doesn't rate it what so ever) but since Capslock has backing from the NCSC that is a huge green flag for me. The first thing I would do is have a look at things like the SANS roadmap and maybe get an idea of what path you want to go down. Cyber Sec is such a huge industry with about 5 or 6 distinct disciplines. There is obviously overlap between them but not too much. https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-skills-roadmap/ They all share baseline knowledge and for that I would recommend CompTIA Sec+. Sec+ is an inch deep and a mile wide but putting yourself through it will give you a decent foundational across pretty much all disciplines. The course is only around £300 and the certification attempts are ~£240. There is a decent looking YouTube playlist that I reckon you could probably use instead of buying the course. You can also find a lot of free tests online you can use to practice so you can do the whole thing pretty cheap. https://youtu.be/9Hd8QJmZQUc As others have said Hack The Box is also really good, a very popular resource and for good reason. I'd definitely wait until you've watched the above playlist to help you conceptualise a lot of the practical elements. Beyond that I would check out this website which shows you a tonne of different courses across the different disciplines, from there you can see if any courses pique your interest and are cheap enough to try Doing these things might not help you find work, but they certainly will give you a leg up on things like Uni courses or schemes like Capslock. You might get lucky though. There is a lot of continuous training and development in Cyber Sec and you are expected to self learn, so the fact you picked yourself up from nothing might put you in good standing. If you are confident enough in your abilities I would still apply for work. Security Operations Analyst is a great place to start. This is the Level 1 Service Desk equivalent in Security (again, it's an inch deep, mile wide, soul destroying job if you do it for too long) but you can use it as a jumping off point to pretty much all of the other Security disciplines. If you do ever get an interview make sure you know exactly what you should do if you find malware on a PC. That's been a question I've been asked in every interview from my L1 positions all the way up to my current senior position On Monday I'll DM you a tonne of other good resources I use (videos, podcasts, blogs etc.) To help you passively develop understanding of the industry as a whole. Best of luck mate
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/11hyrss/code_clan_equivalent_to_cyber_security/jawyo3c/
Created	Sat 4th Mar 2023 6:38pm
Status	normal ()

Hey OP,

I've worked in the industry for about 8 years now. I came from an IT background but self-taught Cyber Sec.

I agree with other commenters, a degree apprenticeship is a good area to focus if you are lucky to wrangle one. A degree is good as well. I'm not too sure I would put much credence into places like FDM Group (I know someone who went through one of their programmes and doesn't rate it what so ever) but since Capslock has backing from the NCSC that is a huge green flag for me.

The first thing I would do is have a look at things like the SANS roadmap and maybe get an idea of what path you want to go down. Cyber Sec is such a huge industry with about 5 or 6 distinct disciplines. There is obviously overlap between them but not too much.

https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-skills-roadmap/

They all share baseline knowledge and for that I would recommend CompTIA Sec+. Sec+ is an inch deep and a mile wide but putting yourself through it will give you a decent foundational across pretty much all disciplines. The course is only around £300 and the certification attempts are ~£240. There is a decent looking YouTube playlist that I reckon you could probably use instead of buying the course. You can also find a lot of free tests online you can use to practice so you can do the whole thing pretty cheap.

https://youtu.be/9Hd8QJmZQUc

As others have said Hack The Box is also really good, a very popular resource and for good reason. I'd definitely wait until you've watched the above playlist to help you conceptualise a lot of the practical elements.

Beyond that I would check out this website which shows you a tonne of different courses across the different disciplines, from there you can see if any courses pique your interest and are cheap enough to try

Doing these things might not help you find work, but they certainly will give you a leg up on things like Uni courses or schemes like Capslock.

You might get lucky though. There is a lot of continuous training and development in Cyber Sec and you are expected to self learn, so the fact you picked yourself up from nothing might put you in good standing. If you are confident enough in your abilities I would still apply for work. Security Operations Analyst is a great place to start. This is the Level 1 Service Desk equivalent in Security (again, it's an inch deep, mile wide, soul destroying job if you do it for too long) but you can use it as a jumping off point to pretty much all of the other Security disciplines.

If you do ever get an interview make sure you know exactly what you should do if you find malware on a PC. That's been a question I've been asked in every interview from my L1 positions all the way up to my current senior position

On Monday I'll DM you a tonne of other good resources I use (videos, podcasts, blogs etc.) To help you passively develop understanding of the industry as a whole.

Best of luck mate