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6 min read · Cybersecurity · Career Advice

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Prefer watching? This post is based on my YouTube video.
A lot of cybersecurity roadmaps are harmful and unrealistic. In this post I am going to show you a framework that can guide you to a start in cybersecurity, regardless of what your schedule looks like.
Following this advice will not guarantee you a job, internship, or stable future.The goal of this post is to get your feet wet with the possibilities of cybersecurity, and give you the needed resources to build the proper foundations that may or may not get you a job.
This post is broken down into 3 parts:
  1. My path. A brief overview of how I got to where I am today in cyber.
  2. My rewritten “roadmap.”
  3. Some resources and case studies.

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Part 1: My path

  • I was a high school sophomore who loved video games. Interested in technology, but not sure exactly what I wanted to do in college.
  • Junior year came around and I started touring universities. I knew that I wanted to do something with computers, but didn’t know specifically it was cybersecurity yet.
    • I toured Purdue for cybersecurity, and a professor that I met with asked if I had any experience with Kali Linux. I said no, but immediately looked it up and started tinkering when I got home.
    • For the next year I didn’t know what I was doing or what cybersecurity actually was, but I taught myself how to install Kali Linux on a VM, educated myself on the tools that it held, and what I could do with an OS like Kali Linux.
  • When graduation came around, I found myself proficient in Linux and started exploring what cybersecurity actually was, and the skills I needed to know. I found myself on TryHackMe learning about networking, the blue team, the red team, and started doing my first CTFs.
I didn’t get started with a direct path laid out for me. Somebody I didn’t know mentioned “Kali Linux” and my curiosity took over from there. My path was built on curiosity and wanting to learn more about what my possible future could hold. I didn’t know what I was doing half of the time, but that was part of the fun for me.

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Part 2: The “roadmap” (guidebook) and advice

Knowing everything that I know now, what would I say to younger me? Honestly, I don’t think that I would personally change my path that much. I learned so much from the raw curiosity I held that it would be impossible to structure everything into one handy guidebook. This is less of a map, and more of a book of skills you need to be successful.
1

Learn how to learn

  • What’s your learning style?
  • Do you need a schedule? Or can you learn sporadically?
  • When do you have the most energy to learn?
  • Time vs. focus
2

Learn how to find the answer

Google and AI.
3

Learn how to stay organized, and create a second brain

Notion or Obsidian.
4

Pick a platform, not a path

  • You’re looking to build breadth, not depth.
  • Explore and learn about all of the possible pathways and roles there are in cyber.
5

Observe how things work, and then find out why they work that way

For example: I see that open ports come back when I run an nmap scan. Why? That leads you to the TCP 3-way handshake. What is the TCP 3-way handshake?
6

Build a community and support system

  • HackSmarter. Ask questions, there’s no such thing as a dumb one. If you’re scared of asking a human, ask AI.
  • Local communities
  • Peers, siblings, etc.
Okay, these skills are nice, but if I wanted to start learning cyber tomorrow, where should I start?

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Part 3: Case studies

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My baby steps recommendation (from minimal IT knowledge)

1

Check out Kaspersky Cyber Pathways

Read all about the different heroes and possible cyber pathways. Simply learning what is possible.cyberpathways.kaspersky.com
2

TryHackMe Cyber Security 101 pathway

tryhackme.com/path/outline/cybersecurity101
3

PicoCTF

play.picoctf.org

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Compiled resources

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Wrapping up

I know this wasn’t what a lot of you were hoping for, but to be honest, it is better if you don’t have a direct path to success. Everybody is different. We all have different interests, backgrounds, experiences, learning styles, and goals, so I found it really difficult to create a “one size fits all” roadmap, and I don’t think that such a thing exists.