So if i dropped out of college now (cyber security major) as a second year in my second semester and decided to enter the workforce with a security + , CEH , and a year of relative cyber experience as an intern how much could I expect to make per year say as a junior pen tester or any other relative job title that i can get with those certs and experience? And aslo how difficult would it be to find a job? Im not saying im just going to drop out of college and pursue this im just genuinely curious and so is my mother.
1. DO NOT DROP OUT OF COLLEGE………!!!! Do NOT unless you’re planning on enlisting in the military
2. CEH is a complete joke in the industry, do not waste time or money
3. There are very few junior pen-tester roles even at large companies, you need experience in something before becoming a pen-tester, if you do not understand networking, software development, not to mention report writing, etc then you are of no use to a pen-test team
4. Switch majors to CS or Computer Engineering depending on where you are going to school, most of the programs labeled as Cyber Security were an attempt to cash in on “Cyber” being the latest buzzword, just like all the web development camps in the 90s and all the Intelligence Studies/Homeland Security programs that popped up after 2001.
If you don’t already have a CEH, don’t waste your time. It’s a shitty security+ that’s four times as expensive.
Sec+, year as an intern, wanting a junior pentester…
Depends on where you live, but on average with no degree and only a year of internship I’d say 60-70k annually, 80-90k if in a larger city.
Mind you, pentesting is HIGHLY competitive and anyone can get a sec+ with a year experience. Getting a CySA+ and a pentest+ would be the minimum to at least stand a chance imo.