Hey everyone, I'm a CS student looking to break into cybersecurity but paid certs like Security+ or CEH are out of budget for now. I've been going through free YouTube courses (like Professor Messer's Security+ series) and they seem solid, but I have a few concerns I'd love to get real opinions on:
- Does the knowledge actually transfer? Will studying a cert course on YouTube give me the same practical understanding as paying for the official material or am I missing something important?
- Can I realistically do labs without the cert program? I've heard of TryHackMe and Hack The Box are these enough to build hands-on experience, or do official cert programs come with labs that are hard to replicate for free?
- Is a portfolio enough to substitute for the cert itself? If I document my TryHackMe progress, write-ups, and any home lab projects on GitHub, would that realistically get me considered for internships or do recruiters filter you out without a cert on your resume?
I'm not looking for a shortcut I genuinely want to build real skills. I just want to know if this path is viable before I commit time to it. Would love to hear from anyone who's been in a similar situation or hired interns in this field.
u/Accomplished_Low6138 — 16 days ago