Developer doing the OSCP?

Kewngen

I really want to take the OSCP, but after reading a few threads here maybe I'm in over my head?

This is me:
I'm a full time system developer, .NET (Java back in the days) and been developing for about 6 years. I have okay Linux knowledge from my Java days. I don't think I have any problem with the scripting part (Perl, Python, Powershell etc).
I have basic knowledge around TCP/IP and other networking stuff. I do consider myself (maybe everyone does?) to be creative and good at problem solving.
Last but not least, I have a family that takes up a lot of time :P

I've been reading "Metasploit the penetration tester's guide" and know my way around Metasploit (though I can't use it on the exam?) and I grasp the concepts with exploits, payloads and auxiliary modules.

With that background, how many hours would you say I need to spend each week to pass the exam after the 90 days lab time?
Obviously it depends on my learning skills and a bunch of other factors, but an educated guess?

Should I take the course or spend more time on other books and resources first?!

si20

My post isn't to scare you, but this is my experience and my opinion. Others may disagree but here goes:

You sound like you have got the right mindset for this course. The main issue for me isn't even the difficulty of the course, it's finding the time to work on the course. If you have a busy family life, forget this course, it's absolutely not for you. I've put in somewhere between 200-300 hours at the moment and i'm still struggling with some of it. This isn't the kind of course you can pass if you spend an hour or two a day on it.

There are days where i've spent 12 hours on the OSCP and made no progress at all. It happens to most of us. The course is very unforgiving. If you get stuck, you'll be very lucky to recieve help from people. We've got our own IRC set up and we give each other a bit of a hint if we get stuck. In the official IRC, you'll just hear the words "try harder".

Contrary to what alot of people say, I don't think you need to be able to do much scripting for this course. You will of course need to do some but if you're a developer you'll have NO problems. I'm a script kiddy pretty much and even I managed to write my own code for this course.

If you're prepared to spent a minimum of 4-5 hours per day everyday for the duration of the course, you might be in with a chance. There's alot of work to do and you need to stick with it. Every second of the OSCP counts. Sorry if this sounds negative, it's not meant to be. I just think you should know exactly what you're signing up for before you pay this amount of money to do it

MSP-IT

Si20 hit the nail on the head. It takes time more than anything.

Kewngen

Nice, got my confidence up!

I get what you're saying. I've decided to give it a go anyway.
I'll try to prioritize down as much as possible in my life to get more time on OSCP. At least it's a relatively cheap course.

So watch out on IRC, I'll probably come knocking pretty soon, begging for help.