Career path advice. Please help...

Hi everyone, I'm a university student who decided to pursue the career in IT field as opposed to my major. In particular I'm very interested in the IT security aspect and more particularly in pentesting (network/server/web app). I've been pursuing this path with passion and in the last month have finished Net+ and Sec+ as my foundation. I've been planning to tackle OSCP next, but I've been told that I may be offered a position as a test engineer should I be able to demonstrate appropriate skills, despite my lack of experience or degree (my relative is a senior software manager and is willing to recommend me).

I understand that this is an amazing opportunity to "set a foot in the door", but this means I would have to stop my studies for what I've been pursuing and start learning C/C++, Java, and other things like Lab View. So will accepting this ruin my hope for becoming a pentester? Or can this do nothing but help me get started and add to the "meat" of my resume in applying to become a pentester?
Again, I understand that this is a golden opportunity, but I'm scared that this may mean I'm stuck in the ream of software engineering as my career for a long time before it's possible to make a switch (if at all). The field of pentesting has fascinated me and it's the reason I've given up my academic career. I've been struggling to make a decision for nearly a week now and am desperate for an advice.

This definitely turned out to be longer than I intended. Thank you so much for everyone for reading it and I'd appreciate any wisdom by the community.

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Comments

TheFORCE

QPsyche wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm a university student who decided to pursue the career in IT field as opposed to my major. In particular I'm very interested in the IT security aspect and more particularly in pentesting (network/server/web app). I've been pursuing this path with passion and in the last month have finished Net+ and Sec+ as my foundation. I've been planning to tackle OSCP next, but I've been told that I may be offered a position as a test engineer should I be able to demonstrate appropriate skills, despite my lack of experience or degree (my relative is a senior software manager and is willing to recommend me).

I understand that this is an amazing opportunity to "set a foot in the door", but this means I would have to stop my studies for what I've been pursuing and start learning C/C++, Java, and other things like Lab View. So will accepting this ruin my hope for becoming a pentester? Or can this do nothing but help me get started and add to the "meat" of my resume in applying to become a pentester?
Again, I understand that this is a golden opportunity, but I'm scared that this may mean I'm stuck in the ream of software engineering as my career for a long time before it's possible to make a switch (if at all). The field of pentesting has fascinated me and it's the reason I've given up my academic career. I've been struggling to make a decision for nearly a week now and am desperate for an advice.

This definitely turned out to be longer than I intended. Thank you so much for everyone for reading it and I'd appreciate any wisdom by the community.

You know being a pentester doesnt mean you are just using some tools right? The majority of pen testers have programming knowledge and they probably know more than 1 programming languages. So with that said, learning programming will only benefit you in the long run.

QPsyche

Thanks for the reply

Of course, pentesting isn't just running Metasploit and Nessus and I can only imagine that learning programming/scripting languages will help me. Do you think when I do try to become a pentester, they will value my experience as a testing engineer? I sort of feel like they're both similar in the "testing" nature of the job... I'm not sure if that's just my naivety.

hannism

The title of test engineer definitely won't hurt your career. I have a question for you. Let's say you get the job of test engineer....

Would you still be able to slowly pursue your academic career, like one class at a time?

TechGuru80

Maybe you should clarify...did you finish your degree or you would quit for the job? I can't imagine you getting a job with what sounds to be zero experience and zero knowledge based on a referral. If you are still in school change your major...if you graduated already learning languages will help but you have to remember to get out at some point before it's too late.