Offensive Security

Before I started studying for my first certification, I did something that was probably both useful and slightly insane. I researched almost the entire certification ecosystem. Before answering a single practice question, I looked at the different providers, their certification paths, how employers viewed them, how useful their content appeared to be and where they seemed to fit into an actual IT or cybersecurity career. I looked at CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft, AWS, ISC2, ISACA, OffSec, GIAC and many others. I compared entry-level certifications, professional certifications, technical certifications, management certifications and certifications that seemed to exist mainly because companies like putting logos into job descriptions.