How to Get into Cybersecurity | Step-by-Step (The Ultimate Guide)
Summary
This guide offers a realistic, experience-driven roadmap for breaking into cybersecurity. It emphasizes the importance of community, soft skills, hands-on labs, certifications, mentorship, discipline, and internships over chasing shortcuts or credentials alone. Through personal storytelling and practical advice, this guide shows how visibility, referrals, and consistent effort often matter more than degrees or a perfect resume. This guide reframes cybersecurity as a long-term craft built through commitment, connection, and hard work.
So, you want to get into cybersecurity, but you’re overwhelmed with where to start.
Perhaps you’ve been watching videos and reading posts, yet still feel like everyone else is ten steps ahead. You’re staring at job listings that ask for 3 years of experience, a degree, five certifications, your first-born child, the deed to your house, and you’re just sitting there like “what heck is a SOC Analyst?”.
Getting into cybersecurity can be confusing, intimidating, and unwelcoming. Most people tend to feel like outsiders in a world full of experts and cyber ninjas. The good news is, you don’t have to have it all figured out. Before I became a Senior Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at JPMorgan Chase, I was wiring homes in work boots. Yes,I was an electrician. Fresh out of the Marines, trying to figure out what civilian life even meant.Then COVID hit. Just like that, I lost my job, and, like many people, I had to make a choice. Sit in the uncertainty… or rebuild from the ground up. That’s when I found cybersecurity.
I’ll walk you through everything I wish I knew when I started:
How to get noticed, what certifications actually matter, how to build experience from scratch, and most importantly, how to get that first referral that changes everything. Let’s dive in.
Before you grab a cert… before you spin up a lab…
Join the community.
You might be sitting in your room right now, headphones on, bouncing between YouTube videos and blog posts, wondering if you’re the only one trying to break into this field. You’re not. If you try to do this alone, it’s going to take ten times longer and feel twenty times harder. My first three job opportunities came from a Slack channel (shoutout to VetSec). The best way to get where you’re going is just by showing up and connecting with people who were one step ahead. Join cybersecurity Discord servers and hop into Slack communities like VetSec (for veterans). Follow people on LinkedIn who talk about the things you’re trying to learn.
But don’t just lurk. Speak up. Be vulnerable:
Say “I don’t know how this works.”
Ask “What should I focus on next?”
Share what you do understand, even if it’s just how you finally got Wireshark working or what you learned from a lab. Because here’s the secret:
The internet remembers the ones who show up. Post consistently, engage with others, ask good questions, and people notice. This is a good way to get that first referral. You can have all the skills in the world, but if no one knows you exist, you’re invisible. No community? No visibility. No visibility? No job. Period.
COmmunication
Work on your Soft Skills
Let me guess, you’ve got twenty browser tabs open, ten different learning paths saved, and your brain’s doing cartwheels trying to figure out if you should learn Python, build a lab, or start applying for jobs today. Pause for one moment. Before we even touch a keyboard, let’s talk about the one thing that’ll separate you from 90% of beginners: Soft skills.
Yeah, I know. It’s not flashy like hacking a network or spinning up a home lab… But hear me out… Cybersecurity is a people-first problem. You can have all the technical knowledge in the world, but if you can’t communicate it clearly, you’re going to get overlooked.
You need to explain risks to non-technical stakeholders. Calm down a panicked executive when a breach hits. Work with developers, legal, compliance, and not sound like a robot doing a CLI demo. Soft skills are your superpower. Here are some soft skills to hone over time:
Critical thinking — to know when something’s off and how to dig deeper
Communication — to turn complex issues into clear decisions
Emotional intelligence — because empathy builds trust, and trust is everything in security
Collaboration — because no one fights threats alone
So now you may be asking, how do you build these skills? It’s no secret, you practice. Start with active listening, really listening when people speak. Join a cybersecurity Discord or Slack group and jump into a conversation. Volunteer to give a five-minute talk at a local technology meetup. Write a LinkedIn post; even explaining something you learned today sharpens your thinking. You don’t need to be a public speaker; you just need to be understood. And in cyber, the one who can communicate the best wins.
Get Certified – Certifications 101
Let’s clear something up. Certifications are your first milestone… not your destination. You see posts online saying “Just get your Security+, and you’re in”, which is not entirely true. A cert alone won’t get you hired. What it will do is prove you’ve done the homework. That’s it. They show initiative and get past HR filters.
They tell the world: “Hey, I’m serious about this.” But don’t worship the paper. Don’t chase certs like Pokémon cards, hoping one will magically unlock your dream job.
Hiring managers want to know if you can solve problems, not recite definitions. They want to know if you can take what you learned and use it in the real world. So study hard, earn that badge, then get to work making it mean something.
Practical Experience
Build a Home Lab
This was the game-changer for me. Building a home lab to practice skills is considered a no-brainer by most practitioners and an essential first step for newcomers. It does not have to be a fancy, $10,000 setup with blinking lights and racks of gear. First, start small with things like:
VirtualBox on an old laptop
Try HackMe on a budget Chromebook
Packet Tracer late at night after work
Use what you have. Don’t let analysis paralysis keep you from getting your hands dirty. Your home lab is your personal gym. This is where you break things on purpose. You install Kali Linux just to see what all the hype is about. Where you test tools, you saw on a YouTube video or recreate that attack you read about in a blog post. It’s your playground. It’s your story generator, and it can be what sets you apart. There are great resources online for this with exhaustive detail on how to make the most out of what you have.
Find a Mentor
A good mentor can save you months, maybe even years of valuable time while trying to get into the field. They’ve already been where you’re trying to go. They know which roads lead somewhere and which ones are dead ends. But here’s the truth nobody tells you:
Getting a mentor is the easy part. Keeping one is where the work is.
Don’t just show up with questions and ghost when the advice gets hard. You have to listen, actually put their advice into action, and let them see that you’re serious. You don’t just want handouts, you want guidance. When they see you moving differently, making changes, growing, and applying what they taught you, that’s when the real magic happens. Doors open, introductions happen, and you go from mentee to protégé.
Higher Ed
Do I need a degree?
Short answer is: no. But let’s dive into this further. You don’t need a degree to break into cybersecurity, but it helps. A lot of people on Twitter may disagree with this. We all want a shortcut. But if you’re starting from zero, a degree gives you something hard to get otherwise, which is access. Access to things like:
Internships
Job fairs
Career services
Alumni networks
What kind of degree program should you pursue? If you’re up for it, go into Computer Science. Yeah, it’s tough. But tough doesn’t mean impossible. It means you’re building the same mental muscles companies pay six figures for later. Let’s say the degree route isn’t for you, not right now. That’s okay. Here are some alternatives:
Apprenticeships
Community college
Geek Squad at Best Buy
Local IT repair shop
There are more paths than ever before, but you still have to walk one. It’s not just about the degree, it’s about the momentum. The forward motion. The commitment to keep showing up when it gets hard. There’s no shame in your starting point; there’s only power in your next step.
Lock In – The Discipline Phase
This is the part nobody talks about: discipline. If you’re serious about cybersecurity, you need to commit at least two years to rewiring your brain, cutting distractions, and showing up even when the work feels boring, confusing, or thankless. That’s where the real growth happens. You have to cut the noise. That means fewer parties, less endless gaming, and stepping away from unnecessary drama.
You don’t have to disappear, but you do have to prioritize, because what you’re trying to build takes energy, time, and your full focus. Have the hard conversations with your friends. Let your family know, “This is my season of focus.” Not forever, but long enough to change your life. You don’t need to be the smartest or the fastest. You just have to be the one who shows up when nobody is watching, clapping, or validating you. Treat this journey like you are serious because when it comes to your future, it is.
Finding your “why?”
Don’t Do This for the Money
Cybersecurity can absolutely be lucrative, but if the only reason you’re here is to chase a six-figure salary, you’re going to crash. The reality is that a lot of this work is boring, repetitive, and mentally draining. You will experience alert fatigue, perform endless log reviews, create documentation, and monitor ticket queues. This isn’t Mr. Robot every day; it’s grinding in the shadows, learning how networks really function, how threat actors move, and how policies fail.
It demands patience, discipline, and humility. If you’re not in it to learn, to protect people, to sharpen your skills, or genuinely care about the mission, burnout isn’t a possibility; it’s a guarantee. This field will humble you. You will experience imposter syndrome, feel behind, and question whether you’re cut out for it, and in those moments, money won’t be enough to carry you through. But if you’re here for the right reasons, if you fall in love with the process, the rewards will come. The money always follows mastery.
Fight for Internships
If you want the closest thing to a shortcut into cybersecurity, it’s not another certification, another course, or another YouTube playlist. It’s an internship. It doesn’t matter whether it’s remote or in-person, with a major corporation or a tiny startup. An internship is your golden ticket because it puts you inside the system. It gives you the chance to see how cybersecurity teams function day to day:
How alerts are triaged
How incidents are escalated
How engineers collaborate
How decisions are made when something breaks at 2 a.m.
You’ll sit in on real meetings, shadow professionals who’ve been doing this for years, and occasionally get your hands on actual security tasks. This is an experience you simply cannot simulate in a home lab.
Here’s the real secret most beginners overlook: the value of an internship isn’t just the work itself, it’s the people. When a team sees your work ethic, your curiosity, your willingness to learn, and your growth over time, they remember you. That familiarity becomes trust, and trust is the exact currency that turns interns into full-time analysts. That’s how full-time offers happen. That’s how careers begin.
So fight for an internship like your future depends on it because it does. Apply relentlessly. Email hiring managers directly. Follow up twice. Say yes to small gigs, small projects, short-term contracts, anything that gets you in the room. Your goal is simple: get in the building, even if it’s through the smallest crack in the door. That’s all you need to start.
Strategic thinking
Always Get a Referral
Here’s a hard truth most beginners don’t realize in cybersecurity: a referral can mean the difference between your résumé being read or being deleted without a second glance. I’m not exaggerating. You could have the perfect resume, the certs, the skills, the passion, and the projects, but if no one inside that company knows your name, you’re just another anonymous document in an endless applicant pool. Cybersecurity isn’t just about knowledge; it’s about trust, and trust spreads through people, not paper.
That’s why community isn’t optional anymore; it’s your pipeline into the industry. Every Slack group you join, every Discord conversation you contribute to, every question you ask in a forum, every LinkedIn post you make… those are all digital handshakes. Small signals that build your reputation over time. People remember who showed up consistently, who contributed without expecting anything, who added value simply by being curious and helpful.
So here’s the strategy: be helpful, be curious, be visible. Referrals aren’t a bonus in cybersecurity; they’re the strategy.
Join The NodeVerge Discord
Now let’s get to work. If you have questions, need guidance, or just want to surround yourself with others who are serious about breaking into cybersecurity, join the NodeVerge Discord. It’s a place to ask questions, share wins, get feedback, and stay motivated when things get tough. We’re building something real, and we want you in the room with us. Let’s grow together.
How to Get into Cybersecurity | Step-by-Step (The Ultimate Guide) FAQ
How long does it take to get into cybersecurity?
The timeline varies, but many beginners land their first role in 3-5 years with consistent effort. Your pace depends on how much time you invest in learning, building a home lab, networking, and earning foundational certifications. What matters most is consistency, not speed.
What’s the most important step for getting my first cybersecurity job?
Connecting with the community. Certifications and labs help, but networking, mentorship, and visibility are the real accelerators. Joining Discord groups, LinkedIn conversations, and cybersecurity meetups puts you in the rooms where opportunities happen. Most beginners land their first job because someone recognized their effort, not because they applied cold. Show up consistently, ask questions, share your progress and doors will open.
