Hello everyone at Ethical Hacker, i am a student currently doing my A levels and am soon to start my second year. I have been interested in network security for a while now and particuly Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures, and Penertration Testing.

I would like to pursue this as a career but im lost as to where to start or where to go. I am currently doing my CCNA, Computing and physics. I was looking at going to university to do my CCSP to then start work and getting experience needed for Network+ and Security+ to then go on to do further needed qualifications.

What i would like to know is some of the paths you took and any qualifications you found you needed to get into this career. Any advice is apreciated.

Thanks

I totally agree with Negrita. Network+, Security+, them CCNA. You should learn the basics of networking and TCP/IP before diving into the CCNA.

Brian

I'd stick with the CCNA. I've always though it's an excellent path into networking. Obviously very vender focused, but the do have market share on the Internet's hardware...

I'd then look at + type courses and MCP in Xp/Vista for a solid general background knowledge.

Studying those courses would give you a real feel of where your strenghts and interest lie.

A word of caution on the CCSP track. I've interview a few folk new to IT with impressive qualifications and no real experience.

Cisco training isn't cheap and employers would ask you why you did it and why don't you want to continue to be a Cisco Network guy. Unless assessing Cisco networks is what you want to do.
Pix's and ASA's aren't cheap either if you want to build test labs at home.
If you can work part time with Cisco kit, that will go a long way in future interviews.