I've worked in IT for over a decade, and went through that struggle to break into an IT job, and later an infosec job. Everyone that is trying to break into IT or infosec knows the struggle of not being able to get the job because you don't have experience and can't get experience because you don't have the job. There's ONE reliable way to break through, and that's to build a home lab and learn the skills on your own time. This allows you to be able to enthusiastically and truthfully answer interview questions, or show competence on the job.
Every interview I've done on either side of the table has included the question "tell me about your home lab". If you're lacking experience but you can enthusiastically tell me about how you've setup a virtual lab on your laptop or spare hardware, configured Active Directory, virtual pfsense firewall, SIEM, Apache/IIS, and hacked it and secured it, then you'll win points during the interview.
Once you've broken into IT or infosec you can't rest for long. It's a lifelong learning process and if you don't continue to learn and do in your personal lab then you'll likely get left behind and become irrelevant. Yes, a home lab is a must even for seasoned professionals.
This is the book I wish I'd had many years ago when I was googling all of this info and learning it the hard way. The author does an outstanding job of explaining the underlying hardware and software needed for a virtual lab, and walking the reader through setting it all up step by step. There are multiple free hypervisor options to run your lab, and step by step instructions are included for each one.
You don't need to sink a lot of money into building a virtual lab. All you need is a computer with decent hardware specs and this book to guide you. Obviously you can run more virtual machines simultaneously with better performance if you have a top of the line laptop or desktop, but you can get started and learning with much less.
Every time someone has asked me how to break into IT or infosec I've always said that you need to get busy in your home lab to build your experience, knowing that building that lab is a pretty big challenge for newcomers. Now you have an excellent book that will hold your hand step by step through the process.
I don't often buy books because I have a Safari Books Online membership and can read an unlimited number of books online on any device, but this book was well worth the cost and I learned a few things from it even after so many years in the game.
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Welington Mendonça
Really good for starters!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 8, 2020
