Information Security is an incredibly vast field. Even the subsect of offensive security, or penetration testing, has many aspects to it. One question we often receive is what courses or certifications are actually worthwhile; both from a content perspective, but also from the vantage point of a hiring manager. While we emphasis the importance of building the skills and really understanding how the technologies, vulnerabilities, exploits, and remediation actually work, it can be important to provide evidence of those skills via certifications. On this page you’ll find a Security Engineer Skill Tree which outlines the various skillsets within the profession and loosely maps those skills to what we consider to be worthwhile certifications. We’ve also included some additional references on Github, as well as two database views to provide additional resources as you consider what the optimal skill progression path is for you.

Recommended Skill Path → Purple Team / White Box Focus