The Pentester BluePrint: Starting a Career as an Ethical Hacker 1st Edition

Phil does a great job pointing the practitioner and newcomer to resources they can use towards a career as a penetration tester. But this book goes beyond that really, I believe that all career Cybersecurity folks can learn something about developing a personal strategy in their career. Security leaders that need to hire for this type of role will get a better understanding of qualifications and guidance in preparing job descriptions. Great read for Cybersecurity practitioners at all levels, not just pentesters.

This is a great book to start reading when learning about the cyber world. This book explains basic knowledge that a IT or Cyber professional should know. It also gives a lot of resources in the book for you to look into or use!

I found this book both motivational and informative. Speaking for myself I related to a lot that was in here. This is not regurgitated hype, if you are interested in pen testing or infosec; this is a must in my honest opinion.

TLDR: if you're a fresh picked pentester (like you just woke up and decided you want to do this job) then this is the book for you. Else, you'll probably get a repeat of a lot of information you already know, however the stories from other pen testers are nice and hearing about all the different kinds of pen testing certifications out there is interesting.This was a good book. I also ADORE the authors. They are pillars in the information security community. Great folks. This book however isn't really for mid to advance level pen testers or anyone in information security at the mid/advance level, for that matter. I consider myself beginner-mid so there was a lot of information in this book that I already knew, however there was some information towards the middle to the end of the book that I found new and helpful, but this book didn't change my life. I like how I have all these resources now contained in one book, I also loved hearing about the different types of certifications out there. Some of these I have never even heard of, so that was neat. I also really enjoyed the stories and experiences shared from other Pen testers in the community. I was WAITING for John Strand to leave a blurb, but he didn't and so I was disappointed. haha! But that isn't a killer. If you can get through the beginning parts that explain what you already know you will find some gems to add to your brain. I recently recommended this book to two people who I knew were really starting to get into pentesting and I told them this would be a good resource to find a bunch of information pertaining to pentesting.

Honestly, the book is well laid out. It's comprehensive enough to take a beginner and submerge them in the resources that they are going to need in order to succeed as a Penetration Tester. Gone are the days where the aspiring Pentester has to hit Google and scrounge to understand what they need to be doing. Pick up a copy and get started. Most of these resources aren't new to me, but even knowing as much as I do, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I pickup a book like this and learn about a bunch of other things I can be doing to up my game. Well done!

If you have ever been curious about pentesting, or cyber security in general, I recommend giving this book a read. The authors do a great job defining terms, providing resources, and helping anyone take their first step into a career in penetration testing. I was happy to stumble upon this book, and I read it from “cover to cover” in less than 3 days.

It’s a book Either like the way it’s written or you don’t.

Great book especially to anyone feeling lost after completing their OSCP or pentest cert and are job hunting. The authors answered many questions I had. Thank you for this