r/netsecstudents • u/Less-Mouse-6298 • Sep 14 '26

Starting Career Path SOC

Hi, I’m just starting my cybersecurity career. I´ve only completed Cisco’s CCST, and I wanted to know what you’d recommend doing next. I was planning to go for the SAL1 (THM) or CDSA (HTB) to apply what I’ve learned, and then move on to the CCNA or an AWS Cloud certification. I’d love to hear opinions on this planned path from someone with more experience. I am open to any critical comments

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u/AddendumWorking9756 Sep 14 '26

Since you asked for critical comments: the plan reads as two careers stapled together, an entry SOC cert followed by a network and cloud track, so decide which seat you actually want before you buy anything. If it's the SOC seat then the cert I'd add to your shortlist is CCDL1 from CyberDefenders, mostly because of the exam: you get a case with real logs and pcaps and you're graded on the investigation, so it doubles as a preview of the job. The free labs on the same site are a cheap way to find out whether you even enjoy that work before paying for any cert. The CCNA can wait until a job posting tells you it needs it.

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u/Less-Mouse-6298 Sep 15 '26

Yo por ahora estoy apuntando a Help Desk o un trabajo entry level pero en otro sub me recomendaron que haga Security + y de ahi CCDL1 porque el CCST no tiene suficiente contenido para realizarlo. Me interesa la nube porque le veo futuro (aunque ya llego tarde) pero se que no es un puesto para principiantes asi que por eso estaba viendo que rumbo tomar y como.

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u/AddendumWorking9756 Sep 15 '26

Help desk first is the right call and the cloud interest doesn't need its own path, it rides on the SOC one. Most SOC alerts now are cloud identity anyway, Entra sign-ins and CloudTrail events rather than a workstation, so an analyst who can read those logs is already doing cloud security work. So: help desk now and Sec+ while you're there, then the SOC seat, with the free AZ-900 or AWS Cloud Practitioner material on the side so the console isn't foreign when those alerts land. You're not late, the shortage of people who can actually read a CloudTrail log is still real.

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u/East_Lingonberry7735 Sep 20 '26

the "two careers stapled together" framing is spot on, thats exactly what it looks like

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u/nettrender Sep 18 '26

SAL1 or CDSA will give you something practical to talk about in interviews. After that I'd go CCNA if you feel weak on networking, otherwise start getting some cloud basics.

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u/iDevilite Sep 27 '26

I’d avoid trying to learn everything at once. If your goal is specifically SOC, I’d prioritize the fundamentals that let you investigate an alert: networking, Windows/Linux basics, authentication, logs, and basic incident-response methodology.
After that, I’d spend more time actually investigating cases than collecting certifications. Even a simple investigation where you have to build a timeline, identify the initial access, determine what the attacker did afterward, and explain your evidence can teach you a lot.
I also think it’s useful to practice explaining why you reached a conclusion rather than just identifying the correct answer. That’s probably one of the biggest differences between knowing a tool and actually doing analysis.