How to earn your OSCP certification (2025)
5. OSCP?
One of the many questions that, in my opinion, makes sense to ask yourself before diving into a highly demanding journey like earning a professional certification generally considered high-level, such as the OSCP is: “Do I really need it?”
Don’t get me wrong, as I’ve mentioned several times in this short series on “How to earn your OSCP certification”, I find the OSCP course material and labs to be very well-structured, comprehensive, and engaging if you want to become genuinely competent in this field. But taking on such a challenging path right away is not necessarily the only option.
There are many other certifications that are highly valued during job interviews in several countries (each one has its own preferences. Unfortunately, I can’t help much with that, you’ll have to do some research based on your specific case), and they offer a smoother introduction to the cybersecurity world.
To give you a better idea of how broad the world of certifications is, I’m sharing an image and a link to the source. Hopefully, it’ll help you get a clearer sense of which path might be right for you:
PaulJerimy - SecCertRoadmapHTML
Also, just like I’m doing right now, keep in mind that when you go around asking for advice, most people will probably recommend the certification they earned themselves (a classic case of [harmless] confirmation bias). That’s not to say their opinions aren’t valid, on the contrary, you might even come across professionals who have obtained multiple certifications in the same field. Just make sure you always dig deep into the syllabus of the certification you’re considering and check that it truly aligns with your interests.
I’ll wrap up with a personal reflection. Right now, I’m working as a freelancer (or at least trying to!). To be honest, no one has asked me to show my certification so far. Instead, I’ve been asked technical questions during interviews with the IT manager of companies where I was hired to perform network security assessments.
This is just to show you that, in my case, the certification was helpful to build the knowledge I needed to do the job, but an equivalent level of knowledge, even without the official title, would have been assessed just the same by the people who hired me.