Hi all, first post.
I moved to The Netherlands a few years ago, and am wanting to prepare for a career change from helpdesk to cyber security. I’m also doing a Dutch language course 1 day every week, ik moet het leren.
Long ago, I held a CompTIA A+ cert. I don’t have any at this point. Not strong on networking or programming skills, either.
Got any good suggestions on getting into the field in 2026? I’m a GNU/Debian guy, and have free time to study. Any good meetups in The Netherlands to seek mentorship or sharing of knowledge? Hoping some Dutchies and Duitsers can chime in.
Goal is to become a CISO but if I don’t make it that far, I’ll still land amongst the stars.
Alvast bedankt! Thanks in advance! -LOLseas
Not in NL, but these are some helpful career progression flow charts: https://roadmap.sh/devops https://roadmap.sh/cyber-security
This one is a map of cyber security certifications that are out there: https://pauljerimy.com/security-certification-roadmap/
These things look big and intimidating but that’s okay, I work in cyber security and there’s stuff on these that I don’t know. I feel like at least having a starting place and a path to follow can be really helpful especially if you don’t know where to start.
Also, Cyber Security is a huge field, do you want to do offensive cyber or defensive cyber? More hands-on-keyboard or more policy based? You mentioned that you wanted that you want to end us as a CISO, some of the best that I know where techs and do-ers first, definitely get some hands on experience before jumping to a policy-level position.
The most important thing about Cyber Security as a career field is to keep learning! Good luck!
Thank you for taking time to respond! I think Defensive Blue Team as a whole outlook for me. I don’t want to hurt anybody. Ethical side for me.
There’s also ethical offensive cyber: penetration testing apps/services with permission from the owner to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities so that they can implement fixes, or red-teaming which is basically pretending to be a threat actor and testing an organization’s overall security posture.