Why I HATE Cyber Security Bootcamps

do you want to know why i hate cyber security boot camps well in this video we're going to talk about cyber security boot camps and why i hate them in most situations but first if this is the first time that we're meeting welcome to my channel my name is john good and here i get to spread my passion for cyber security training tips and tricks and career advice to help you go further remember to smash the thumbs up to like this video hit the subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't miss future content and make sure to leave a comment for the youtube algorithm check out my website at johngood.com for more training without advertisements resume reviews career advice and consulting services also if you're trying to break into cyber security check out my getting started page for free resources and a free copy of my ebook on cyber security careers all right let's get into the video one of the questions that i get frequently asked about cyber security training is should i attend a boot camp knowing what i know about bootcamps versus the alternative it actually makes me cringe because just like a college degree that actually might not be the best solution for everybody even though it seems like it's the quickest first let's talk about what bootcamps are and then we'll talk about the different types that are being offered think about a boot camp for military it's basically the same idea with cyber security it's a condensed training environment that's going to make you a basically trained professional you should never attend a boot camp with the idea that you're going to come out as an expert or even a highly trained professional once your course is complete boot camps take topics from everywhere in cyber security and they bring them together to give you light exposure so that way you hear a little bit about everything and you're not completely lost if you're in a meeting and you hear about some random topic all right now that we know what a bootcamp is let's go ahead and take a look at some options the first option is going to be the university route so what happens is these traditional universities they have these programs and they give you a certificate of completion at the end so similar to like any normal traditional institution you're gonna see things like degree type programs and those include high costs so you have to be careful a big downside of these programs besides the cost is that you really don't get any industry recognized certification you just get the one from the university and it's nowhere near as valuable as a degree additionally you might spend like six months on these programs that can be a lot of time so you can see on the screen here this one that i found is from arizona state university and you can see here 24 weeks that you're going to have to spend on this program that can be a lot and you could actually use a lot of that time to get other certifications so it's something to consider but if we scroll down here and we look at some of the details so they're comptia partner which is great because comptia is one of the industry recognized certification bodies and you can kind of look through here and see what's offered now interestingly enough i looked up another one and i found the university of minnesota well it looks like they're using the same kind of platform and i'm guessing a lot of universities are probably going to go to this similar kind of thing because 24 weeks the website is almost identical to the arizona state one and you can see you know it really is a lot of the same information right so i wanted to see how much this program cost and so i went to google and i searched for it and i found that you're going to spend just under 14 000 for this program if you're just getting into the field that can be pretty expensive the second option is through vocational type businesses like new horizons or there's a whole bunch of other ones and typically they're focused on specific certifications instead of just general training like you might see with the university programs these boot camps typically last a week or so maybe a little bit longer and they typically cost between two thousand and three thousand dollars which is great but if you look at the study materials they might not be that different than the self-study materials that you can just buy for less the nice thing with these programs is they focus on industry certifications and even though they're short which requires extra study time because let's face it you're not going to learn a full certification in a week but they're a better return on your investment so i went ahead and pulled up new horizons boot camp for security plus and you can look through here but you can see it's just under 2 500 and it's really just focused on the certification again these certifications mean a lot in the industry as far as getting jobs applying to jobs getting past hr there's a lot of benefits to certifications and they really have a lot of value so this is definitely something to consider if you're looking at boot camps and you're really set on one and frankly i prefer these over the university programs now the third option that exists is through organizations like sans and gex certifications if you're familiar with sans or diac they're really well known in the industry and even though this is similar to the second option that we just went over it's significantly more expensive you're talking about seven thousand dollars or more for the course you could do the work study program and that will drop the cost a lot but it's still not cheap stands and giac stand out because they actually have their own certifications that really stand out in the industry where something like new horizons they're just training you for comptia or some other certification vendor another difference is that sans actually provides you recorded training of a boot camp after your week ends so you get access for up to four months while you're preparing and that's different than the other boot camps because typically you're going to have the class and then it's going to be over and all you'll have is the books or whatever study materials that they gave you this is the website for sans training and this is for the sec 401 or the gsex certification training and they give you a lot of good information in here and you can see who the instructors are which is great but this is actually a really good course i'm a huge fan of sans and giac just because they're so well known in the industry but for a lot of people it can be you know challenging to get into one of these courses because they are so expensive even with the work study program but you can see the different things that are covered and if you expand them so like network security and cloud essentials defense in-depth vulnerability management and response and so on so it's a lot of good information a lot of it isn't necessarily proprietary information but a huge benefit with sans training is that you get everything in one spot if you were to look up all these different topics out there it would take you a while probably to aggregate all this information so again i'm a huge fan of sans even though it's pretty expensive i hope you're enjoying the content in this video so far if you are make sure to hit the thumbs up to like this video and if you think of any questions make sure to let me know down in the comment section below also remember that this training and courses can be found on my website at john good.com without distracting interruptions or advertisements all right let's get back to the content now let's talk about why boot camps typically don't make sense in most situations most of the time when i get asked a question about boot camps it's because somebody is trying to get into cyber security without any experience or previous knowledge as somebody that's been through a lot of boot camps i can tell you it's like drinking through a fire hose because they're going to take all this information most of which you've never seen before and they're just going to go rapidly through it so it's going to be fast it's going to be hard to absorb a lot of it and especially if you haven't done any work beforehand it's probably gonna make your head swell up and feel like it's gonna explode some of these subjects and certifications can get really complex and they require that extra work outside of the boot camp and it's just not possible in one week for you to absorb all that information the second reason against boot camps is the cost like i said some of these boot camps are really expensive like sans seven thousand dollars are you gonna get a return on that investment i don't know you might not i've had certifications and boot camps where i didn't get any return on it going back to one of our other examples that we showed the new horizons boot camp for security plus well that was about twenty five hundred dollars so let's assume that that gives you exam voucher and books the exam voucher and books are gonna run you about 400 bucks and then let's say video training is anywhere from free to 50 bucks so we'll just call it 500 bucks to make it easy for self studying that means you're overspending by 2 000 is that worth it it might not be honestly now don't get me wrong boot camps can be useful and i'm a huge fan of sans training like i said but many people don't have the funds to actually go into these sans courses unless they're employers sponsoring the training there's no reason to go broke on this stuff when you can self study a lot of it i typically tell people to wait till they have at least three years of experience and then some of these less expensive certifications out of the way before they actually start worrying about boot camps unless your employer is going to pay for it of course now i'm not saying that rule is set in stone you can obviously do what you want but part of working in cyber security requires you to have some discipline and learn things on your own so it's a good thing to practice directly from the start question of the day have you ever attended a boot camp what was your experience at the bootcamp let me know down in the comment section below take what i said on bootcamps to heart i'm not making money either way but i want you to get the best return on your investment there's been times where i've spent thousands of dollars on training and i've gotten literally zero return on that i don't want you to make that same mistake remember it's not always about how much you spend it's how you spend it as always make sure to leave a like comment and subscribe check out my website at johngood.com for more training without advertisements resume reviews career advice and consulting services and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Jon Good

Views: 3,363

Rating: 4.9111109 out of 5

Keywords: Jon Good, cybersecurity, education, technology, cyber security, data security, cyber security bootcamp, infosec, information technology, cybersecurity for beginners, cyber security career, cyber security jobs, information security, cybersecurity careers, careers in cybersecurity, cyber security course, cyber security training, starting cyber security, cyber security training for beginners, sans institute, cissp training, comptia security+, cyber security analyst

Id: Hi9bci5gbw4

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021