Hello Everyone, I am new here, I am college student with about ten months left before graduating. I am majoring in Computer Information Systems, with a distinction in Internet Security. I want to get into Pentesting, however, my school doesn't really offer pentesting courses, which is fine because I like learning things for myself. I don't know where to start, or how to "cement" a job in pentesting after college. I bought a book called "The basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing" by Patrick Engebretson. I am about to start working through it, I also grabbed BackTrack 5R3. Do I need to have a C|EH or eCPPT cert to even be considered for a position? I have the money to pay for my eCCPT course that includes the student, professional, 120 lab hours. and the cert. Any help, or advice you guys can give me would be great!!
Well to explain things a little better than just using metasploit, you need to learn about basics of tcp/ip networking, programming, how exploits work (buffer overflow, run trace), backdoors ect. Look up CompTIA Security+. This covers several areas of penetration testing that you will need to know. I've been studying penetration testing for several years so if you have any questions feel free to pm me.