What's next: preparing for my first official certification

2026-09

Up to now, my learning has been about building foundations: finishing several TryHackMe paths, building a home SOC lab, and practising phishing triage. Those completions proved I did the work, but none of them were an exam for a recognised certification. That is the next step I am taking, and I want to write about why, and what I am noticing along the way.

The advice that pointed me here

Recently I spoke with someone who has been in cybersecurity for years and is genuinely successful in the field. That conversation gave me clear, practical direction: what to focus on, what to pay attention to, and which steps actually matter early in a career. One of his specific recommendations was a certification he rated highly, precisely because it teaches hands-on, practical skills that will be useful in a real job rather than just theory.

I want to be honest about why this mattered so much to me. When someone with that depth of experience tells you a path is worth taking, it takes away a quiet fear every self-taught learner knows: the fear of pouring months into something that turns out not to matter. His advice gave me the confidence that I am not studying in the wrong direction.

The plan

The certification I am aiming for is the HTB Certified Defensive Security Analyst (HTB CDSA). To sit that exam, I first need to work through the SOC Analyst path on Hack The Box Academy, so that is where I am now, right at the beginning. It will also be my first time actually sitting an exam for a recognised certification. My TryHackMe completions confirm I finished the paths, but this is a different kind of milestone: a formal, externally recognised result.

First impressions: TryHackMe vs Hack The Box

I am only at the start of the HTB path, so these are early impressions rather than a verdict. But a few differences already stand out.

TryHackMe feels more traditional in its approach. It takes you from theory to practice in a very step-by-step way, with a lot of fundamentals explained carefully. Everything is done by hand, a strict human-first approach without AI, and honestly I think that was excellent for me as a foundation. Doing everything manually is how the basics actually stick.

Hack The Box, so far, feels more in step with where the industry is going. The use of AI systems is integrated into the learning right away, with clear explanations of the advantages of using AI as a SOC analyst and how it affects speed and performance. I have not gone deep enough yet to judge how far that AI integration runs through the practical exercises, but even in the early theory lessons the message is clear: AI is treated as a real part of a modern analyst's workflow, not an afterthought.

Neither approach is better in the abstract. If anything, I am glad I got the strict, manual TryHackMe grounding first, because now I can appreciate what AI speeds up without losing the understanding of what is happening underneath. That is the order I would recommend to anyone: learn it by hand, then learn to work faster.

Why I am excited

I am looking forward to going deeper into the HTB SOC Analyst path and preparing for my first official certification. It feels like a real shift, from proving to myself that I can learn this, to earning something the industry recognises. More than anything, I am grateful for the guidance that got me pointed in the right direction. Good advice from the right person is its own kind of shortcut.

That is the plan. The next posts will follow the journey as I work through it.