Let me start with the truth: I didn’t choose the self-study path because I thought I was some kind of untapped genius. I chose it because I checked the price of a cybersecurity bootcamp and nearly choked on my instant noodles.
I want to become a network and cybersecurity engineer. Not because it sounds cool (okay, maybe a little), but because I genuinely love the puzzle-solving, the challenge, the nerdiness of it all. I just don’t love the idea of selling a kidney to pay for a course.
I Had Some Experience… Emphasis on Some
Before I went all-in on this journey, I had dipped my toes into IT stuff. I knew my way around a Windows system. I could troubleshoot basic problems and set up a home network without breaking into a cold sweat. But when it came to VLANs, ACLs, penetration testing, or even just figuring out how routing actually worked—I was pretty much staring at alphabet soup.
My Learning Stack? Scrappy and Glorious
I couldn’t afford fancy subscriptions, so I built my own Frankenstein learning program out of whatever I could find:
- YouTube — My main professor, tutor, and sometimes emotional support.
- Old textbooks — Bought used or found online (legally! mostly).
- Free labs — Cisco Packet Tracer and GNS3 were the MVPs.
- Forums and Reddit — Where I learned that I’m not alone in thinking subnetting is some form of psychological warfare.
- PDFs and blog tutorials — Half of them outdated, but still gold once I filtered out the fluff.
It was messy, confusing, and very DIY. But slowly, things started clicking.
Labs: The Trial by Fire
If you’ve never accidentally shut down the wrong virtual interface and spent 45 minutes diagnosing a “network outage” that you caused yourself—you haven’t lived.
My home lab setup was held together with virtual duct tape and determination. I was spinning up Ubuntu machines, Windows Server evals, and routers in Packet Tracer like I was running a small fictional ISP in my bedroom. I broke things constantly. I Googled everything. I celebrated like I won a Nobel Prize every time something just worked.
The Confidence Crisis (aka Every Other Tuesday)
There were days when I felt on top of the world—like I could explain what a firewall does and configure one. And there were days when I forgot what port HTTPS uses. (It’s 443. Ask me again in 10 minutes—I might forget.)
Impostor syndrome? Oh, we’re close friends. But I kept going. Because deep down, I knew I wasn’t doing this to impress anyone. I was doing it because I wanted to. Because every time I fixed a misconfigured IP or captured my first packet in Wireshark, I felt like I was unlocking a secret level of the universe.
The First Certs
Eventually, I went for CompTIA’s Network+ and Security+ because I needed a checkpoint. A way to prove to myself (and maybe future employers) that I wasn’t just a YouTube rabbit hole explorer—I was actually learning real skills.
Passing those exams felt amazing. Not because I suddenly knew everything, but because I realized I’d built that knowledge brick by brick, alone, with a shoestring budget and an unhealthy amount of caffeine.
Where I’m At Now
Still learning. Still messing up configurations and yelling at my laptop like it understands me. But now I’m comfortable with the chaos. I know how to troubleshoot issues without spiraling into existential dread. I know I’m on the right track.
And the best part? I did it my way. Cheap. Scrappy. Real.
Final Thoughts
If you’re thinking about diving into networking and cybersecurity but don’t have deep pockets—don’t let that stop you. You don’t need a $10k bootcamp or a closet full of switches to get started. You just need curiosity, grit, and the willingness to fail forward.
I’m not a genius. I’m not some tech wizard. I’m just a person who wanted it badly enough to stick with it. And if that sounds like you—welcome to the club. We have no money, but we do have Wireshark.
And sometimes, that’s enough.