I would look in to the OSCP . It ' s 100 % handson , the final exam consists of performing a pentest in their lab environment and writing a report . Their practice labs are great . You VPN in to the lab environment and have access to something like 4050 machines that suffer from various vulnerabilities . edit The CEH wouldn ' t hurt either . It really won ' t teach you any important realworld skills , but it will help you get through the HR filter at larger companies . It ' s basically resume fillermaterial , but it does help in many instances . <| sep |> Notice Hicks didn ' t play . I think Rick is trying to reign in them jacking them up . <| sep |> I always think of Jaguars when I see them . I ' ve never seen a Maserati IRL . Only in a car show . You just don ' t see them in Indiana . So , one would never come to mind .