eJPT

I recently completed the eJPT certification from eLearnSecurity. I originally bought the Penetration Testing Student (PTS) course in December of 2019, with the thought that I would have it completed within 2 months or so. I was extremely motivated to get it done, and then life happened.

Jumping forward to the time of writing this post, I started the material again about a week ago. I actually forgot about the certification/course entirely, but luckily eLearnSecurity’s auto-email feature to remind me I only had 10 days to complete the exam jump started me to get it done. I completed the certification Monday, November 16th. Coming back to the material was both good and bad. It showed me two things:

• I grew both my knowledge base in security/pentesting in the past year
• I brain dumped most of what I learned initially

The course material was really well written. It covered all the basics and then moved past that to introduce tools and techniques of pentesting. I especially like the emphasis on a pentester’s mindset. That seems to be missing from many courses.

The exam was really well done. You get 3 days to complete it and it’s framed as a real (as real as you can get with an exam at least) pentest. You are sent a PDF with scope, requirements, rules of engagement, and everything else you need to complete the exam.

Overall, this certification had a lot of good material. Granted, it is a foundational level course and certification. You won’t be getting blown away by the material if you have been learning and pursuing security on your own for 6+ months. However, it was a great course to show me that I was on the right track. It checked a box for me on my goal sheet, and that’s what I was looking for.

This certification will not get me a job in Pentesting, but I didn’t ever think it would. It was merely something that I could learn, utilize labs to expand and test my knowledge, and get a hands-on certification rather than a multiple choice certification that doesn’t justify your knowledge whatsoever.