Here's my advice on how to enter Cybersecurity for students and beginners alike. Sourced from my personal experience and some of my peers and their experiences.
PS. No stories. Just content.
Take a look at this page for all types of resources where you can learn Cybersecurity from. Below are some tips but learning from this page will suffice. Career & Learning Resources - CyberSecurity
Understand that you can have a successful career in cybersecurity, even if you bring a non-technical background to the table. Your background does not matter, as long as you are interested in learning and figuring out how technology works.
Cybersecurity is vast. There are a growing number of fields in cybersecurity that do not focus on solving technical problems, but instead more human focused problems. You can take your pick.
Take a look at this to try and picture how vast cybersecurity is and try to find your interest among these.
Don’t worry about what path you should take at first. Give yourself time to play with and understand all the different technologies options. Over time, your interests will guide your path.
Never try to learn everything at once. It will lead to a quick burnout.
These skills help a lot if you are entering into Cybersecurity
Coding - Explore the basics of coding, which can help you understand the language for creating web pages and web applications. Start with languages such as C++ (best to learn coding), Python (Once you understand coding concepts, use python to build stuff), HTML (to understand how the web works) and a bit of Javascript (JS is and always will be, King)
Systems - Learn the basics of administrating a system. The two most common systems are Linux and Windows. If the resources are available, I recommend you start with Linux first and learn how to administer Linux using the Command Line Interface (CLI), as opposed to the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Learning how to administer a Linux system from the command line, to include scripting, is an extremely powerful skill that will help you no matter what path you take.
Applications - Learn how to configure, run and maintain common applications (computer programs), such as a webserver, database or DNS server.
Networking - A network is a group of computers or devices that communicate with each other, to include capturing and analyzing network traffic. Learning how a network works is an invaluable skill.
Some more tips
Network, network, network! I cannot stress this enough! (people; not switches)
Get certified. If you know nothing about IT/cyber the best thing to do is show your passion and drive by getting certified. It shows that you are willing to invest in yourself and have drive for the field.
Get a helpdesk job. Yes, it's not the greatest, and it may not be what you want. It's a starting point. Spend 6 months - 1 year at a helpdesk and move on to the next level. Double dip and get certified while working at the helpdesk.
Discover what field you want to pursue. There is no " IT position" Do you want to be a sys admin? Do you want to lead? Do you want to perform penetration testing? Do you want
to reset passwords for the rest of your life? Whatever it is, find it and create your "Why". Watch Simon Sinek on YT.
Finally, arguably the biggest piece of advice I can give. Get HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE! Do not sit around waiting for that "Next-level" job to give you the experience. You can perform most job duties in a lab, on your own VM or network. This really shows that you went beyond the normal 9-5!