Additional Experience(Required)

Projects

By graduation, you should have:

A home lab (VMs, Linux servers)

5–10 real projects, such as: - Vulnerable web app + exploit - Network monitoring tool - Password manager - IDS ruleset - Secure API

Other ideas: - Log analysis project - Packet analysis writeups - Home lab attack simulation - Detection rule creation - Python automation script

Projects turn “I studied” into “I can do”.

Specialization Depth

You MUST specialize to get paid well.

Examples: - Web app exploitation - Cloud Security - Detection Engineering - Reverse Engineering - Secure Backend Systems

Experience

High paying entry roles often come from: - Security Internships - Software Engineering Internships - Research With Professors - Bug Bounties - Open-Source Security Contributions

Proof>Credentials

Employers care more about: - GitHub - Writeups - Blogs - Demos Less about: - GPA - Certifications - Number of courses completed