Jay Leighton’s career with the British Army spanned 14 years. He joined the army after his GCSE’s, starting his career at the Army Foundation College, Harrogate before joining the 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.
Following active service in Iraq & Afghanistan and exercises in Canada, Kenya, Germany, Poland and Estonia – Jay left the regular army as a Section Commander and is a reservist with 3rd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.
Jay just finished a free two-month TryHackMe course which he accessed via TechVets. It’s helped to improve his confidence, but more importantly the training has helped him to secure his first Cyber Security role as a Penetration Tester with Hedgehog Security.
Jay is a TechVets member, here’s his story:
I was lucky enough to win a 2-month premium content voucher from the TechVets community. I put this voucher to good use starting in November 2020.
Prior to this I used a number of online training platforms such as Cybrary, Udemy, HTB and ImmersiveLabs. TryHackMe is possibly my favourite so far. It is mostly focused on ethical hacking or “pentesting”. It helps if you already have a basic knowledge of using the command line, but it isn’t a show stopper if you’re not familiar with it. There are lots of walkthroughs to show you the step by step process of how to use the various tools.
During the two month course, I managed to complete 40 rooms, reach the rank of 4,570 and earn 12 badges including the “1-month streak”.
The teaching style that TryHackMe uses is intuitive and easy to follow. Guiding articles break down each stage that you are learning about which then prepares you to enter the practical phase and apply your learning in the labs. The Hack The Box style rooms are a great feature which really test your skills and progress as you search to find ‘flags’. If you do get stuck there are various different write-ups that you can follow to help you progress.
I always start off trying to complete the room entirely on my own, but i have used both google and the write-ups to help me if I’ve become stuck. I also go back and slowly check my work for mistakes. It’s important to be strict with yourself at this point and only read enough to get you going again rather than jumping ahead to the whole solution. This sometimes works and I am able to complete the room. Now and again, I resorted to following the write-up completely.
Following the 2 months of working on the platform I feel like I am starting to get a better understanding of pen-testing methodology. I’ve also refined my knowledge and learnt about new tools in the process.
If there’s one downside to TryHackMe, it’s the addictiveness of completing rooms and climbing the leader board. It certainly brings out your competitive streak and I had a few late nights of wanting to complete ‘just one more room’.
Overall TryHackMe is an excellent resource for those working or wanting to work in offensive cyber security. For the beginners, there’s much to learn. For the more experienced there are many rooms in which to test your skillset and extend your abilities in fun ways.
Through our partnership with TryHackMe, our TechVets members are able to gain access to TryHackMe premium content lasting two months through a donation of ten vouchers renewable on repeat.
A huge thanks to the team at TryHackMe for supporting our members to gain valuable cyber security skills.
About the author
Jason Leighton
British Army & TechVets Member
Jay grew up in the middle of the lake district and developed a passion for the outdoors. He joined the army after taking his GCSE’s, starting his career at the Army Foundation College, Harrogate before joining the 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.
After 14 years, having served in Iraq & Afghanistan and having exercised in Canada, Kenya, Germany, Poland and Estonia – Jay left the regular as a Section Commander. Jay continues his service as a reservist Platoon Sergeant in the 3rd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.
