Evolve Security Academy

My experience at Evolve Security Academy was transformative. During the course, I developed a deep passion for cyber security by going through hands-on lab assignments with awesome instructors, in a close-knit cohort environment, while getting an opportunity to experiment with many different security domains. Since my time at ESA, I continue to receive support from the instructors, program leaders, and fellow alumni. The relationships built, passion developed, and experiences along the way have truly changed the trajectory of my career path!

I attended the cyber security boot camp fall session at Evolve Security. I never attended a boot camp before so I didn't know what to expect. Coming from the legal field with little technology skills I can honestly say I was a little intimidated. the intimidation went away on the first day. The staff and professors were awesome!! They understood most of their students work full time jobs, new to the cyber security field, and nervous lol. The Evolve Cyber Security experience was GREAT!  I learned so much information and the hands on training was like non other. You work with real companies while attending the boot camp. The labs, training, quizzes, and 24 hr help..... Evolve has the perfect ingredients to help you launch your career in the cyber Field.

Pros: Flexibility, real life situations, small class, free vouchers for certifications, job placement help, free training material, webinars/meetups.
Cons: only 1 professor in class. I think 2 professors will compliment the classroom.

I attended Evolve Security's in-person cybersecurity academy in the summer of 2019. This 16 week long course was instrumental in shaping my future career path, and teaching me the industry of cybersecurity. Prior to attending the academy, I had zero knowledge of the cyber world, and felt unsure if I was fit to participate in the academy. Yet the instructors helped quickly get me up-to-speed during the first few weeks, and were extremely helpful during the entirety of the course. From learning Python, using Splunk, to running vulnerability scans with Burp Suite, I was able to get a comprehensive understanding of relevant tools and how to use them. Perhaps my favorite part of the bootcamp was the hands-on, real-world experience gained by working alongside a local non-profit organization to perform a full security assessment. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in going into a career in InfoSec.

I had the unique experience of participating in the Evolve Security 17-week live in structor led bootcamp, an incredible experience, the Academy team works tirelessly to incorporate feedback and improve the coursework, labs, and direction of future modules. Having one foot in the bootcamp as a student, and one foot in the office as an employee, the appreciation of seeing how well balanced this program is, and my ability to contribute raw feedback was a rewarding experience. This is a fantastic program, and I'm increasingly proud of what I've learned and my ability to speak to aspects of security, both from a policy and technical perspective, that would have been improbable or prohibitively difficult to learn on my own, and with out the infrastructure of this program. 

If you are looking for the best way to break into cybersecurity and willing to put in the work, the bootcamp is the perfect fit for you. I learned so many different tools and techniques about hacking within the 17-week period. I started the bootcamp as a novice who barely had any knowledge about networking, but after the bootcamp with a lot of practices on many different labs, I was able to comfortably run an assessment on a host or even a subnet (from initial scan for host discovery to exploitation and reporting). Besides, I really enjoyed those blue team – red team exercises where we were divided into team and started attacking on each other. These exercises really helped me get better understanding about hacking from different vantage points, both defensive and offensive sides. As a software developer, I found this experience very valuable since it helped me become more aware about security and know how to properly harden my system to prevent potential attacks. All in all, I am very satisfied with the experience I got from the bootcamp and definitely recommend anyone who has an interest in cybersecurity.

The Evolve Academy Bootcamp was a fantastic educational experience. The material and instruction were insightful and concise. While it's impossible to cover every aspect of security in 17 weeks, the course provided a holistic approach to the material and covered both overarching theoretical concepts as well as hands-on technical implementations. The instructors were also more than happy to encourage students to dig deeper on subjects they were interested in, and provided fantastic examples of principles based on their real world job experience. 

I'm so glad I found the Evolve Security Academy Cybersecurity Program because it would have been near impossible for me to curate all the course content, exercises, quizzes, labs, etc. on my own (despite the vast availability of free resources, this simply is a very hard thing to do). The format (live online lectures, coupled with some recorded lectures and work you do on your time) was very effective! You don’t miss out on class and instructor interactions, and, at the same time, you get through much of the material on your own time. Class meetings were M-Th evenings for 2 hours—that made it easier to do than a longer stretch of 3 hours. Office hours were held every evening we had class, so you get the best opportunity to ask questions and stay abreast of the material. The Saturday classes were every other week for 5 hours, which allowed time for assessments, extended exercises, and labs. The curriculum was laid out in a logical sense, with additional resources given if you want to learn/practice even more. Having quizzes, many labs, and assessments kept us in line with the material. 
The best part of the program: the instructors and teaching assistants (T.A.s) -- knowledgeable professionals, fully available and helpful to a 'T'. Even though I loved all the instructors, I would say this program would not be the same without the close assistance of the T.A.s! I'd highly recommend the ESA bootcamp because it's a professional program and very well executed, with a huge amount of learning opportunities, and it prepares someone for an entry-level job in cybersecurity. The support in terms of instructors, TAs, the director, our career coach, the CyberLab learning portal, etc. is truly outstanding!