When I first clicked “Enroll,” I didn’t know it would add up to 162 hours of training.
That’s almost a full month of time — stolen from late nights, weekends, and early mornings before work.
Like a lot of people breaking into cybersecurity, I started with curiosity and a mess of browser tabs. YouTube videos, Reddit threads, course recommendations. It’s easy to drown in the noise. What made the difference wasn’t just finding the right content, it was learning how to stay with it long enough for the dots to connect.
Udemy became my training ground. Not glamorous, not perfect, but consistent.
Over time, those 162 hours weren’t just “video time.” They became hours of repetition, frustration, and slow understanding.
There’s a phase in every learner’s path where you stop studying for a test and start thinking like the work.
That’s what those hours taught me, how to reason through a network like a puzzle, how to see the seams where systems and people meet, how to build patience in a field where curiosity is the only constant.
Looking back, those 162 hours weren’t just prep for certification. They were the price of entry, not into a career, but into a mindset.
Every scan that failed, every lab that wouldn’t load, every problem that took three days instead of three hours, they were all small rehearsals for the real work ahead.
And that’s the absolute truth about cybersecurity training: the time never feels fast, but it’s never wasted. You’re not just learning commands. You’re learning endurance. It’s the art of staying with a problem long enough to earn its answer.
Matt Shannon, Security Pro 