I guess I haven’t clearly articulated this in writing, but friends do not let friends without substantive IT work experience and/or a credible IT degree take cybersecurity career bootcamps in 2025.
They are up to no good. Shenanigans. Malfeasance. They are not a safe way to get a job.
People salty that I am gatekeeping - I am literally trying to keep them out of paying a bunch of money to skeevy organizations who will not help them land a job at all in the collapsing cybersecurity job market.
Get a degree in CS or computer/network engineering. Pick a general niche in cybersecurity, preferably less popular. Get your basic IT certs. Get a generalist IT support role. Get your second-tier certs. Network with people like hell for a couple years. Keep up your self-study. Participate in the community. Get somewhat lucky.
If you can't get the degree, then everything is the same but a lot more of the general IT work and all the other stuff to make a lateral career move later. The military is a possibility if that's your thing.
@hacks4pancakes a hard lesson to learn is to not put too much effort in saving idiots from the consequences of their ill informed, ill thought and ill conceived actions.
Some people seem to only learn from pain, IF they do, at all.
I recall a professor mentioning there are three types of people:
- the Smart, who suffer once and say "not gonna do that again!"
- the Wise, who see the Smart suffer once and say "Well, *I* ain't gonna do THAT"
- and those who are perennial examples of suffering.
Lesley Carhart 
Faraiwe