If your goal is to land a job with the skills you acquire, you'll need more than just solid basic skills. It would be helpful to keep abreast of new development

If your goal is to land a job with the skills you acquire, you'll need more than just solid basic skills. It would be helpful to keep abreast of new developments, where there might not necessarily be a lot of training material yet. One way to keep up on what's new, is to watch the talks posted by security conferences. Speakers generally submit their freshest work, and are often playing their own game of resume-enhancement by getting their name associated with hot topics. So pay attention to not just the topics, but also the vocabulary around them... A lot of the newest-fanciest research won't necessarily be within your grasp as a neophyte, but some of it will, and some of it will inform your direction and focus as you work your way up. And some of it will suggest entirely new avenues, disciplines, and modes of thinking.