This blog post talks about my plans & goals for 2025.
Introduction
What can I say, Q1 of 2025 is flying by really quickly. I wanted to document down my plans somewhere so that I can motivate myself and have some form of accountability.
2024 Reflections
2024 has really been a journey. I completed my PT+, OSWP, OSCP, CPTS and AWS Security Specialty. Looking back, I completed everything I wanted to do. 2024 feels like my “introduction” to cyber security kinda year. I touched on the basics of pen-testing, cloud technologies and just basic security posture knowledge.
Even though I’ve checked off my 2024 goals, something still feels wrong (?). In retrospect, I only studied with the goal of passing the various certification exams and nothing else. Sure, I’ve picked up some new skills and experience but how much of it can I retain? I realised that besides my exam reports and scribbles on Obsidian, I don’t have an organized “central” repo of specific steps and notes. This is something that I would like to do in 2025.
I also realised that it may be beneficial to me to narrow down my scope and focus one 1 key area. For example, if i were to commit and “all in” into Pen testing, then I should avoid going astray with perhaps studying the cloud stack or AI technologies. But personally, I really enjoy learning new areas of technology… Thankfully, these areas have somewhat of an overlap, so its not like my efforts are wasted. I’ll probably continue learning as much as I can before settling on one area to really focus on.
2025 Goals
Side note, I have another subdomain that has articles related to AI, do check it out! At the time of writing Feb 2025, I’ve just completed my GCTD course and my OSEP Learn One subscription just started. I’m wayy to busy with work at the moment to have the energy for OSEP right now. My plan is to brush up on my web knowledge before starting on OSEP. I’m considering doing PortSwigger, but i’ll hold off on that for the moment. Time check: Its now May… I just returned from a long overseas trip and I should really continue my 2025 plan. Thankfully, I passed my CBBH exam right before I left. Now alls that left is to complete OSEP.
2025 Last Quarter Goals
Edit: I’ve successfully passed my OSEP recently (Sept 8)! Yay! Personally, feels like another big milestone for me. I’m still contemplating if I should attempt OSCE3 in the future, but thats a decision for another day. On a side note, I still feel so lost in Cyber, I don’t exactly know what I want to specialise in, or rather, what I’m good in. Not sure if anyone reading this is at that stage in their career/life too. Theres so many things happening all at once… Hope I’ll figure something out soon! On a side note, I have recently changed jobs! I’m still doing cyber related stuff but now in a different area. I used to do Detection Engineering / Anomaly Detection ish work but now its pure Security Operation Center (SOC) work. The past few weeks has really been hectic, just learning the ropes. I should really have a plan on how frequent I’m spending time exploring new topics and writing new posts. Lets get it.
- SANS Sec-541 (GCTD) Cloud Threat Detection
- HTB CBBH
- OffSec OSEP
- Tidy up my notes and write more articles
- Look into RE / Forensics stuff
Lets go! Have a blessed 2025 everyone.