How i got hired in company without school or certification?

Hi everybody, in this post I will show how I got hired by Silensec cyber company.

This article will be all about how I got hired by an international cyber security company.

Little Story

Well, hello everybody and welcome to this post. I’m Franko and I have two roles in the work: Penetration Tester at Silensec and Offensive Security Consultant at Cyber Ranges (Cyber Ranges is a sub-company platform of Silensec which is mainly focused on training delivery work and CTF games). Ok, many people ask me how I got to the cyber company, at that time when I was accepted I was 21 years old (very young I know what you thinking, I’m still young haha xD).

Well, first a big event was organized in Albania in June 2021 with the focus on cyber security in the blu-team category (defensive cyber analyst). I participated in this event and I won second place in Albania for the blue-team cyber drill. This event was powered by Cyber Ranges[Silensec] (the platform I work on now) and in cooperation with the AKCESK (National Authority On Electronic Certification And Cyber Security) in Albania.

How did I got hired by Silensec?

Well after I won this big event in Albania I saw a free place for red team candidates to go into the offensive squad of Silensec. Red Team or Offensive Squad is an attacker squad which the main job is to find vulnerabilities and exploit the system. I aslo create offensive scenarios in Cyber Ranges which is part of our job. After I submitted my CV, I got contacted by them and I was ready to make the first interview. After we made the first interview everything was fine and then it comes to the hard thing that I should pass the challenge.

Since i didn’t have a school diploma or a cyber certification it is a little hard to show others the skills but it was not for me :) xd. They gave me a medium challenge and if I pass this, i can get into the job and be paid directly. The challenge was to hack into the network and find as many vulnerabilities as I can (there were more than 3 hosts). I found 5+ bugs and i got inside the network. So it took me 2 days to complete and 1 another day to do the penetration report. After this, i got a third interview and this was the last one which was very constructive and also very cool when you hear that you have passed the challenge.

Think Outside The Box.