“Just like in life, in cybersecurity the smallest habits—vigilance, caution, and curiosity—can make the greatest difference in your safety.”

Hi, I am Nakulan - an aspiring penetration tester and ethical hacker. I recently completed the Google Cybersecurity Certificate and decided to commit one full month to land a cybersecurity internship — without paying for expensive certifications like CEH or CompTIA.

This blog marks the end of my first week, and I want to document everything I’ve learned so far. Hopefully, this will help others who are also starting from scratch and aiming for practical experience.

The Evening That Changed Everything: How I Began My Internship Journey

It was a fine evening when it suddenly hit me — I’m already in my second year of college, and I haven’t really developed the skills needed to land my first internship. The realization was overwhelming. I didn’t even know where to begin. I did have some basic familiarity with Kali Linux, but I wasn’t sure how to take that further. Like most students today, I turned to ChatGPT for guidance. Surprisingly, it gave me a clear one-month roadmap: where to start, what to learn, and how to stay consistent. In fact, it was ChatGPT’s idea to document my progress through weekly blogs — and here I am, writing my very first one. This blog marks the beginning of my journey to grow, learn, and hopefully land that first internship.

Goal of this journey

My mission is simple: to land an internship in penetration testing, ethical hacking, or any related field in cybersecurity — purely through skill-building, consistency, and proof of work.

TOOLS AND ACCOUNT I SET UP THIS WEEKTo kickstart my journey, I began by setting up the essential platforms that will help me learn, practice, and document my progress:

TryHackMe – For hands-on cybersecurity labs and guided learning paths. This will be my main platform for skill-building.
GitHub – To showcase my progress, store notes, and share any scripts or tools I create along the way.
Hashnode – This is where I’ll be posting weekly blogs like this one to document my journey and build proof of work.

I already have Kali Linux installed and have worked with it before, so I’ll be using it as my primary environment for most of the practical tasks and labs.

What I learned this week

I focused on understanding the fundamentals

TryHackMe - Learning Cyber Security:
- Web application Security
- Network Security
TryHackMe - Introductory Networking:
- OSI model, TCP/IP model
- NMAP commands- ping, traceroute, whois, dig
TryHackMe - Offensive Security Intro:
- Hacking my first machine using gobuster (only basics for now)
TryHackMe - Pentesting Fundamentals:
- Penetration testing ethics, methodologies
- Explored difference between Black box, White box, Grey box Penetration Testing
TryHackMe - Linux fundamentals 1:
- Background on Linux
- Navigating and interacting with the file system: echo , whoami
- Searching for files using cs, ls and find
TryHackMe - Windows Fundamental 1:
- Explored the Windows Desktop (GUI) and File System
- Learned about System32 folders, User Accounts, Permissions, and User Account Control
- Understood the purpose of Settings and the Control Panel

Key Takeaways

basics of networking and operating systems really helped me see the bigger picture.
Tools like Nmap, Gobuster, and Linux commands are not as scary as they seemed at first — hands-on practice makes a big difference.
The ethical side of penetration testing is just as important as the technical side.
TryHackMe makes learning fun and structured, and I’ve realized that consistency is key — even just 2–3 hours a day can lead to solid progress.
Writing this blog helped me track what I learned and stay accountable. It’s something I’d definitely recommend to others starting out.

Week 2 Preview:

Next week I’ll dive into real hacking labs on TryHackMe:

Vulnversity
Simple CTF
Pickle Rick

I’ll learn about scanning, enumeration, and privilege escalation.
I’ll also post individual writeups on GitHub and turn them into tutorials here.

Follow my journey:

GitHub: https://github.com/NAKULAN14

Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nakulan-devarajan-4486611b8/

Thanks for reading- Excited for week 2

If you’re new to cybersecurity, start today. It’s never too late.

WEEK 1: My Cyber Security journey