Overview
I have created this flow chart to help you take a decision on whether or not the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate is worth it for you.
Context
I am someone who is not completely new to Cybersecurity and I have hands on experience across several things in Cybersecurity. I use Linux btw and I have been writing Python programs since I was in school. I have also used SQL. I run a physical home lab with my own DNS server. And I have done some Cybersecurity labs using Wazuh and other things. And I also know AWS cloud very well.
Explanation
The only positive thing I can think of about the Google Cybersecurity Professional cert is the 30% discount for Security+. I had to spend a lot of time watching the entire course in 2x speed and skipping several videos to the end because I already knew a lot of contents of the course.
That course was extreme beginner level stuff. They teach you the ultra basics of computers. They tell you to create a portfolio and put some projects on it and most of the portfolio projects are editing word documents and excel sheets about fake businesses cybersecurity assessments.
They did teach some technical things like Linux, SQL and Python but those are also extreme beginner level stuff. All the "hands on" labs were just copy pasting given commands into the terminal. Those commands were also extremely basic ones.
I literally wanted to throw my phone at the wall when the guy in the course started teaching how to create a Google account. It is so watered down to ultra beginners if you touched a computer in your life before this course will teach you almost nothing. That is why in the decision flow chart I recommend not taking the course if you have the money and worked with computers.
Cost Calculation
(the costs are the values displayed in the official websites when this blog post was written and is bound to change in the future)
- Security+ Voucher is $439
- 30% of $439 would be $131.7 (money saved), so if that is the discount you will be paying $307.3
- The Google Cybersecurity Professional cert's fees keeps changing and there are often discounts for Coursera and there is financial aid. In general it is $49/month and it can be completed in less than 2 weeks.
- $49 is much lesser than $131.7, you will be saving $82.7 if you take Google Cybersecurity Professional Cert before Security+
If you can afford it I would say don't waste time on the Google Cybersecurity Professional Cert and directly go for Security+ but if you need to save the $82.7 then I would say sit through the course.
Conclusion
I finally completed the course after struggling with it (because of how watered down and condescending it was) and I will be using my discount for Security+. If you already know what a computer is, skip it and go straight to Security+. The only reason to take this course is the discount.
Top comments (0)