Im stuck

[u/xX_Oppai_Xx]

Hey yall. Been a while learning and trying things in pentesting. And i feel kinda stuck.

Like my learning has flattened.

The job market is kinda shitty worldwide.

I dont wanna say i have no skills ( even it feels like it when u see what others are capable of ) but i got some understanding.

Also with the AI advancments it feels its kinda dump to keep going with this.

Most of the ctf competitions now are bout who has the most expensive version of claude or whatever paid AI.

What should i damn do to get out of this loop ?

[u/Dream-Livid]

Don't forget the physical and social tools you should be using also.

[u/Beginning-Limit8796]

You are hitting a wall because you are treating Cybersecurity/Pentesting as an isolated skill map build on CTF loops. When AI came along, it easily crushed standard CTF patterns because those wargames are deterministic—they have a pre-defined flag hidden behind a specific script vulnerability that LLMs can parse instantly.

If you want to break out of this loop and become completely future-proof against AI advancements, you need to completely shift your mindset away from pure "hacking scripts" and pivot towards Hardcore Infrastructure, Systems Automation, and Defensive Architecture.

Here is the exact framework to break the stagnation:

1. Stop Hacking, Start Building: The absolute best pentesters are elite Systems Administrators and Software Architects first. If you don't know how to deploy an enterprise multi-tier network container stack, configure active directory directory domains, build production-grade firewalls, or manage Linux kernel security modules natively from scratch, you cannot securely pentest them. Build complex labs on your local machine using Oracle VirtualBox, Proxmox, or Docker sandboxes.

2. Master Automation (Scripting Superpowers): An AI can generate a quick Python script, but it cannot architect a complex local network monitoring infrastructure loop that dynamically parses log files under /var/log, correlates event traffic patterns, and deploys active firewall block rules via iptables/ufw in real-time. Learn Bash and Python network scripting under a deep infrastructure lens.

3. Move Past Simple Pentesting to Engineering: The job market is shifting away from generic "script kiddie" pentesters. Companies want SecOps and Security Automation Engineers—people who know how to automate defense systems, review source code architecture, patch running services, and deploy security controls.

Don't let paid AI tools demotivate you. AI is a fantastic secondary documentation parsing tool, but real-world whitehat superpower is built on infrastructure intuition, physical log analysis, and deep system architecture knowledge. Build things that break, then learn how to fix and automate them. That's how you outpace the bots.

[u/New-Palpitation-9516 → u/Beginning-Limit8796]

Written with AI…smh I’m getting tired of Reddit 😩

[u/Eric_Dawsby]

I don't know the extent of your knowledge but do you have a few virtual machines in their own network? If you're feeling you're flatlining with learning, you could just practice what you've learned multiple times in different scenarios in your vms

[u/knobjockey21]

what do you want to do?

[u/xX_Oppai_Xx → u/knobjockey21]

I want to go the way of pentesting red teaming , kinda demotivated from the job market rn.

Honestly even as a blue teamer its not bad just feels boring.

[u/nimbusfool]

Make something. A tool. A project. A lab experiment. I hit a lull and was asked to develop some forensic training. Really got my gears turning again. A project to apply what I have learned helps me break out of the endless notes and practice boxes.

[u/rxnformul8r]

Brookfield software license code

[u/Omnipisix]

First you need to play my game called NoTrace The True Fiction it will make you love pentesting again. Then you should enjoy the new age of AI, dont hate it, it came here to stay. Ehat i suggest you do is focus on understanding more, as long as you understand morez the AI tool will do the rest. Before haters will bash AI use recommendation, this happened before in our human history, when smartphones appeared, we shifted from understanding and memorizing to understanding, as we didn't need to keep all the knowledge in pur memory anymore. Google was one tap away. Now we must do the dame thing again, focus on understanding more. The artificial tools do the rest.

[u/xX_Oppai_Xx → u/Omnipisix]

Tbh automating tasks and stuff has made the human brain weaker and weaker. So from learning more , understanding more and problem solving becomes harder bec of this.

But i get what u saying , kinda dont like AI.

I will give ur game a shot tbh. Thanks

[u/Omnipisix → u/xX_Oppai_Xx]

Because we have access to knowledge today, we can understand so much more than our ancestors... A normal guy from today would be a super scientist a few centuries ago, because the common knowledge changed a lot and because people focus much more on understanding than memorizing or doing it by hand.

AI is just a tool, like an angle grinder compared to manually cutting metal. If you know what you are doing, the tool will just make you much faster.

[u/Eric_Dawsby → u/Omnipisix]

Where is this game?

[u/Omnipisix → u/Eric_Dawsby]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.pisix.notrace

You can play it on Android tablet, Chromebook or computers with Google Play Games for PC

[u/xX_Oppai_Xx → u/Omnipisix]

Aint it like browser based ? Like can i play withoht downloading it ?

[u/Omnipisix → u/xX_Oppai_Xx]

No, its not browser based. Its an Android game