Your expert guidance towards a career in Linux.

TROOP3R

Greetings from India!



Hello fellow board members. My very first post on these forums intended to gather your experienced and invaluable thoughts/suggestions for a Linux newbie like myself. I do have a (windows based) technical work experience of 11 years +, but I've decided to make an everlasting career in the linux field. I've always been intrigued by linux and its mechanics however, the security/network part of it interests me more than the administration/scripting part.



So accordingly I've initiated linux classroom courses here locally for RHCSA/RHCE examination. Fortunately. I have a great linux tutor! 



After getting my certification, I'll further look towards in getting the relevant work experience, then move into security, penetration testing & enhancing my linux-based experience. Then go freelancing/consultant and ultimately get into teaching and spreading linux awareness wherever I can. But in between that I want to be a self-sufficient linux user. I am 33 years old, I know I've been delayed. 



What I need from you all is a good starting point or the prerequisites of getting myself into the aforementioned penetration testing route. Where to begin? What tools to be used? How to set up an internal test environment? Any other additional Red Hat based certifications etc...

I have an overview of the idea of Kali Linux, at the same time people mentioning this can be achieved with Ubuntu and setting up Kali based tools into Ubuntu and then moving ahead. 



Looking forward to hearing from you all.



Thanks!