The aim of this post is not to talk about how to perform effective penetration tests, but it's more around taking the first steps towards a career as a Penetration Tester. I want to talk about the kind of things that I look for in candidates, the kind of skills that I found useful when starting out, and as a candidate what to look at first. Information Security is a huge field and you've got a whole career to learn all of the details, but where should you start?