I get asked by students often enough what certifications they should be aiming at. Usually, it's a few freshmen that heard that the OSCP was industry standard for penetration testing and have now set their every so green sights upon that. It's always an interesting conversation correcting that piece of misinformation. There's also an occasional couple of soon to be graduating seniors who would like to bolster their resume with a cert. There are also the students who heard that the CEH was the way to go if you want to become a "real hacker". Bleh. I think this is where the Pentest+ comes in. Recently, I sat for and passed the CompTIA Pentest+. This will be the certification that I now recommend to my students....along with the Security+ of course. While the argument can be made that this certification is not comprehensive enough with it being completely theoretical and not at all practical there's still value to be found in it. It's an introduction to the w