I got my Novell NetWare certification in the 1990s. Between jobs after that, I ran network cables and configured routers as freelance work. When I moved into IT full time, I was configuring the same routers.
When I eventually moved into cybersecurity, I did not struggle with the concepts the way I watched others struggle. Not because I was smarter. Because I already knew what a subnet was, how routing worked, and what happened to a packet between point A and point B.
Security+ tests security concepts. It assumes you already understand the network those concepts live on.
Firewalls filter traffic. If you do not know what traffic looks like, what ports are doing, or why a TCP handshake matters, a firewall is just a configuration screen with options you are guessing at. Intrusion detection systems alert on anomalies. If you have never seen normal traffic, you cannot recognize an anomaly. VPNs encrypt data in transit. If you do not know what “in transit” means at a packet level, that sentence is vocabulary, not knowledge.
The cert gets you past the resume filter. That part is true and worth doing. But the resume filter is not the job. The job is reading logs at 6 AM, tracing a connection through four hops, and deciding whether something is a misconfiguration or an active threat. That work requires networking knowledge that Security+ does not teach because it assumes you have it.
Entry-level security has a churn problem. People get hired on a cert, arrive in the role, and are lost within 90 days. The cert did what it was supposed to do. The networking gap it did not cover is what ends those jobs. The counterargument — that people get entry-level jobs with a cert alone — is true. It misses what happens three months later.
Network+ before Security+ is not a detour. It is the floor the rest of the material stands on. The combination tells a hiring manager something different than Security+ alone: that you understand the environment, not just the threats. That opens different doors. Roles that start with actual access to production systems instead of a ticket queue. Teams that expect working knowledge from day one.
I spent years running cables and configuring routers before I understood I was building a cybersecurity foundation. You do not have to do it the long way.
If you are studying for Security+ and want someone to look at your resume and identify what experience gaps are showing, I review cybersecurity resumes and LinkedIn profiles for $97. Resume + LinkedIn Review
Written by Mario Martinez Jr. (ku5e / Gary7) | TryHackMe Profile | ku5e.com/blog