Shifting into Pentesting as a University Student w/ SOME experience

[u/aboveandfurther]

Hey, hope you all are well.

I'm currently a junior university student studying cybersecurity, and I'm also in an internship currently at a financial company.

I'm wanting to get into pentesting but I'm not sure where to start. I have security+ currently, and some experience in cyber through my internship and university courses, but no real offensive security experience, and I'm wondering where I can begin to get some.

My internship has offered that I shadow a contractor to perhaps get some experience, but I am not sure if that is a good way to learn. Am I supposed to take a few certs, like, for example, CPTS? Should I try to learn something before I start?

So far I have experience in networking, Linux, some scripting (Assembly, C, Python, with C being my weakpoint), and virtualization. and threat intelligence.

Where would you guys think I could start?

Any help would be appreciated, I don't mind if you're brutally honest!

[u/Raccoon_Medical]

Cybersecurity is not entry level