There&#x27;s quite a few ways to get started with the skills you need for pen. testing and the good news is that a lot of them are free or low cost.<p>You should probably start by picking an area that you&#x27;re interested in (e.g. web, infrastructure, mobile) as whilst there&#x27;s some commonalities each area has it&#x27;s own toolset and specific areas of focus.<p>For learning there&#x27;s things like <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pentesterlab.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pentesterlab.com&#x2F;</a> , <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.offensive-security.com&#x2F;metasploit-unleashed&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.offensive-security.com&#x2F;metasploit-unleashed&#x2F;</a><p>For practicing legally , a lot of CTF competitions make use of skills which are useful for penetration testers, also places like vulnhub <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vulnhub.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vulnhub.com&#x2F;</a> have downloadable challenge machines that you can run in a VM.<p>In terms of meeting up with people in the industry, look out for local Defcon chapters or B-Sides conferences, both of which tend to be free or low cost and have some good content.