What cybersecurity certifications should I pursue for different career paths in cybersecurity?

For blue team roles in security operations centers (SOC), the CompTIA CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst) certification is recommended as it teaches operations center skills, incident management, automation, and working with security information management tools. It's specifically designed for SOC analysts and frequently appears in job descriptions. For red team or penetration testing roles, the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) from EC Council is highly recommended. The CEH provides comprehensive training in real-world hacking tools and methodologies, teaching students about attack techniques, malware creation, penetration testing, and privilege escalation. CEH is more recognized in job descriptions and typically associated with higher salaries compared to alternatives like CompTIA PenTest+.