Yep, they're great courses. Make sure you actually do it.

Vivek is an excellent instructor, and he goes from nothing to getting you up to speed pretty quickly.

The first parts might be a bit dry, because it's a lot of architecture and theoretical stuff. But after you get through that, and start doing things, you'll find that it's awesome.

Also, if you don't want to be a pentester, you might find a particular affinity for exploit development. And that's a niche field that pays well. That's where I'm going with my training, research, job. Not easy, at all, but it's deep, and fun.

Absolutely agree! Vivek's ASM tuts are amazing. Additionally, Nikhil's red team lab is highly recommended.

Will check that one out. I only have a rough idea of what a red team is (abstract, some books, etc), but no practical experience with it.

Thanks for that recommendation and advice, I appreciate it. Yeah, I'd definitely prefer to find and propose fixes for exploits over full pentesting (reporting/client work).