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MJA Program № 12 of 14 Hands-on Career-ready

Cyber
Hands-On Program

This training program is focused purely on hands-on training and career-readiness. The goal is to equip students with the knowledge, confidence and tools to enable them to land that dream job in the shortest possible time.

Enroll Now View Curriculum
16wk
Programme Length
120hr
Lab Time
1:1
Mentor Pairing
100%
Real Projects
№ 01 / Overview

Skills first. Certs second.

Most cyber programmes teach you to pass an exam. This one teaches you to do the job. Mac Jason Academy is the place to start for current cybersecurity employees looking to build skills, career changers seeking to forge a new path, or veterans hoping to retrain for the next phase in life. The Hands-On Program is built around the philosophy that you learn cyber by doing cyber — not by memorising slides.

Through our strategic alliance with Mac Jason Consult, our students get the opportunity to work on real-world projects for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. By working under Mac Jason Consult, students acquire direct work experience on Cyber Security and Cloud Security projects for various firms, placing them at an advantage for workforce consideration.

Who this is for: Career-changers without a traditional IT background, IT helpdesk and sysadmin professionals making the jump into security, veterans transitioning to civilian cyber roles, and anyone who has tried the YouTube/certification-only path and realised it doesn't get them past the resume screen.

№ 02 / Outcomes

What you'll walk away with.

  • 01A portfolio that gets interviewsReal projects from Mac Jason Consult engagements — not classroom exercises.
  • 02Working fluency in core security toolingSIEM, vulnerability scanners, firewalls, Wireshark, Burp Suite — hands on, not just demoed.
  • 03An internship pathway with real clientsThrough Mac Jason Consult — work on actual client engagements before graduating.
  • 04A resume hiring managers will readReviewed and rewritten with input from people who actually hire for cyber roles.
  • 05Interview answers that don't sound rehearsedMock interviews drilled until you can tell your story with confidence and specificity.
  • 06A clear certification roadmapSecurity+, CEH, CSA — we'll tell you exactly which to pursue first based on the role you want.
Network operations centre with monitor walls
Chapter 03 — In the lab
№ 03 / Curriculum

Sixteen weeks. Eight project phases.

The programme is structured around eight phases, each anchored by a hands-on project drawn from real client work. Each phase concludes with a portfolio artefact and a mentor checkpoint.

TCP/IP, OSI model, subnetting, Linux command line, file system navigation, scripting basics. The foundation that everything else stands on. Built and configured a home lab as your first portfolio piece.
Confidentiality, integrity, availability. AAA, encryption, hashing, certificates, PKI, identity federation. The concepts every interview round starts with — explained until they're second nature.
Firewalls, packet inspection, content filtering, IDS/IPS, next-generation firewalls. Configure them in lab. Submit firewall change requests the way real shops do it.
System vs application vulnerabilities, social engineering, phishing, DoS, viruses, worms, trojans, web server hacking, system hacking. Detect and remediate each in a controlled lab.
Log management, SIEM deployment (Splunk and ELK), correlation rules, alert triage, threat intelligence enrichment. Run a simulated SOC shift. Write incident tickets.
Nessus, OpenVAS, Nikto. CVSS scoring, prioritisation, remediation tracking, executive reporting. The unglamorous discipline that anchors most cyber jobs.
AWS and Azure security fundamentals, IAM, security groups, S3 misconfigurations, CloudTrail / Activity Logs, shared responsibility model. The cloud-fluency hiring managers want to see.
A multi-week capstone modelled on a real Mac Jason Consult engagement, plus resume review, mock interviews, LinkedIn coaching and certification roadmap. Internship matching with Mac Jason Consult clients for top performers.
№ 04 / Faculty

Practitioners who teach.

Working consultants from Mac Jason Consult — students learn directly from the people running the engagements.

Lead Instructor · CISSP · CEH · AWS Security
Senior Security Practice Lead

Twenty-plus years across red team, blue team and cloud security engagements for energy, healthcare and federal clients. Built the original Hands-On curriculum.

Mentor · CEH · Security+
Career Coach & Lead Mentor

Specialises in career-changers and veterans. Has placed dozens of Mac Jason graduates into their first cyber roles. Drills interview answers until they sound like the candidate, not the script.

№ 05 — From a graduate
"My experience with Mac Jason Academy has been life changing. The mentorship and tutoring I received, I wouldn't trade it for nothing."
SL
Samuel Lawson
Cyber Security Graduate
№ 06 / Questions

The questions we hear most.

No. The programme is explicitly designed for career-changers, veterans and recent graduates. You don't have to have a background in IT — many of our most successful graduates came from completely unrelated fields. The first phase builds the networking and Linux foundation everyone needs.
Yes — top-performing students are matched with Mac Jason Consult engagements for real client work. This isn't a guaranteed placement, but it is a real pathway. Performance during the capstone phase is the main qualifier.
Indirectly, yes. By the time you finish, you'll have most of the knowledge needed for Security+, CEH or CSA. We don't bundle the exam, but we tell you exactly which cert to pursue first based on your target role — and you can roll into one of our cert prep cohorts at a graduate rate.
Then you'll move through Phase 01 quickly and spend more time on the SOC, vulnerability management and cloud security phases. Working IT professionals often use this programme as a fast track from helpdesk or sysadmin into a security role.
Two evening sessions per week (Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30–9:00pm CT), plus a weekly Saturday lab workshop. 16-week format designed so working students can attend. All sessions recorded for lifetime access.
Yes — we partner with Mia-Share / Meritize for tuition financing with monthly payment plans. See Financial Aid for full details. Veterans should ask about scholarship options.
№ 07 — Enroll

Cohort opens in weeks, not months.

Hold your seat with a deposit. Speak to admissions if you'd prefer a quick fit-check first — including a candid conversation about whether the Hands-On Program or a single certification track is right for your situation.

Hold My Seat Call Admissions