My personally opinion. It is best to study for a cert, but not actually take it unless if a company request it. Even more so if it is a gov job.
IDK how much of a noob you are. I would say study the CCNA/CCNP (networking certs).
Also I have a YouTube channel with a ton of cyber security videos on it. I’m not really making much more due to YouTube acting stupid, and YouTube actively against cyber security edu channels.
You should study the following
Social engineering
Man in the middle attacks
Malware types
Cracking
You might want to also learn about programming
