> I doubt that these 750,000 roles exist in the first place or that these companies offer salaries high enough to motivate workers to fill these roles.

>You're likely to attain more worthwhile knowledge by purchasing a second-hand wireless router, dumping the firmware, and finding a null-pointer dereference bug.

Let's keep in mind that a lot of these cybersecurity roles are for people who are meant to be cogs in a machine. Certifications can be useful for people who are new to the field, but for the jobs that require them, they're more like a screening tool than anything else. Unfortunately it means the tests are on the certification material and not the current reality. It's a pain when you know better, but likely better than a company being staffed with workers who don't know how to pass an exam.