sho-luv

Hackers!!! ... We say sneakers. Mr Robot is probably the most honest.

ummm I wouldn't know ... they are anonymous.

I would say its usually scope. Request come in of the nature. "Hey can you test the security of my house? I would like you to test this part of the brick wall please." I tell them well I can see your front door is open. They comeback with we aren't worried about our front door because we are a wall company and we only want to test our walls. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Start applying for jobs. After passing the OSCP you should be able to get through most interviews.

I would say pick something and learn it. For instance. Maybe learn how to crack passwords if you don't already know. Learn all the places you can collect hashes from different systems. Practice obtaining the hashes, and cracking them. You can perform password audits on your DC with this skill. This will allow you to quickly identify people with weak passwords. As thats what I'm going to do if I ever end up on your network. Beat me too it and help them fix it.