I concur with the virtual machine thing. You need to setup your own lab at yourhouse. Here is something I posted in another post:
One of the key things to gain the experience needed is to volunteer. Even if you do not get compensated for it. Too many people I have worked with only want to do the job if they get paid WHILE they are doing it or learning how to do it. I would equate it to the players on a bench on a basketball team saying "Well, when I get paid like a starter, I will put in the hard work required to increase my skills to be good enough to be a starter." I agree, most companies want to be able to find the person who already has the "starter" skills and not the "bench warmer" type person, but I moved successfully from the bench warmer role to starter role because of stories like this:
In one interview the panel could see I did not have the experience performing the IT duties they were requiring because I had never formally held a paid position performing those duties. I was able to answer their technical questions about how to do things on the system. However when I said "Yes I have not performed these duties at work, but I have performed these duties in my home lab." the interviewer asked about the details of my home lab. When I told them I had 14 computers, a router and KVM switch to connect it all. I had 3 servers and 11 computers (This was before virtualization was a big thing, and yes it was noisy but my spouse let me keep all of my 'toys' running in the basement!)" They said that was impressive. I showed them a picture of it and they said "If you took that much initiative to set that all up, I believe we can teach you the rest. When can you start?"
I am sure there are jobs going undone at your workplace. Look for those and ask your boss if you can do them or shadow those people who are doing security.
