Take A Look At The Roles You Can Take In A Cybersecurity Career

The cybersecurity industry is absolutely gargantuan. The reason for this is that cybercrime is on the rise, with levels of internet fraud higher now than they ever have been before. The main reason that cybercrime is on the rise is that people are turning to the internet more to conduct business and make purchases. A lot of people are also investing online, trading digital stocks and cryptocurrencies.

If you want to get into the cybersecurity industry, then you need to explore the different career paths that you can take. This post will tell you about them.

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Online Courses

You don’t need to attend an Ivy League university to be able to get a job in the cybersecurity industry. In fact, you don’t need to attend any university at all. It’s entirely possible to get a Master of Cyber Security online, studying exclusively from home. In addition to making your resume look more attractive, online degrees also provide you with a lot of useful information that you can then use to build a portfolio and make a name for yourself in an industry. Cybersecurity courses will also help you to network with other people interested in forging names and reputations for themselves in the industry.

Cybersecurity Engineers

Under the ‘cybersecurity engineer’ umbrella there is a broad range of jobs, which include security analyst, network security engineer, security software developer, security architect, and many more. Cybersecurity engineers are in charge of designing, operating, and maintaining an organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure.

Engineers ensure that organizations have security defenses in place; they are responsible for implementing barriers, and then detecting and blocking attacks if they do manage to get through these barriers. Cybersecurity engineer positions can command very large salaries, which makes them extremely popular.

Cybersecurity Testers

If you have imagined a career in cybersecurity, then it’s very probable that you have imagined yourself working as a cybersecurity tester. When cybersecurity is referenced in film and television, it’s usually cybersecurity testers that feature as the film or program’s protagonist. A cybersecurity tester is an individual that hacks an organization’s cybersecurity barriers, in order to identify weaknesses.

Cybersecurity testers then report back to their bosses, explaining everything that they have found. Management can then go back to their cybersecurity engineers and recommend changes that need to be made. Some common careers under the ‘cybersecurity tester’ umbrella are penetration testers, exploit developers, white hat hackers, and research engineers.

Cybersecurity Responders

Cybersecurity responders are in charge of planning out an organization’s response to a hack. For example, if a team of hackers forces an organization’s website offline, then cybersecurity responders will have a pre-prepared plan for getting it back online. Additionally, cybersecurity responders investigate after a hack has concluded so that they can identify who the hackers were.

This is so that they can then take legal action against them so that they can be prosecuted under internet law. Some positions under this umbrella include forensics technician, intrusion and malware analyst, incident responder, and disaster recovery manager.

Getting Into Cybersecurity

Obtain Degree

If you want to get a job in cybersecurity, then most employers will expect you to have some kind of degree, which has already been covered. A degree will make you more attractive to employers, significantly increasing your chances of being hired, especially if the people against whom you are competing for a job don’t have their own degrees. Online degrees are very easy to obtain, not to mention very affordable when they are compared to traditional university degrees, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is another way of getting a job. It is a route that’s often undertaken by young people or college leavers. If you are over the age of 25, it’s unlikely that you will be able to apply for an apprenticeship. With that said, it’s still a possibility. If you see any apprenticeship positions going, and you are interested in taking that route, then it’s worth applying for. It is worth mentioning that apprenticeships don’t really pay a lot of money, so if you have a family to support, you likely won’t be able to do it on an apprentice’s salary.

Job Applications

Once you have obtained a degree, you can begin applying for jobs. You need to make sure that you put a lot of thought into your job applications, especially your personal statement. It’s not uncommon for people to take shortcuts on their personal statements, which can make their applications very unattractive to employers.

The cybersecurity industry is very competitive; a lot of people want to work as cybersecurity experts. If you don’t carefully plan out and complete your job application, then you likely won’t be able to get a job in the industry, because they will go to people who have put effort into theirs.

Hard Work

You need to work very hard outside of work and college if you want to become a cybersecurity expert. The best way to do this is to build a portfolio. When you have a portfolio, it’s the first thing that you can hand over to employers when you apply for job positions. Extracurricular work, such as creating systems and then hacking them yourself, or defending them, is a great way of showing employers that you know what you are doing and that you are passionate about cybersecurity.

Industry Networking

It’s a good idea to network with other cybersecurity professionals. If you haven’t yet gotten into the industry, then the best way to do this is online, using social networks and business platforms, like LinkedIn for example. You can follow and then communicate with cybersecurity professionals directly on LinkedIn. This will give you an opportunity to meet people, learn new things, and advertise yourself.

If you are a talented writer, then you can also write articles on LinkedIn, which you can share with your followers. If you have any senior cybersecurity professionals on your LinkedIn, they could read your work and then offer you a job.

Cybersecurity is a very desirable industry to get into right now, because nearly all businesses have websites and online systems, and most store their data using cloud systems. All of this gives hackers more of an opportunity to steal money illegally, and somebody has to fight against them, which is where cybersecurity professionals come in.