Navigating Career Paths: Is cyber security a good career

Is cyber security a good career for you? Cybersecurity can be an amazingly rewarding career, which offers a great opportunity to continually learn, and work on diverse projects and can also be financially rewarding.

As security is a growing industry in high demand and cyber security is becoming a more pressing concern for many businesses, as data breaches are reported, the opportunities within the cyber security field are increasing and with some initial knowledge and training, many can enter the cybersecurity field.

There can be some common misinterpretations of what a career in cyber security is, as well as the knowledge and skills needed to work within the cybersecurity industry, and how long it can take to start your career.

However, there is a diverse range of career paths available with multiple methods to begin learning and start looking for your first job.

Career paths for a cyber security professional

Careers in cyber security are quite varied and can include both offensive security roles and defensive security roles.

The reality of many job roles, often includes a blend of responsibilities and knowledge for these offensive and defensive processes, as understanding how one process works can allow you to better prepare for the other.

Where To Start in Cyber Security

Many start their career in offensive security, although there are plenty of other routes available, many of which can still lead to the same type of career.

If you have been looking into cybersecurity and envision the role of a ‘penetration tester’ or ‘ethical hacker’ there are quite a few technical skills needed so starting in a role where you can learn the fundamental skills needed can be a great choice.

Roles, where you can learn about defensive security and understand how to protect against potential threats, can also help understand exploitation methods often used by attackers.

Depending upon where your skillsets lie, cyber security also presents opportunities for multiple disciplines. With career opportunities for technical roles, programmers, analysts, compliance, risk management, and administration, training, and education, as well as general management and organization.

It can often be the case that you may be looking to enter the field from a more technical or analytical role, however, you may also then progress your career into compliance, management, or training.

Although there are far more roles in security than can be covered in detail, a few examples of roles that you could work towards within cybersecurity include the following:

Security Managers

In a security manager’s role, you will need to maintain oversight of all of your company’s IT systems, and users. Understanding how they all operate, the data security policies in place to govern them all as well as who has access to each system and their permission levels.

Understanding what is in place and how things are working will be crucial to understanding where your potential risks are and how to mitigate these risks. You will also be in a position to guide your company towards security improvements and be responsible for maintaining security compliance standards and working with 3rd parties to conduct regular security assessments against your systems.

Security Architect

As a security architect, you will often be working on the implementation of new systems and solutions and determining the security policies, processes, standards, and technology that will be implemented.

A security architect will need to understand the overall business goals and objectives, the potential risks and threats that the business may face, and recommend appropriate security controls that will allow the business to achieve its desired outcome, while also maintaining data security and data protection and minimizing any potential threats.

Security Analyst

A security analyst will typically be responsible for monitoring networks and systems, identifying potential security threats, and reporting upon these potential threats to ensure the security of a business.

Some other roles for a security analyst can also include the implementation and maintenance of the security systems which they then monitor for threats, as well as recommendations to the business for security improvements.

Incident Management

When attacks against a business are raised, an incident management role is then responsible for acting upon these threats and taking the necessary steps to stop the attack, protect the business, and maintain or restore normal business operations as quickly and smoothly as possible.

As an incident manager, the role will also include responsibilities to design and practice different responses and action plans in the event of different threats. Ensuring both you and your team understand how to respond to different threats is critically important, as when incidents do occur, rapid response times are crucial.

Security Services or In-House Security

When working within the cyber security sector, there are also different approaches depending upon the type of company you work within. For example, your company may offer security services to other companies, in which case you may be working for multiple varied companies in different industries providing your skills and knowledge to help them improve their security.

You may also seek a security career for larger companies that have created an in-house security team. This type of career would allow you to focus your skills on your specific company, providing security information and knowledge towards existing projects, new developments, and ongoing monitoring of your company’s state of security.

Starting a Cybersecurity Business

Although not advisable when you are starting and have limited experience, you can also set up your own company or become self-employed, in which case you may be providing your security services to others, or may want to actively manage the security of your own company.

In this instance understanding best practice security processes and secure compliance standards may be of interest for how to manage your own self-employed business.

Continual learning and improvement

The cybersecurity field can be an incredibly exciting career path, with a decent salary to go with it, providing you enjoy learning new skills and technical skills.

Regardless of the specific role you take on within the cyber security industry, there is a continual development of new threats, new technologies, and new methods for both offensive and defensive security.

As potential threats and malicious actors are continually changing their methodologies and cyber attacks, you will need to stay up to date with the latest information available, the latest risks, and the latest security measures to be an effective security consultant.

While it is important to maintain your foundational knowledge related to cyber security, ensuring you stay informed of the ever-changing threat landscape is important to ensure your business can maintain its own security or offer the best security services to others.

Developing technology within cybersecurity

Maintaining your knowledge of developing technologies is also important for both defensive and offensive security. As an example, the continued development of AI can often be considered as something that will eliminate jobs.

While it is likely true that some jobs will be reduced due to AI, it can also be seen as a tool to be used, which in itself creates jobs.

Cyber security will inevitably be impacted by AI technology. Whether this is in a beneficial way as a supportive tool or a more advanced vulnerability scanning tool, or in a negative way through more convincing phishing attacks or more advanced attack methods, utilizing AI to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.

For those working in cyber security, maintaining knowledge of this developing technology will be critical for securing businesses and protecting against new and emerging threats.

Understanding how to utilize AI effectively will also be beneficial for job security, as it will bolster your existing skills as a cybersecurity professional.

The daily grind for cyber security professionals

The cyber security field is not always a continually exciting, digital battle where hackers are slowly breaking through different firewalls and you only have a few seconds left to hack the hacker and save the day.

Whether you work within a role that is largely focused on offensive security skills or defensive security strategies, there will inevitably be an element of daily “grind” that works its way into the job, with many cybersecurity tasks that need to get done.

This may be too many calls, meetings, reports, or something else similarly mundane that just works to get in the way of what you want to do.

This isn’t intended to dissuade you from a career path as a cyber security professional or convince you that it is not a good career. Cyber security can be an amazing career with moments of excitement and a constant stream of new and interesting information as well as tools and techniques to learn.

This information only works to add an element of grounded realism to your expectations when starting your career and to understand that like any other job, there are highlights and lowlights and things you love to do alongside things that you have to do.

While it is always encouraged to start a career in cyber security, you should also be prepared to have a few tasks to do that may not be your favorite.

However, you can keep in mind that you are still working towards the things you do enjoy and there are always the decent salary perks to think about to get you through the slightly more mundane tasks.

High salaries and opportunity

If you are working within cyber security, once you have a year or two of experience under your belt you should expect to have a high-paying salary or at least be qualified for jobs advertised as having a high-paying salary.

There is a skills shortage for qualified individuals within the cyber security industry, combined with an increase in reported security incidents and a heightened awareness of the importance of security for many companies.

Due to this, there is a demand for professionals with the knowledge and hands-on experience to fill the rising number of both entry-level roles and more experienced cybersecurity roles.

For experienced cyber security professionals, you can expect an average salary to be over $100,000, but this may require a couple of years of experience and learning a broad range of skills to keep up with a changing set of potential threats.

High career growth potential

The cybersecurity industry also has great potential for career progression. You may start your career learning technical skills for cybersecurity attacks and defense, however, you may want to progress as a cybersecurity manager and learn risk assessment and risk management skills.

There are career paths that can lead to roles such as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), where an average salary can be expected at over $200,000 and you will oversee an organisation’s cyber security development, strategy, and processes which govern how security is maintained at every level throughout the organization.

Options for remote work or travel

Depending on your personal preference you can specialize in roles, that can be conducted fully remotely, or involve a large amount of travel.

When providing security services for other companies it can be a common occurrence to travel to wherever that company is located, this could involve travel across the country or between different countries.

If you have an interest in traveling more and have this be a business expense, working for a security company providing services to other companies could be a preferred option for you.

Alternatively, many roles within cybersecurity do not require any travel and can be done completely remotely. Maintaining a company’s security, developing new security tools, and responding to incidents or developing processes can all be done remotely.

Depending upon a company’s policies a fully remote position may be available. This may also provide you with the opportunity to work from home, work for a company based in a different country, or work as a digital nomad, depending upon your personal preference.

Multiple diverse and varied career specializations

Cybersecurity jobs can be varied and diverse. As consideration for ensuring the security of any digital product is becoming a requirement, you can find careers developing the security for the latest model of cars, which provide remote key entry and remote engine ignition, or working on security policies and processes for the latest developments in artificial intelligence.

Your cyber security career can delve into the technical details of how the processes work within the latest operating system patches or can provide oversight and guidance on how employees are educated on the latest phishing scams.

Whether you prefer working at a technical level, prefer the creativity of code development, prefer to train and educate, or are looking into management positions, cyber security has a diverse range of aspects and career paths that allow you to specialize within your preferred sector.

An industry expected to see continued growth

The cyber security industry is still growing and currently faces high demand, with a rising number of countries experiencing a skills shortage, as reported here, increasing the demand for qualified individuals, particularly in North America, Europe, and Asia, which is contributing to growing wages within the cyber security field.

The cyber security field is projected to continue to grow into 2030 with more money also expected to flow into the industry as companies invest into their own security and spend more on security services.

As incidents of hacking and security breaches continue to be identified and reported, concern over the state of security will be on the mind of many businesses resulting in increased pressure to take preemptive action and invest in their security to avoid a similar incident.

Entering the cyber security industry

There isn’t any one way to enter the workforce for many industries and cyber security is no exception to this.

A common route to entry is to achieve a computer science degree and then transfer into security as a specialization, many colleges and universities now also offer degrees specifically for cyber security.

Additionally, there are qualifications for cybersecurity, free online training programs, apprenticeships, and other resources available to help you get started in an industry experiencing high demand. These online certifications can be obtained to learn the fundamental knowledge required for information technology and cyber security.

Online training programs have also been set up to allow individuals to practice the hands-on practical skills they may need for their chosen careers, such as Hack The Box and Try Hack Me.

For management and compliance roles a range of qualifications have also been established, with training courses and qualifications available for online learning, providing the flexibility you may need to learn new skills and begin your new career.

In addition to training and knowledge the importance of knowing other cybersecurity professionals within the industry shouldn’t be overlooked.

Reaching out to others on social media platforms or attending cybersecurity conferences to ask how others started their career and for any advice on how you can start yours, can allow you to start building a network of contacts whom you can ask for advice or information on potential career opportunities.

One of the most important things, similar to any career path will be hands-on experience and practical experience.

Qualifications and contacts can be amazingly beneficial but being able to demonstrate practical experience, times when you have encountered issues and overcome them, is invaluable.

For this, starting your career path is the only real way forward. So make sure your CV represents all your skills, keep learning on your own with available online resources, and apply for as many jobs as possible.