What is the career path of cybersecurity?

Cyber Security Careers

The cybersecurity industry remains a promising area of growth when it comes to career paths in tech and beyond. During the last year, while many industries saw decreases in opportunity due to the economic volatility and uncertainty that came with navigating an unprecedented global pandemic, the cybersecurity industry continued to grow. Remote work security risks, increasing ransomware attacks, and more all contributed to the increased need for cyber professionals. In fact, cybersecurity job postings saw a 65 percent increase during the pandemic.

Interested to know more about Cybersecurity career?Join HKR Trainings!

What is the career path of Cyber Security?

Becoming a well-rounded cybersecurity professional requires having well-rounded experience. Exposure and experience are critical building blocks of a cybersecurity career early on and will also become valuable (and make you more effective) as your career progresses and you become a senior cybersecurity leader. More importantly, exposure and experience allows you to learn which domains in cybersecurity you want to work in and you can then focus your career path more on those. Before committing to a domain of cybersecurity as a career path, it’s important to get exposure to different areas.

Examples of cybersecurity career paths

There are countless career paths within cybersecurity. Because it’s a fairly new and constantly evolving industry, you may see different categories and titles depending on the company or resource you read. However, it’s common to categorize paths in three areas:

1. Management

2. Technical

3. Senior leadership

Management: Security governance and oversight roles

The security management and governance domain is all about the oversight and management of cybersecurity within the organization. Though it’s important to understand as much as you can about technology and the technical nuances behind cyber risk, this area tends to be less technical than others. Instead of configuring systems or getting deep into operational support, a career path in this space entails using business savviness, organizational management, and soft skills to programmatically manage security. Example opportunities include, but are not limited to:

Training and awareness: The majority of cyber breaches stem from human error, making training and awareness of employees and customers a critical part of any cybersecurity strategy. A career in this space is one that involves designing curriculums and content in a way that is engaging and lasting to educate people on cyber risks and influence behavioral changes that promote security.

Audits and compliance: Cybersecurity is all about checks and balances. There are many rules and regulations, like PCI-DSS and HIPAA, that outline cybersecurity requirements for regulated companies. Professionals in this career domain work to achieve, verify and maintain compliance with those rules.

Third-party risk management: In today’s connected world, companies must pay attention to how their vendors and partners can impact their security posture. Countless security vulnerabilities stem from attackers breaching one company and then using that access to hop over to another connected company’s network. Professionals in this domain help verify and manage third-party security to ensure partners are not introducing risk to the company.

Project management: Every security strategy includes process and technology components. Designing and implementing these requires superb project management programs to ensure solutions are implemented effectively and efficiently.

Technical: Security engineering and operations roles

This path area covers the more technical roles in cybersecurity. Here you’ll likely be digging into systems, data, tools, and networks a lot more. The aim is to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats. Example opportunities include, but are not limited to:

Cloud security: With so many organizations moving their data and operations to cloud environments, the cloud has been a major topic of discussion in cybersecurity. Careers here involve protecting data and systems from compromise in off-prem or cloud environments.

Identity and access management: Protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data starts with the fundamental principle of controlling access. People should only have access to what they need to have access to, and only when they need it. Building a career in access management ensures just that.

Security engineering: Enterprise security requires a layered approach. Security engineering career paths include all of the designing and building of the layers of security systems required to protect the enterprise. Examples include building encryption systems, email security systems, firewalls, and more.

Security operations: With a countless number of hackers out there working around the clock to attack organizations, in defense, companies must keep a consistent watch on security posture, intrusion attempts, and more in order to defend against attacks. A career in security operations encompasses all of that monitoring and response.

Ethical hacking: A great way to uncover weakness in your system is to try hacking yourself. In this career path, professionals constantly try to break into the organizations’ systems and make recommendations for ways to improve security.

Senior leadership: Focusing on the people

Like any industry, company culture and leadership plays a critical role in the success of the business. Example opportunities in this space include, but are not limited to:

Chief information security officer: Senior leadership is critical in cybersecurity. To gain buy-in and support across the company, it’s important to have a senior-level champion who steers the team and the company towards a world-class cybersecurity posture. This career path requires a broad range of experience and understanding across all areas of cybersecurity, as well as strong people leadership skills.

Managers and directors of domains: Depending on the size of the organizations, every domain requires some form of leadership or management. This means that growing a career in some domains may present an opportunity to transition from doing hands-on work to leading and guiding a team of professionals who then do the hands-on work. Taking on this career path in any domain requires balance. To elaborate, it’s important to balance understanding key principles and best practices of the domain while understanding how to manage and motivate others.

Crafting a career path in cybersecurity can be an exciting journey. There is no right or wrong answer. There is no strict path to success. It’s important to gain exposure to what’s available, try new things, learn as much as you can, and figure out what domains you love the most. Then consider whether you prefer to build more in-depth career paths within those domains or gain broad exposure in pursuit of more senior leadership roles. Considering career path options also doesn’t have to mean sticking to one domain. No matter which path is chosen, have fun learning and growing throughout the journey.