How to build a career in Cyber Security

Cyber Security is one of the fields that face a huge shortage of qualified resources, by 2021 there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions. One of every 4 candidates who are applying for that position is qualified.

The problem is candidates are qualifying themselves to join Cyber Security Career, most of the time they only depend on training or online courses which are available now at a very low cost on the internet.

Online training or courses are very useful to provide basic Cyber Security knowledge but not enough to get you the real-life experience that you need to have to be hired. The best approach to qualify yourself to join the Cyber Security career is to follow the below path

•Identify your current skills

•Identify the GAP

•Customize training

•Get Certified

•Get Real life experience

1 – Identify your current skills

Most candidates who are qualifying themselves came from different technical / non-technical background (Network, system, development, administration,) and as a start candidate should start by identifying his skills and what is the nearest job to his technical background, for that he can use a Cyber Security Skill Matrix which include most of the CS position with their job description

2- Identify the GAP

Form the CS skill matrix candidate can identity his strength and weakness and the skills remaining to be qualified for certain positron, this step will save him, cost and effort beside its considered the most effective way to achieve his goal.

3- Customize training

Training is very important to any candidate who is qualifying himself for a cybersecurity career but taking random training or unplanned training will not help and will lead to losing time and money, while customizer your training according to your need based on the cybersecurity skill matrix will help you achieve the missing skills in a short period of time.

4- Get Certified

A professional certificate is very important to be included in your plan to join a cyber security career, holding a CS professional certificate is like holding a driver license which is evidence that you know how to drive, while if you are driving very well but not holding a driver license, no one will allow you to dive his car, the same concept apply for cyber security certificate professional certificate, it reflects your credibility, but the candidate should select the right certificate according to the position is want to apply for, there are tons of professional certificates available now, some of them doesn’t have a value in the market while other have weight and will add credibility to your resume.

Some of the most common Cyber Security Certificate’s

• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
• CompTIA Security+
• Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP)
• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NCSF)
• Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)

5- Get Real life experience

The final step in the Cyber Security career builder is to try to get some real-life experience and actually this is the real challenge because the training will let you understand the CS knowledge but you still will need to see how we are utilizing that knowledge and skills in the real business environment, this is very important for any candidates who want to join CS career.

The good thing is that you can find some platform right now that allow you to join real Cyber Security Project and get the realistic experience which you need to be ready to join one of the best field in the market today, some of the real life program that you can enroll in:

• Information Security Specialist Career Path Program
• Penetration Tester Career Path Program
• ISMS Implementation – ISO 27001 Workshop

Name: Mohamed Atef

Cyber Security Consultant

Dubai, UAE