Are you working in information technology, but your career has gone stagnant or your work become boring and repetitive? Are you graduating from high school and considering career paths. Are you in college earning a “computer science” degree and wondering if you will be writing code your whole life? Maybe you should consider a career in cybersecurity.
I was interested in security from the beginning of my own IT career, which started in 1999. I became decidedly focused on cybersecurity as an IT specialty in 2006. Its a great career, with lots of interesting options: red team, blue team, SOC analyst, security analyst, penetration tester, security auditor, security engineer.
If you are graduating from high school, did you know that you can go straight from high school into an entry level IT job on a cybersecurity promotion track with just a little hands on experience and some certifications? My recommendations are the triad from CompTIA: The A+, Network+ and Security+. You can get these certs in technical colleges or through private IT training organizations. You might check out CompTIA’s IT-Ready Program. If you qualify, you will be trained and certified tuition free. (disclosure – I am an instructor for IT-Ready in Minneapolis) In three to five years you can be working in cyber security, while your college bound pals are just graduating from college with $120,000 in student loan debt.
All of these jobs pay well, and many pay over $100,000. Demand for qualified employees continues to outpace the supply, and salaries continue to rise. According to job posting site Indeed, these are the top ten highest paid cybersecurity jobs:
- Application security engineer (Average salary: $128,128)
- Director of information security (Average salary: $127,855)
- Senior security consultant (Average salary: $126,628)
- Cloud engineer (Average salary: $126,365)
- Software architect (Average salary: $117,633)
- Penetration tester (Average salary: $114,431)
- Risk manager (Average salary: $108,465)
- Chief information officer (Average salary: $103,690)
- Security engineer (Average salary: $101,808)
- Information manager (Average salary: $99,930)
So check out your future in cybersecurity. It is an awesome career full of interesting options and limitless possibilities.
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About the Author:
I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com