Is Cybersecurity the Right Career Choice for You?

If you are a student thinking about your future career or considering a career change, you may be considering a career in cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity” encompasses more than most people realize, giving you plenty of career options to choose from.

Cybersecurity careers are rewarding and integral to the proper function of an enterprise. Cybersecurity jobs are also engaging as the field changes constantly. With that said, they do demand a certain level of skill, persistence, and interest – as with any other career.

Experts describe the industry as challenging but possible to enter with the right guidance. Here is our guide into whether cybersecurity is the right career path for you or not.

What Do You Need for a Career in Cybersecurity?

In terms of education, an I.T qualification or related college degree is an excellent stepping-on point for an entry-level cybersecurity career. However, the industry’s constant change caused by new threats, attacks, and responses means that a formal qualification by itself isn’t enough. Consider a formal qualification to be a great way to get your foot in the door, so to speak.

Every cybersecurity career requires continued education, learning, development, training, and improvement, with the industry pushing to new heights all the time.

For Students:

You might be wondering what continued education, learning, training, and development means for students interested in joining cybersecurity. For a start, it means applying what you know and learn to real-world situations, encounters, and problems.

Let’s give you a quick example to help you understand. Rather than listening to video lectures and taking notes on the essential concepts discussed during a course, try to apply that knowledge and create a virtualization lab. Simulate different attacks and put together solutions to mitigate the damage caused by the simulations.

For Professionals:

Experienced professionals should continue to develop their skills, insights, and knowledge in the cybersecurity industry. So, how do they do that?

·     Reading

Reading is your best friend in education. Read through the latest news from the industry, white papers related to development and research, and yearly reports from the industry. There’s always something else to read for cybersecurity.

·        Education

I.T certifications require Continuous Education Credits (C.E.s) to stay up to date. This means that professionals should work to maintain their education by attending conferences, training seminars, attending workshops, and joining online courses. These are just a handful of ways that cybersecurity professionals can keep up-to-date with the latest training and education standards.

·        Implementation

It would be best to integrate proper solutions and measures into enterprises when you find a gap in the system. Continue to update and strengthen networks.

Skill is the most in-demand thing for cybersecurity firms. The only way to develop the skill needed is through education, development, and application. The main thing that a cybersecurity career will demand from you is learning and adapting your knowledge.

Ten Ways to Tell if Cybersecurity Is the Right Choice For You:

1.      You are an Analytical Thinker

Cybersecurity careers require professionals to use analytics and assimilate meaningful patterns into data. With the data split across several categories, you must have analytical skills, including interpreting data, reacting to it, and prioritizing it into meaningful and actionable patterns. It takes an analytical mind to succeed in this field. To read and interpret data is a skill.

2.      You Enjoy Solving Problems

If you enjoy looking at problems and creating solutions, cybersecurity could be the career for you. Cybersecurity is all about solving problems, specifically problems with critical data and financial information. Given that cybersecurity handles vital data that could be an extreme risk in the wrong hands, cybersecurity professionals need practical problem-solving skills.

3.      You Can Break Into Systems

Cybersecurity could be considered the good side of hacking, but knowing how to crack systems and being able to think like a blackhat hacker is a crucial part of the job. It isn’t as easy as it might sound to think like a hacker. Hackers excel at breaking things down to their core components, understanding how things work from the inside out, and putting together a plan to exploit any vulnerabilities. If you enjoy breaking things down to see how they work, applying modifications, and putting everything back together, then you would enjoy working in cybersecurity.

4.      You are Ethical

Ethics is what separates the blackhat hackers from the whitehat security people. Working in cybersecurity requires a strong foundation of ethics and the application of those beliefs. Cybersecurity professionals handle some of the world’s most sensitive information, including financial data, trade secrets, and human resources records. Everyone in the field must make ethical choices when encountering different situations and must be trusted with this critical information.

5.      You Don’t Mind Continued Education

As explained earlier, cybersecurity experts never stop learning. Someone who would enjoy continuous education would have fun working as a cybersecurity professional. Continued education and a commitment to learning are some of the most fundamental skills a cybersecurity professional has.

6.      You are Flexible

All cybersecurity professionals should be flexible when considering potential solutions to problems. It also takes flexibility to work with a team of others and come up with a solution together. Coming up with a solution doesn’t mean that it is the right answer, and the most effective way to handle a problem. Flexibility requires you to consider all sides of a solution and understand that cybersecurity problems are more frequent than you might expect. You must be on-hand to deal with an emergency at all times. 

7.  You are a Hard Worker

Cybersecurity, much like any other career, requires you to work hard and perfect your skills. If you like working towards a goal (security, in this case), you could flourish with a cybersecurity career. The only way to advance in a cybersecurity career is to come into things with the mindset and dedication of a hard worker. You’ll be working hard from day one, after all.

 8.  You are Up for a Challenge

Working in cybersecurity means facing problems and overcoming challenges associated with those problems. If you are someone who loves taking challenges head-on, then you should consider implementing cybersecurity. Keep in mind that the potential difficulties of cybersecurity come with dangerous consequences and confidential trades. The sorts of challenges you’ll face in this field require you to have responsibility, skill, and belief in yourself.

9.  You are Adaptive and Responsive

There’s always a new problem to overcome with cybersecurity. Security alerts can and do happen every millisecond. It is vital that you know how to understand and prioritize those alerts to manage and take care of problems effectively. Being adaptive and responsive to situations means knowing how to respond to a situation and present viable solutions to mitigate problems as much as possible quickly.

10.  You are Passionate About Technology

Cybersecurity is a highly technical field. Everyone in the industry is passionate about technology. If you enjoy reading the latest news and developments in technology and enjoy using technology, then cybersecurity could be the right career choice for you. It is essential that you are passionate about technology, given how much technology you’ll be working with as a cybersecurity professional.

There is a lot of demand for cybersecurity professionals. The career could be the right choice if you fit the requirements and are passionate about technology and security, and feel you can be trusted with the sensitive information security professionals work with.