Take a look at those two numbers.
The first one is the average salary of a cybersecurity professional in the US.
Nice numbers.
The second one is the number of positions that are open in the US.
750,000.
And the good news is it's increasing.
The number one question I get on my LinkedIn after people see these videos is "How can I get a career in cybersecurity?"
So I'm recording this video to give you an idea-- some of the answers to that.
So one I want to provide you with are some of the things that will get you to there, that point.
So it involves training, it involves credentials, it involves a career path,
and then ultimately state to the end and I'm going to show you some resources about how you can go collect your version of this as well.
So, first of all, let's start off with training.
So what do you need to know in terms of being a cybersecurity professional?
Well, the training aspect, one of the options that's been the traditional one, this is the one that I went through,
but not everyone has to do this, is you're going to see Bachelor of Science in something like Computer Science,
or IT--some of those related fields.
And then maybe you add on to that an additional cybersecurity concentration.
So I teach at a local university and I teach people on that cybersecurity concentration.
Another path is an associate's degree.
So here you're talking about probably a two-year degree or some sort of vocational training.
And this is going to be something that's going to cost less and still could be a valid entry point.
For some folks, it's going to be taking a bootcamp.
So this is a very specific, intensive, short duration security training.
And then finally, an option you can consider-- and some of these are available online and they're free --is a certificate of some sort.
In fact, IBM offers one of these from an organization called Coursera.
So if you think about this, this is going to be your most expensive of the options,
a little bit less, a little bit less, all the way down to in some of these cases, it's zero.
Now, of course, what you're spending is going to have something to do with the kinds of jobs and doors that get open for you.
So I'm not going to say all of these lead to the same place,
but they're all different entry points into the cybersecurity career space, so they all should be considered.
Now, the next thing I'm going to talk about is credentials.
So what kind of things do you need to do to get the job?
You've got the training now you have to prove that you're qualified for the job.
And the most common of these are professional certifications.
The one that's considered the gold standard in the security space is a thing called a CISSP:
Certified Information System Security Professional.
That's the one that most of the jobs are looking for.
It's not an entry level cert, though.
In order to get this, it requires five years of experience in the field,
it requires that you pass an exam that's about 100 to 150 questions, multiple choice.
By the way, back in the day when I took the exam, it was 250 questions.
So, thankfully, for those of you coming along, it's gotten easier.
There's an ethics statement that you have to sign off on.
There is also an endorsement, so you need an existing CISSP to endorse you.
And then there's ongoing CPE, in other words, education credits that you need to be able to get.
This is, again, the one that's in most demand, but it's not for entry level folks to be able to get all of these things.
The next one, though, that is a more entry level cert is Security+.
Security+ has a lower bar to meet-- it's two years of experience.
There's an exam.
There's 90 questions on the exam.
So that just gives you kind of a little bit of an idea.
So it's not for someone that's brand new, but it's not the same high bar.
A lot more people have Security+ than have CISSP, and jobs are offering positions for people that have that level.
Some other certs that you might consider-- the CISA for auditors, the CISM for managers.
There's a number of different certificates and credentials that could be useful,
but those are some of the ones that you might want to consider.
Now, how about a career path?
Once you've got the training, you've got the certs, you've got the credentials, what are you going to do in terms of your career?
Where does all of this lead?
Well, there's a great website called cyberseek.org.
And it has some nice animations.
You're going to see an example right here where you can start off with a feeder role.
So, an example, if you start with networking experience and then from there you can lead to an entry level cybersecurity position.
And then from there you can see what sort of mid-level cybersecurity positions that might lead to,
and then ultimately what sort of advanced positions all of this could lead to.
So that's a great resource for you to go and explore and look and see
what kinds of things you're interested in and where all of this can lead.
Finally, I told you I would give you some resources.
What kinds of things are out there to help you once you want to try to do something like this?
Well, I already mentioned one, and that's cyberseek.org,
which again allows you to explore these career paths and certification paths and things of that sort.
Another really good one is from Coursera and IBM.
IBM worked with Coursera to develop a certificate for an example like this,
an online cert doesn't cost you anything to do and it will introduce you to the field of cybersecurity as an analyst.
And then finally, a place like ibm.com/jobs.
If you are interested in a cybersecurity job at IBM,
and again, I get these questions all the time on LinkedIn, and this is my answer to folks.
Go look there, that's where we post all of our openings.
And of course, there are a lot of others out there as well.
So the good news is there's lots of money to be made.
There are a lot of positions to be filled.
If you want some of this, this is how you get it.
Thanks for watching.
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