The idea of getting into an entry-level job where you can earn more than $60k per year with just an associate’s degree and no previous work experience might seem absolutely impossible. But within the growing field of cybersecurity, this is a reality for many professionals. IT and cybersecurity in particular is becoming so high in demand around the world that to make up for a professional shortage, companies are offering hugely generous starting salaries and the option to train on the job.
If you’re considering your future career and want great security, high demand, and the option to earn plenty of money, cybersecurity is definitely worth considering. A degree in cyber security helps you gain knowledge and tools to assume a managerial role in an organization. You learn to prevent cyber-attacks and create robust counter measures to prevent further attacks on the organization. This field is developing and growing at a rate that the professionals are struggling to keep up with, offering a massive range of opportunities for career progression and growth. If you have an interest in tech and IT and want to be influential in protecting the businesses, organizations, and people of the world against the growing threat of cyberattacks, a career in cybersecurity might be an ideal choice for you.
Here are just some of the main reasons why an increasing number of professionals are choosing cybersecurity as a career.
Ease of Entry
Cybersecurity has such a high demand for professionals that it has become one of the easiest career options to get into. While you will certainly have better job prospects and a higher starting salary when you get qualified with a graduate degree from cyber security schools online like Saint Bonaventure University, you do not always need to spend years of your life training and getting a degree before you can get started with working in this field. In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, you can get started with working in a cybersecurity career with a generous starting salary with just a relevant associate’s degree, with many companies willing to offer training to entry-level IT professionals. Many professionals get into the field first and then make moves to improve their career outlook by getting industry certifications or advanced degree qualifications.
High Global Demand
The demand for good cybersecurity professionals is rapidly growing around the world as an increasing number of companies require cybersecurity professionals to work towards protecting their companies against the growing increase in hacking and cybercrime.
With the internet now the main part of our everyday lives and over four billion people around the world now using the internet with more people expected to get connected in the future, there’s likely to be a constant need for cybersecurity experts to work with everybody from small businesses that want to improve their defenses to government organizations, such as the military or Homeland Security that need professionals to protect them against attacks on highly sensitive data.
Find Work Anywhere
Regardless of where you go in the world, there will always be a growing need for people to work in cybersecurity. This career is unlike many others in that you are not limited to one or two industries; cybersecurity is becoming more important in every industry imaginable as the world moves towards electronic and cloud storage of data.
Whether you want to move to a different state or even start a new life abroad, finding a cybersecurity position that is suitable for you is never going to be a difficult task. This makes working in cybersecurity a great choice of career for anybody interested in traveling the world or relocating to a different area in the future since this field is important almost everywhere that you might go.
Further Education and Career Progression
If you are an ambitious person and want to take your career to as high a level as possible, there are plenty of opportunities available in the cybersecurity industry that allow you to meet your career goals, increase your earning potential, and take on more responsibilities in the workplace. Although cybersecurity as an industry has relatively low entry requirements compared to many other professional careers, many people working in this industry have lots of chances to boost their education and gain new qualifications and certifications while they work.
This is made possible due to the rise in online learning, with industry certifications, degree programs, and master’s degree programs now being made more available in the field of cybersecurity and other related subjects. Once you are working in the cybersecurity field, there are plenty of options to become an expert in your chosen field and gain credentials that will help you take your career to the next level.
Business and Freelance Working Opportunities
Cybersecurity is not only a field where you will find lots of employment opportunities, either working for cybersecurity companies or directly for other businesses and organizations, but it also provides the option to go freelance or start your own business. Many companies, especially small businesses that do not have the budget to hire an in-house cybersecurity team, will hire outsourced cybersecurity professionals, making this an ideal business idea for those with the knowledge and skills.
Excellent Pay
If you are interested in a career path that is going to improve your financial situation with generous starting salaries and lots of opportunities to increase your earnings with career progression over time, cybersecurity is an ideal choice.
Compared to many other career options where there is a higher barrier to entry and a larger cost of getting qualified to enter their field, cybersecurity is a career where you can enjoy a higher-than-average entry-level salary with just an associate’s degree in a relevant subject, reducing the opportunity cost of getting into this career.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, cybersecurity professionals such as Information Security Analysts can earn around $80k per year on average. Even the lowest 10% of earners in the field have relatively high salaries compared to other professions, with salaries ranging from $30k to $50k annually. On the other end of the scale, some of the highest earners in this field are paid more than $140k per year.
Work For Government Agencies
Cybersecurity professionals aren’t just needed to help businesses around the world with their security. Government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the US Army, and even the White House hire cybersecurity professionals to protect sensitive and often classified data stored on government systems.
As you can imagine, the data stored by these agencies could often do so much damage in the wrong hands that the systems and security need to be constantly monitored and regularly updated to prevent any chance of a breach. To work for these government agencies, you will usually need to be educated to an advanced degree level and have a lot of cybersecurity experience and skills. As you work your way up in this industry, you could be in with a chance of working in some of the coolest tech positions in the CIA, FBA, NSA, and Homeland Security, with options to use your skills and knowledge to catch some of the most wanted criminals worldwide or protect state secrets.
Great Option for Military Veterans
If you have served in the military, cybersecurity is an ideal industry to move into as a civilian. There is lots of support for veterans who are interested in pursuing cybersecurity as a career, including the Cyber Veterans Initiative, which was launched in Virginia in 2016 to provide veterans with access to cybersecurity training, opportunities, and resources to help them build a new career in this field after leaving military service. Veterans also have access to a wide range of scholarships and other financial support options to study cybersecurity at college, and many government agencies will prefer to hire veterans over civilians when they hire cybersecurity professionals, due to their previous experience in the military.
You Don’t Need Advanced Math Skills
While you’ll need to have a basic grasp of math to work in almost any career in the IT sector, you don’t need to worry about being prevented from entering the cybersecurity industry if you’re not a math genius.
There is no science or calculus included when you get a cybersecurity degree or take a cybersecurity training program, as the skills that you need to succeed in this career are more IT-based and practical. You’ll mainly be focused on building your IT skills and learning a range of important programming languages.
Low Unemployment
Due to the high and growing demand for good cybersecurity professionals around the world, you have little to worry about when it comes to being unemployed with these skills.
Once you have the training and experience needed to work in cybersecurity, you can get into a very secure career with a very low risk of being out of a job. The fact that cybersecurity professionals are in such high demand around the world today means that there are countless options for working in cybersecurity and no matter what happens, finding work is not going to be difficult.
Build a Career Around Your Interests
Cybersecurity professionals are needed in any industry that you can think of around the world, from government agencies to working with small businesses. E-commerce, manufacturing, retail, advertising, healthcare, media, education, telecommunications, energy, and many more industries are in need of cybersecurity professionals to protect their businesses from hacking attacks and keep the data that they collect on customers and employees safe and secure.
Because of this, a career in cybersecurity gives you a unique chance to build your career around the industries that interest you the most. Many cybersecurity professionals will choose to base their career around specializing in an industry that they are interested in the most.
Learn Hacking Skills
In order to beat the hackers as a cybersecurity professional, it’s important that you know what they do to breach systems and perform cyberattacks. One of the main ways that cybersecurity professionals help their clients and employers protect their systems is by testing them for vulnerabilities, which often means hacking into the system to see where the weak points are and check where improvements need to be made.
Cybersecurity training is often offered to those rebellious teens who hack into their school’s security system or are getting into trouble for hacking their parents’ email accounts. Instead of punishing them, their skills are recognized and channeled into something useful before they do anything worse. If you have always been fascinated with the idea of learning how to hack or remember being a teenager trying to hack into things, a career in cybersecurity might be an ideal choice for you. Get onto the right side of things by using your skills and interest in hacking to help protect organizations and companies against hackers who want to do harm.
Continue Learning
With technological advancements happening at a very rapid rate, cybercriminals are always evolving. Every day, hackers manage to get around current security systems. Over time, cybersecurity needs to constantly evolve and update to prevent systems and security measures from being obsolete and useless. Compared to the security measures that were used just a few years ago, many things today are very different. Outdated systems that might have been the best line of defense against hackers just a year or two ago might be easy to break into these days. Because of this, cybersecurity is a career where you will always have the chance to learn new things. There’s no room for complacency or getting left behind in this career, as you need your knowledge and skills to be a step ahead of cybercriminals all the time.
Get Started at Any Point
Whether you have recently graduated from high school and want a career in cybersecurity or are considering changing your current career to work in this high-demand industry, it’s never too late to get started with a career in cybersecurity via a bachelor’s or master’s degree. People are joining this field from all walks of life and at a wide range of ages.
If you want to get into an exciting, growing, and high-demand career with the chance to make a difference with the work that you do, there are plenty of great reasons to consider working in cybersecurity.
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