Everyone has been diving into cyber security lately. The word has been out for the past 2 or 3 years now that cyber is understaffed and quite handsomely paid. Now that folks have obtained their degrees or gotten things settled down enough to start looking for the job, they are noticing it’s a bit harder than expected to land that entry-level role. Here’s a few things that will make you standout to the hiring manager.
1. Have A Blog or Website
Some people get intimidated by the thought of having something up on the internet. Most will believe it requires too much work or maintenance to maintain, and that it will be a constant and conscious effort to keep up. While it may be on your mind a little bit if you use something like an Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 or an Azure Virtual Machine, you can still use a managed provider. Platforms like Framer or Squarespace provide plenty of templates to spin up a quick site. If you just want to do a blog, you can always use Medium.
Once you have a website up or the blog account created, what do you write about? Well, anything! There are plenty of topics that are, while simple, excellent at showcasing a drive or passion towards something. Did you create a YARA rule for a piece of malware? Write a blog post! Did you make an Active Directory Lab? Document it on your blog! Any sort of content, basic or advanced, shows you are willing to go the extra mile.
2. Have A GitHub With A Project or Two
I know what you’re thinking: “But I can’t write any code!”. While this is a topic for another blog (or video…), it has to be conveyed this does not need to be super advanced. There is no need to make an entire B2B SaaS product on your repository or contribute to some advanced open source software, just write something! Did you learn how to list out and create Scheduled Tasks in a TUI with PowerShell? Commit it to your GitHub! Did you make a Python script that examines an executable file and does some basic malware analysis? Commit it to your GitHub? Did you actually make that YARA rule from the previous section? Create an entire GitHub repository that will store all of your YARA rules!
Once you start running with this ball, you’ll notice hiring managers start to get much more interested. There are absolutely some projects that can get you hired alone.
3. Get A Certification
Whether you have a degree or you don’t have a degree, certifications will compound your abilities to get a job. Some pathways, especially government, require this for compliance regions. While we recommend the Security+, there are still a number of certifications that can help you. Generally, we advise you get a Security+ and then pivot into whatever field you would like to specialize in. Some of these exams are gigantic, so make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew!
To put it in perspective, most folks with general IT skills can get a Security+ with a couple hours of studying a day for a month.
None of these items are guaranteed to get you hired, but a combination of them will put you ahead. If the entire herd of people trying to get a cyber job just has a degree or generic help desk experience, then you need to do something listed from here to set you ahead of others.
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