in this video I just want to talk about the current state of the cyber security job market specifically the entry level and the majority of people that are in this field are middle-aged and or haven't even been in any entry-level field in the last like 5 10 20 years so I graduated less than a year ago and I'm currently working as a sock analyst and I want to talk about the cyber security job market from the perspective of someone who has gone through the process in the last year and I had to break into it I think I have some fresh insight and opinions and I'm going to give you three things you need to do if you want to get an entry-level cyber security job and I'm going to talk about the job market as a whole from the perspective of a new [Music] guy can you even get an entry-level security job even if it's your first job even if you've got no experience Reddit will tell you no go work help desk how dare you cyber security is not an entry-level field and it never has been turn on the news and they'll tell you there is hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs there's a shortage please help us oh my gosh employeers are lining up we'll hire anyone with a pulse and a strong password what's the truth the truth can you get an entry-level cyber security job first job no experience in my experience yes with some conditions in 2024 this field does have an entry level it exists I'm living proof of that contrary to what some people would tell you there is an entry level in cyber security whether or not you make it into that entry level that depends on a lot of different things the majority of which are in your control but is it possible yes absolutely you don't have to listen to the old head Gatekeepers on Reddit it is possible maybe I'm the exception and not the rule and what do I know anyways I'm a new guy but I absolutely believe that there is room in this field for anyone who truly wants to be in it you are going to have your own unique experience and your own circumstances but I believe there are some golden rules that apply to anyone and everyone trying to break into this field and I think across the board There are rules and strategies to this game of getting hired in cyber security I'm going to give it to you straight 100% honest about my experience going from someone with no experience to getting hired as a sock analyst and everything I would say if I was talking to myself 12 months ago the first important thing I had to do to get into cyber security was shape my mindset you got to realize that those salary numbers the availability of jobs all that was probably lied to you from college or the internet or the media or these advertising boot camps you don't even know how long this is going to take for me it took months and when I started I had all these expectations and timelines that made it harder so definitely leave your expectations at the door if you haven't already the first important thing I ask myself that I had to figure out first before you can do anything do you even know what you want like what's the job title that you want what is the name of the position that you want do you even know what jobs exist in this field are you just looking and browsing do you even know about the field like have you actually looked in depth into the field and watched Day in the Life videos or or read about what people actually do if a man knows not to which Port he sails no wind is favorable aim small Miss small you can't apply too narrow write the perfect resume and a unique cover letter for every job because you're going to burn out and you also can't spray your applications everywhere and go too broad because then you will be a mediocre fit for all of these instead of a really good fit for a select few I had to figure out what is the actual job I want what kind of skills does that role require then you need to tailor your resume and become a good candidate for it the second thing I had to do getting an entry-level job in cyber security is I had to get good at getting a job you need to have a sharp resume it needs to be formatted well it needs to communicate clearly that you are a good candidate for this exact job that's your very first impression and how you're going to get your foot in the door to actually talk to people and get an interview and hey I'm more than just a piece of paper once you're there then you need to know how to sell yourself you need to know how to answer questions that you don't know the answer to for any human on planet Earth that's trying to get hired anywhere these are the skills you need to get a job and that does not exclude cyber security if you take nothing else from this video I think the single greatest thing impact impacting whether or not you are successful in getting a job in this field is how many jobs you apply to this is your direct correlation to improve your chances it's a measurable quantifiable apply to this many your odds go up this much over the course of 4 months I easily easily applied to over a th000 jobs if you are watching this and you've applied to 100 jobs or less that is the single best thing you can do to improve your odds apply every time you hit apply that's another chance that one of them might work out because the thing is based on my experience you send out 100 applications and about 97 of them are going to be a bad reply a late reply no reply it's going to be a bot who says hey oh my God you are amazing we are so grateful for you you are awesome you are not hired we went with someone else about three of them are going to be interested based on what they see on your resume probably two of those are going to be not a good fit for you or them or both and one of them if you're lucky one of them has the potential to be a good meaningful interview at somewhere that would be a good fit one out of a 100 some of these postings are outdated fake filled internally so it doesn't even matter that you applied some of them will never apply to you it can be hard to find relevant job opportunities but believe me there are thousands of them and in my experience the narrower I looked the harder it was to see anything but the wider net I could cast the more I would reel in by that I mean I had to become a lot more flexible and versatile and broaden my options in order to find something that worked for me I'll give you a quick example are you looking for a job do you want to improve your odds by 10,000% just be willing to move for the job be willing to move and relocate you open up so many doors with that and it's the same thing with the type of job job description company the salary the hours all of that if you can be flexible and versatile with that it gives you a much bigger field to work in and actually find and get something number three be the best candidate need to set yourself apart you need to be the top candidate because at the end of the day they're all going with the best candidate the best fit in their eyes you have to be the best choice you have to make the most sense something about you has to make you better than the rest those first two can be applied to anyone trying to get any job pretty much but this last one number three you need to be the best candidate and I want to talk about what that means in cyber security from my experience there are four things that matter and that make your value as a candidate number one is your network or who you know number two is your experience or what you've done number three is technical skills and projects so what can you do and number four is your education and certification your credentials for your network and who you know you got to reach out to people and let them know you're applying if you can get a hand anywhere that is going to help you greatly for your experience if you can get an internship if you can get a college help desk job or a college Capstone class type of thing that's going to matter a lot for your technical skills and projects check out try hack me hack the box ctfs and just go online and look around there are so many free resources to learn and demonstrate technical skills and then lastly your credentials like a college degree or a certification and in my experience this hierarchy is also the order of value so he would take someone with a college degree or some certifications over someone who had none of these because he has more value he's got a formal education but you would take someone with technical skills and Technical projects over someone with just a certification because those technical skills and projects can demonstrate that you actually know how to do what is required of the job it shows that you've not just learned about it on paper or done some Theory you actually have hands-on experience speaking of experience work experience trumps all of that because that means hey you've actually gotten paid to do this before so you definitely know how to do what we're asking and then more than that sometimes it's the guy who knows the hiring manager who gets the job over all the other candidates you have to do what you got to do to be the best candidate you got to be the top candidate set yourself apart go through these areas and figure out where you're lacking how you can improve if you can get certifications if you can do technical projects if you can do an internship and know your stuff when you get interviewed you'll probably be asked there are plenty of people trying to get that job the same one you're applying to and you have to be the best choice in the employer's eyes those are the three most important things that I had to do to break into cyber security at the entry level for some context I graduated last year with a degree in informatics and a cognate in cyber security um I graduated with no experience I didn't do any internship I didn't have any experience at all honestly at first I really didn't even know what I wanted I didn't know anything about the reality of the cyber security field and for a timeline it took me about a month to figure out like yes this is the field that I want to be in this is the specific job that I want and this is what they do and to actually just learn about like real life what the field is because College was an inch deep and a mile wide and I left with a basic understanding but definitely know in-depth knowledge of the real world cyber security field and after that I took about another month to become a good candidate for the job so I did the Google professional cyber security certification I got the sock analyst level one certificate on try hackme and got my Security Plus certificate from CompTIA and I started doing technical projects and writing them up and documenting them on my GitHub and from there on it took probably 4 months plus and easily over a th000 applications to finally get an offer and get officially hired as a a cyber security sock analyst and another question I see a lot of people ask is do you need a degree to get into the field what do I know I'm a new guy and I had a degree but my opinion no does it help your chances absolutely is it the most important thing no I think you can make up for a degree in many ways and I think the field in general is moving away from the value and importance that traditional employers put on uh college degrees because I think it's a lot more important and relevant that you have technical ability I think the strongest way you can make up for a degree is technical projects so setting up a home lab documenting proving that you have technical skills you can also do certifications and my advice is if you want to get into cyber security just get Security Plus just go straight there and get that one but it leads me into the point in my humble opinion that the current state of the entry-level cyber security job market is in shambles it's not great especially especially for new people it is not for the week you've got the cyber security boom with the high promising salaries and quote unquote job shortage um colleges beginning to offer programs and degrees boot camps and boot camps and ads for the field unlimited courses and certifications coming out and this all leaves the entry level Market flooded add to that picky employers with strict requirements interest inflation hiring freezes constant layoffs and Tech it's a rough place it is a rough place and it can be extremely discouraging um the job shortage I think is a hiring shortage and it's not really from a gap in skills but kind of a gap in hiring that employers want to pay less yet expect the entry-level applicants to have multiple years of experience multiple certifications Grant Collins made a video on this talking about the same thing about how we need to bring more people in and train them from the ground up but there are still good companies out there who will give you the time of day who are willing to bring you on and train you even if you don't have the experience be the best top candidate that you can be and at the end of the day trying to break in this field is a little bit of a numbers game sometimes you just got a Brute Force [Music]