With the cybersecurity sector crying out for new talent, demand for cybersecurity professionals has never been higher. With teenagers up and down the country receiving their exam results, now is the perfect time for them to get into the industry. The government is strongly pushing for more talent to join the sector and you should take advantage of that and the rewards.

Why Choose Cyber?

With teenagers being the most tech-savvy generation in history it’s a no-brainer for businesses to tap into this pool of talent.

Plentiful Opportunities

With competition in other industries being fierce, the cybersecurity sector continues to struggle with a large skill gap, which for anyone who is considering entering the industry can result in excellent benefits as organizations compete to attract and keep the best talent.

Excellent Rewards

If you get into the cyber industry you can expect to earn well above the national median average pre-tax income of around £22,400.

According to CW jobs, the average salary for cybersecurity jobs in the UK is currently around £72,500. With there being so much competition between organizations for skilled cyber professionals and with the skill gap continuing to be a problem this figure is likely to continue to rise.

Job Security

Hackers and cyber-crime aren’t going anywhere not with more and more businesses doing the bulk of their trade online. The need for security professionals isn’t going to go away anytime soon so you can be assured that demand for your skills will remain for many years to come.

It’s fun!

Being part of one the newest sectors in existence is exciting as you are at the forefront of change. Every day promises something new and with the cyber threat constantly evolving, you always need to be learning. Red teaming could see you (legally) infiltrating an organization to test its security or, as an incident response team member, you could be sent to all sorts of places to help mitigate security breaches and potentially track down criminals. A penetration tester literally gets paid to break stuff!

“Cybersecurity is exciting because there are so many areas of it you can fall into and you do not have to be a programming computer nerd to get into the field. However, it helps progress your career if you have an understanding of the technical stuff and do the non-technical. These are rare skills in our industry and not everyone can do both. Technical people tend to think in 0 and 1s and struggle with high-level concepts whereas non-tech types struggle with the 0 and 1s. In short, it’s an area ideally suited for both types of people,” says Sachin Bhatt Head of Incident Management at XQ Cyber.

What qualifications do you need?

A good starting point is to do a 4-year bachelor’s degree in subjects including computer science, computer programming or computer engineering. Math and English are also important skills to have.

Check out this handy Cyber Skills roadmap - https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-skills-roadmap

Get CyberSavvy

Check out these useful Links -
https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/cybersecurity-training
https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/how-to-start-your-career-in-cyber-security/
https://www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/careers
https://xqcyber.com/careers

Work Experience

Getting work placements at established cybersecurity companies is also an excellent way of getting hands-on experience as well as learning from the pros already working in the field.

XQ Cyber will be doing its part by taking on apprentices that will work with and learn from our team of experts. Hopefully, they’ll have a blast and choose a future career in cyber. Get in touch here.

Main Image Credit : The awesome piece of artwork used to head this article is called 'Uncle Sam' and it was created by graphic designer Ricky Normandeau.