Steve Norman, one of our Careers Consultants, recently attended a Cyber Security Careers event in Dundee and shares his reflections below.
Cyber security is clearly a hot topic for individuals, organisations and governments and this is resulting in a number of new roles emerging – there isn’t just one cyber security role. Roles include Penetration Tester, Forensic Computer Analyst, Cyber Security Analyst, Cyber Security Engineer, Risk Adviser and Security Consultant and others .
It seems salaries are high in cyber security at the moment (some in Scotland are earning around £50k) because of a skills shortage. So what are the skills needed to be a success in Cyber Security? Well, IT fundamentals including experience in coding and operating systems and database knowledge are important – but other skills are important too. You need to be good at self-management, need to be creative and innovative as you look to solve or prevent cyber crime.
There’s also a skill which you might not have thought of but is much sought after in this industry – social intelligence. According to Wikipedia, “Social intelligence is the capacity to know oneself and to know others. Social intelligence develops from experience with people and learning from success and failures in social settings. It is more commonly referred to as “tact,” “common sense,” or “street smarts.” Speakers at the event talked about hacking people, not computers – and many of the higher salaries are in roles that are client facing.
You’ll find more information on careers in cyber security here: https://www.digitalworld.net/cyber-security
(Image by Free stock photos from www.rupixen.com from Pixabay)
(Image by Free stock photos from www.rupixen.com from Pixabay)
