Andrew Thompson from Kagool on Careers in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues, and today we hear from Andrew Thompson, Cyber Security Analyst at Kagool, on entering the industry, why you should aspire to do so and how you can get started immediately.
Starting Out and a Day in the Life
“My career did not start in cyber security. I have worked across a variety of sectors including in the construction industry, politics, for a university, and for a charity, before starting a career in cyber security.
“My time in cyber security has felt the most rewarding as every day I work to protect people, and has given me the chance to work on a wide variety of tasks with different people. It can be challenging on some days, and there is always more to learn than there is time, but careers in cyber security can give great job satisfaction and opportunities to challenge yourself.”
Why You Should Consider a Career in Cybersecurity
“The cyber security sector needs more people joining it. The recent Cybersecurity Workforce Study from (ISC)² estimated that there is a need for at least 3.4 million extra people working in cybersecurity worldwide. It is a growing sector, and you have a great opportunity to get involved.
“Cyber security jobs can be well paid even compared to other IT jobs. The recent UK Government Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2022 report found that the average (median) advertised salary for a core cyber job was £55,000, compared to £40,000 for IT jobs as a whole. With the ever-increasing risk from cyber threat actors and cybercrime, the need for jobs in cyber security is likely to be around for your entire working career.
“Jobs in cyber security can cover many different things, including risk management and security governance, identity and access management, cloud security, penetration testing, security architecture, digital forensics, security operations, and many more. Looking at graphics on responsibilities for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) show how many different jobs that exist within the cyber security sector.”
Embarking on Cybersecurity as a Career
“There are different ways to enter into cyber security careers. I completed a postgraduate university degree accredited by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to retrain into a career in cyber security. Some universities also offer undergraduate cyber security degrees accredited by NCSC if you want to go down the Higher Education route.
“For people that want to be more hands-on, there are apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships that are increasingly popular as a route into a cyber security career, whilst some cyber security companies also offer traineeships for people who want to retrain from another sector. There are also people within the sector that have independently completed some of the many cyber security certifications that exist or have learned and practised skills through resources such as TryHackMe or Hack The Box.”
Kagool and EmployabilityUK
Kagool’s thriving partnership with EmployabilityUK led to the creation of the Tech Boss Challenge and continues to enable us to serve young people interested in Information Technology with expert advice and hands-on experiences.
Find out more about Kagool, and if you’d like to learn more about how EmployabilityUK works to inspire young people and help businesses to have a positive impact in their communities, please get in touch.
