One of the biggest advantage
of the cybersecurity field in general
is that different organizations of different types
and different segments of the industry,
they will need a cybersecurity professional
in one way or another.
Some larger organizations such as banks, health insurance,
they will need a whole department,
a whole team of cybersecurity professionals
because they really invest in protecting their resources
and they have the budget for that.
Some smaller companies may have one only person
to take care of everything related to security,
but there is always a team or entire organization
responsible for the different cybersecurity aspects
of the company.
And that's a trend that we've seen.
The companies are being more mindful
about the importance of having a dedicated team
of cybersecurity professionals.
In some more mature companies,
they have the entire ramification.
When we talk about the organization
with different departments and different attributions
where cybersecurity professionals will have specific roles.
Some companies will have the red team
responsible to try to attack their own environment
to identify potential breach.
And then the blue team,
that will be defending the environment
and working in conjunction with the red team
to improve the overall security posture of the environment.
And that's where you can fit in
because there are really a lot of opportunities
in different industry.
This site, Cyberseek Heatmap is just one example
of online resource that you can use
to basically understand the openings
in the cybersecurity field
for the different states in the United States.
So if you are in the US,
you have this resource,
but of course there are resources located across the globe
for the different region:
for Europe, for Asia, Australia, all countries.
They do have kind of a similar resource.
I just use the Cyberseek Heatmap
because it's a very convenient way
to see where the main jobs are.
And that introduce another thing, right?
Because some of these jobs, they are local,
but they are open for remote employees.
That's really good, too.
Now, a lot of people ask me,
"How ts the work in big techs?
How is the work in cybersecurity in big techs?
What really should I expect?"
Well, it depends.
It depends on which department you are working on
because mostly, big techs,
they have different organizations within the company.
For example, I'm just showing here the product development.
Let's put product development, right?
So let's say you work in a big tech
and they are creating a cybersecurity product or solution.
They will have their marketing department
that will be responsible to put that product in the market
and capitalize on top of it.
So, which means that there is opportunity
for marketing secure personnel.
So if you like security
but you are not a deep technical person,
but you still have that 100 to 100 level knowledge,
but you also really good in marketing,
there is a huge opportunity for you
because there is the opportunity
to work in security marketing.
Requires some technical knowledge, of course,
but it heavily requires more marketing knowledge.
So you can align both things.
There is also the product support,
which is technical support but for security.
So you are gonna be supporting the product
from the troubleshooting perspective,
from the lifecycle perspective.
So that's another really good opportunity.
Sometimes, people migrate
from IT support to security support
because it is very similar mindset
when it comes to troubleshooting.
So think about those easy transitions.
It could be one way to establish yourself in the industry,
and from there you keep going up, right?
So you always have to look
at those potential entry points for you.
"Oh, I'm a marketing person.
There is a really good opportunity for me here
in security marketing.
I just need to understand more about, for example,
cloud security,
because I'm gonna be selling a product
related to cloud security."
Or, "I need to learn more about internet of things
and how to secure internet of things, IoT."
There we go.
There are opportunities for you there as well.
And then there is the product engineering,
product development.
Product development is more like core dev.
So if you are a core dev and you like to develop
but you also want to change a little bit to a secure field,
there are opportunities to work in big tanks
when it comes to developing software
having a good secure mindset using security fundamentals,
secure lifecycle development.
Another potential opportunity.
And engineering,
which is basically product management engineering, right?
Where you are creating specs,
where you are establishing how the product's going to work.
But notice that it is not only pure product management
because it's product management knowing about security.
So that's very interesting job too
because you are designing
the specifications of the solution,
which means that you need to do some homework
to understand who are the competitors,
what the competitors are offering,
and how your products can do better,
and what is the mark that you are going to go after,
and what are the features that are very important for you
to release and prepare the roadmap,
understanding what is coming next.
So this is a area that also,
if you are passionate about product management,
you can start thinking about too.
And research.
Research here more from this perspective of secure research.
So for example, what are the new threats on the horizon?
Now, we are talking about AI all the time,
"Okay, so what do I need to research about threats
when it comes to AI?
How this is gonna affect my business,
how this is gonna affect the product that I'm supporting."
Because the research team is attached to an overall product,
so they need to do research that will benefit the product.
So there are so many options when it comes to big tech
and mainly big techs like Facebook, Google, Microsoft.
They all nowadays do have some solutions related to security
and they are expanding their portfolio.
So be mindful about that.
Now, keep in mind that it is a very different set of skills,
for the most part,
than if you are going to be like a core
technical security person.
For example, you are a forensics researcher
or you are a, for example, a instant responder
working in a SOC.
Because when you are an instant responder,
you are on the frontline dealing with threats
and responding to those threats.
Here, you are more planning,
and you are more researching, you are more preparing.
So it is more a proactive work, right?
It a very envisionary.
What's coming next?
What do I need to do?
So it's very interesting as well,
so you have to think about this possibility.