Three Reasons to Pursue a Cyber Security Career
The cyber industry has huge potential for professionals – from growing demand to continually increasing salaries and varied opportunities, we have listed the three main reasons why pursuing a path in cyber security is worth your consideration.
1. Growing Demand for Professionals
The demand for cyber security professionals has never been greater and with the predicted 3.5 million job openings anticipated by 2021, these opportunities will only continue to increase. Over the next five years, cybercrime will be responsible for almost tripling the number of job openings leaving it almost certain that the zero percent unemployment rates will remain as it has since 2016.
Employers globally are looking to expand their cyber security staff by more than 70 percent over the coming year with demand for skilled Penetration Testers, Cyber Security Specialists and beyond only intensifying. Yet finding skilled professionals to hire has proven to be the challenge. The growing demand and limited talent pool leave cyber security professionals in a highly favourable position.
2. The Salaries are Growing with Demand
Predicted to be worth $170 billion by the end of 2019, the cyber security market is a lucrative field that offers considerable salaries and benefits for qualified professionals. The average salary of a Cyber Security Professional in the United Kingdom currently sits at £72,500, with analysts averaging at £39,550 and Chief Information Security Officers at £104,092. As a whole, there has been a 16 percent salary rise across the industry in the past month alone. In America, the average annual pay for Cyber Security Professionals is $107,172 and Australia is $100,000 on average.
Pay rises are also enticing with entry to mid-level professionals receiving a seven to eight percent annual pay increase, which sits three times above the national UK average. Cyber professionals are also being hired at a younger age than in other fields and are being paid generously, an ideal opportunity for young professionals wanting to kick start their careers.
Job titles matter when looking at salaries, those with ‘engineer’ in their tittle are typically amongst the highest payed whereas ‘analyst’ falls to the opposite end of the spectrum. If looking to bump up your salary, a CISSP qualification can get as much as a ten percent salary increase.
3. Diverse Opportunities and Career Progression
According to founder and CEO of Herjavec Group Robert Herjavec “if you know cybersecurity, then you have a guaranteed job – for life”. Cyber crime is not a passing trend. With new threats continually emerging, new and innovative career opportunities are cropping up. Cyber roles range from ethical hackers to security engineers, with most of these positions only being a job title for the past ten years.
Cyber security professionals will continue to play a critical role in protecting companies from hacking, data breaches and more. And whilst the nature of the jobs will evolve, the need for professionals addressing cyber security will not. These attacks can hit any company, from universities to small retail businesses, ensuring professionals have a wide range of industries that they can find employment.
With high salaries, unprecedented demand and diverse career opportunities, cyber professionals should be without concern. The next ten years will see the demand for cyber security professionals only continue to grow with new cyber roles emerging and growing cyber teams in all industries.