When it comes to salary, especially in your first role, it can vary a lot. The standard expectation that I give people is if you can land an entry-level cyber security job (not an IT job like help desk or system administrator), then you’re generally looking at $60-80k. If you live in a high cost of living location, that will certainly drive the salary up in most cases but the area of Cyber Security matters too because certain job skill areas pay more. Of course, things like certifications and professional networking can help but they are secondary to the other factors.
Completely agree! It can be very arbitrary and dependent on where you interview, the types of companies, location, so many factors. Other friends I know in cyber security out of college are also making in the 60-80k range
@@WithSandra it's also important to note that over the last several years, salary averages have increased quite a bit because of the demand and it's not going to stop anytime soon.
My experience is as follows: $67k Risk Management Specialist (6 months) $80k IT Security Analyst then to $84k with raise (2.5 years) + %10 bonus. $120k Information Security Engineer (5 months) but currently interviewing for a job with salary range of $136k to $156k base salary + %10 bonus + %50 salary in RSUs vested over 4 years.
I absolutely agree in regards to raising standards. Surrounding yourself with people who are where you want to be or otherwise heading in the direction you are is key. I follow people on social media who inspire me so that I can raise my standards for myself. Of course, it is better to be physically with these people than just connect through social media. I thought this video was very valuable in helping me maximize my earning potential. Aside from income though I'm really looking forward to the downtime I'll get to have while I work. You mentioned cybersecurity was a boring at times and that made me really want to work harder to get there.
Hey Sandra 👋 I stumbled across your channel when you were at around 700 subs, very happy for your channel growth. 😊 Following your journey has motivated me to keep uploading videos even when it was very tough at the start - felt like I was growing my own channel alongside you, if that makes sense! 😂 Glad to see both of us now pass the 10k mark - will congratulate you again at 100k 😆🙌
Thanks Sandra. I graduated from CyberSec bootcamp last month. I have a lot of IT in my background and working to recertify in sec+. You're videos are inspiring and I plan to share this with my bootcamp cohorts
I know this is late but I just want to give credit where credit is due: Sandra, you are our higher standard and the reason why the Universe aligned with you is because you didn't quit. You could've easily skipped out on those conferences but you didn't; you just kept on going no matter what the circumstances ended up being. Best wishes to you and thanks for sharing!!!
I'm 3 years into my cyber career out of undergrad and I will say that my experience has been the general range for the first couple jobs (0-3 years) is probably going to be 60k-80k and once you start moving into the Sr. Analyst/Engineer/Specialist range (4-5 years of experience) you will start to see the salaries pushing the 90k plus range. Of course cost of living matters. 60k-80k in San Francisco, NYC, DC is pretty low so you'll definitely start 6-figures but not really in the average cost of living areas. In general, it's definitely not easy to command a super high salary in cyber with no experience because a lot of times companies are not willing to take a risk paying someone with no experience all that money when they don't really know anything. Of course, it's not impossible though. For instance, I tend to command a higher salary because I was a CS major so I can bring other skills such as automation and programming to the table. So it depends on skillset as well.
It is not controversial. It is the truth. A lot of big tech companies are trying their best to hire more women, regardless of the merit. I have myself interviewed many candidates and I can tell you that the recruiters try their best to push the CVs of female candidates. And something from my personal experience. I decided to give an interview at a blockchain / crypto firm. It was a very technical role with focus on security. The interviewers didn't even ask me proper questions and concluded very fast. I felt I did not qualify for the role because my skills on paper weren't that relevant to what they were looking for. But wait! they didn't even ask me any tech questions, then how would they know? Later I started browsing other people at the firm who were already working in the role I had applied for. I saw a woman's profile and her background had nothing to do with security. She was an admin assistant, an HR and so on. Yet she was hired in the position of a "Security Researcher" at this firm. After this I analyzed the firm further and noticed that a lot of senior management in the firm had women too. I hope this experience will help others understand that things aren't as simple as they seem. There are a lot of biases in the tech industry these days.
Just graduated from college with a cyber security degree from a college not too far from temple! I can't even land a HELP DESK job yet 😔time will come thru, thanks for the vid
Make sure you formulate a good looking resume, create a LinkedIn profile highlighting your desires and skills, and post your resume on Indeed. You will get attention if you have skills that employers need and want. Be sure you look at posted jobs on indeed and you take some of those buzz works in the job reqs and insert them into your resume.
Hey, Can you please a video on how your cybersecurity career transitioned from Pen-testing to Blue team, like what all the courses or skills you had to learn to switch to blue team. Thank you!
As a complete beginner with no skills in Cyber Security, what would you recommend a beginner to study first? Would really appreciate if you could give some steps or lists of what I should do to get a career in Cyber Security 🙏🏻
Hey Sandra. Idk if you’ve done a video yet on what you actually do as a security analyst from home (you can reference me to it if you have 😊) since roles vary depending on setting/position/company. I know some analysts do some things that others don’t from home so I would love to see a video of you showing us sort of what a day in the life is for you and what you do in your new remote position. Disclaimer: I have watched your older day in the life videos so that’s why I was wondering what new has changed as far as tasks. Thanks 👍
Hey can you make videos on these two topics: 1)How to get a work in cybersecurity for international students 2)list of sites offerings remote internships or jobs except linkedin and all
Hi Sandra! I’m considering a career change from hr to tech. The only thing holding me back is I have some nerve/arm issues :/ I’m trying to find the right doctor but tbh they’re not that helpful. I’m investing in some ergonomic products, standing desk etc. but do you think I can have a career in tech with little typing? I don’t plan on going into coding. Any ideas on what tech career I can do with this issue?
As someone who recently graduated high school and applying to college, what advice do you have for beginners who know nothing in cybersecurity or about tech in general that wants to get into this? Also, is your cybersecurity job tedious? While I want to get into cybersecurity, I also want to travel and I have lots of hobby so I was wondering if being in this field causes problems in your schedule
I’ve been gently thinking (not serious at all) about going into tech. I come from a social media marketing/website management background so I feel like I’m starting from scratch… 🤔
The thing is, I'm not sure how to jump into it once obtaining my AAS in cybersecurity half a year ago. Now I'm working on Sec+ cert and I hope that pops up more, but I guess I have to do an internship for 3-6 months, right?
Hi my name is Alan I had some questions on what i should do. Well because I’m a welder and i got in a bad accident and not able to work anymore for a long time so Iv been thinking of changing my career to the cyber security field and i was thinking what is better in Your opinion to go to school for it or try to find program’s online ??and i was thinking of going to school like full sail university in Your opinion what school would be good to go to ?
From what Ive seen no, not typically, but thats because many career fairs are local and hiring for in office positions in the same city or nearby, but if you’re looking at the larger scale conferences that have career fairs included, then they are much more likely to have remote roles, also there are more virtual career fairs nowadays, it’ll likely be much easier to find remote cyber roles there as well, good luck @K F!
Oh also try this site www.builtincolorado.com/jobs lots of startup/remote jobs, also Take a look at BuiltinNYC with similar jobs with many that’re remote
@@WithSandra I live in Jersey city! Did you find most of your work in New York? Also, what do you think about the security + cert? Is it strongly recommended?
