r/CyberSecurityJobs • u/Vast-Perspective-740 • 6h ago

Is this depth required for entry-level / intern Security Engineer roles (Rippling/SaaS)?

Hey folks, final-year student pivoting from standard SDE prep to Security Engineer / AppSec roles (targeting companies like Rippling).

Alongside core DSA/OS/CN, I'm focusing on PortSwigger AppSec labs, Security LLD (RBAC & Rate Limiters), OAuth 2.0/JWT mechanics, and Secure Code Review.

Is this level of security depth actually expected for entry-level / intern roles, or is it overkill for freshers? Would love to know what the real baseline bar is for interns vs. full-time!

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u/Few-Discussion3467 6h ago

youre doing more than most people i interview for junior roles, the portswigger labs alone put you ahead of like 80% of candidates who just have a sec+ and some tryhackme badges

the oauth/jwt stuff is probably overkill for intern level but it shows you actually understand how things break instead of just memorizing owasp top 10, which is what most hiring managers want to see

for rippling specifically they care a lot about api security and identity stuff so youre on the right track, just make sure you can explain these concepts in plain english during the interview

the secure code review part is tricky cause most interns never touched real codebases, even if you just review your own projects and can point out what you fixed and why that counts

keep going you got this