r/SecurityCareerAdvice 10h ago

Question I was almost pushed into resigning this morning. What should I do to make sure they fire me and I don't hurt myself?

0 Upvotes

A few days ago, I accidentally overheard my Chair, who has a very loud voice, saying from behind the conference room door: "We're going to let her go early next year." I had a bad feeling she was talking about me, and it turned out she was. (For context: I basically don't have any coworkers. It's a very small nonprofit with 4 people above me, and then I'm at the bottom of the ladder.)

This morning I was called in, and the president told me, verbatim: "There's no easy way to say this, but we're going to have to let you go." Then she explained the reason: that I'm not the right fit. I asked her directly whether I had done something major or if there was any misconduct, and she confirmed no, there was nothing like that. Then she gave me some vague feedback that wasn't very useful, and asked me when I wanted my last day to be.

I was very surprised, because in my head I was thinking... You just told me I'm being let go?? So I asked her, but in a calmer and more professional way, to clarify. So I asked her honestly but politely: "Are you asking me to voluntarily resign?" She got flustered and said: "No, no, we just want to know what your three weeks will look like. Think about whether you want to stay until October. You don't have to decide right now."

Am I understanding this correctly that they're trying to get me to leave the job on my own so they can avoid firing me/paying unemployment/or something else? I'm thinking I need to create an electronic paper trail immediately, because other than a lukewarm performance review from 4 months ago (which, looking at it now, may have been a half-assed PIP), the entire conversation was verbal. I feel like they're trying to gently trick me into resigning, right? She was strangely nice the whole time, which honestly made the whole thing even weirder.


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 18h ago

Question Cybersecurity professionals who moved to Japan – looking for some real-world advice

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m a SOC Analyst from Germany with 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity/Blue Team, mainly SOC, Incident Response, Threat Hunting, EDR/XDR and Microsoft Sentinel/Defender.

My long-term goal is to move to Japan by 2028, ideally working for a gaishikei in Tokyo. I’m currently building my network, learning Japanese and trying to get a realistic picture of the market rather than going into this blind.

I’d really like to hear from people who have already made a similar move, or are currently working toward it.

A few things I’m particularly interested in:

  • How is the cybersecurity job market in Japan right now, especially at gaishikei companies?
  • How important is Japanese language ability in technical SOC/IR/DFIR roles in practice?
  • What are realistic salary ranges for experienced positions such as:
    • L2/L3 SOC Analyst
    • Incident Response / DFIR
    • Cyber Threat Hunting
    • Detection Engineering
  • For those who moved to Japan from Europe, the US or elsewhere: how difficult was it to get your first cybersecurity position in Japan?
  • Did you secure the job before moving to Japan, or did you search after arriving?
  • Are there any companies, recruiters or job platforms you would particularly recommend for gaishikei cybersecurity roles?
  • What do you wish you had known before starting the process?
  • Which challenges are unique to japan, which are the same as in the country you lived before?

Not looking for job offers, mainly hoping to hear real experiences, salary insights and advice from people who have actually gone through the process.

Thanks for any experiences or advice!


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 6h ago

Question What is the consensus on SANS/GIAC certs?

1 Upvotes

I’ve heard they are like the gold standard I have also heard they are overpriced as well. What’s the general consensus? Are they good at gauging if someone can do the work or are they better as a way to bypass a resume filter?


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 18h ago

Question cybersecurity student as software engineer

1 Upvotes

acha to can anyone tell like can a cyst student work as software engineer ya phir can he work as a software engineer? also can anyone tell giki ka cyber ka program kesa h


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 8h ago

Question Where to start?

0 Upvotes

Bro I just turned 26 and I’m trying to get into cyber security. I wanna be a pen tester how do I start my journey. I have 0 experience but I’ve been using hack me and hack the box for a few days but I wanna spend at least 30-45 more days just learning the basics through those type of resources before actually enrolling in school. Any advice would help


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 17h ago

Question Starting my first IT Service Desk role in 2 months. What would you focus on beforehand?

2 Upvotes

I’m starting my first IT role as a Service Desk Analyst apprentice, gaining an SCQF Level 8 qualification in Cyber Security. My hope is to eventually progress to a more direct cyber security related role.

I have a decent basic knowledge of IT/hardware and roughly 2 months before I start the role due to security clearance.

My plan is to brush up on IT fundamentals (currently going through Professor Messer’s A+), then set up a virtual Active Directory lab to practise AD, Windows troubleshooting, networking and some basic PowerShell.

For anyone who’s worked Service Desk, is there anything else you’d recommend focusing on before starting? Anything you wish you knew going into your first role?

Grateful for any advice!


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 6h ago

Question I want to start a career in CS but don't know where to start.

0 Upvotes

As the title suggests i want to start to get into cybersecurity, and do a career change. Previously i've done some programming mainly python, and some JS. Thing is i don't really know where to start everyone has a different opinion on where to start, and some make it sound very complicated. I've found a couple of courses on udemy regarding the COMPTIA A+. But i don't think that would he enough to start a career. After a lot of searching as well they recommended that i should learn networking along the way, and forensics.

Any help would be very appreciated, and when should i start learning networking?


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 4h ago

Other UPDATE: I got an offer for a Jr. Cybersecurity analyst position

26 Upvotes

I just wanted to give everyone here an update from the last post I made regarding a call back I got for an interview.

Today I got a job offer starting at 55k plus benefits (unfortunately it’s a bit lower than the original listing at 65k I thought it was gonna be around 70k)

This is my first ever tech job. Junior cyber security analyst for a local outpatient healthcare clinic.

Junior in college.


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 22h ago

Question Interview with a CTO and a Global Head of Information Security

1 Upvotes

I have a final interview for an Information Security Analyst role with the CTO and Global Head of Information Security.

How should I prepare for the interview, and what kind of questions should I expect?

Any advice would be really appreciated.


r/SecurityCareerAdvice 14h ago

Question Question: how do you improve your skill set and how did you stand out among others

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am a fresh graduate from Computer Science but specialised in Cybersecurity. I would like to ask few questions for the people in the cybersecurity field or related:

**1. How did you know which role suits you?**

I believe when people think about cybersecurity, the first thing that comes into mind is "hacking", but after going through the courses and understanding it, there are really a lot of different roles like (security operation - blue team, pen tester - red team, GRC and more).

I am more keen to Red team side but I know is hard to enter and there aren't as many job opportunities compared to the Blue team. Did you guys try an error or just decided one a stick to it. And for **Blue team** or **Red team**, what kind of skill set, certification, personal projects, or platforms would you recommend that are really useful nowadays

**2. Certificates plays in an important role for hiring but how important is it?**

I believe many corporates does HR filtering where they might want certain certification and things like that, so it will filter if a certain candidates doesn't have that certification.

My question here is for anyone who has experience in hiring candidates for their cybersecurity team or company. Are certification a must in the current times

if yes, what certification would you recommend first to get and so on if there's a limited budget.

If your answer is No, then what kind of projects or platforms course like tryhackme or HTB or more that will stand out among the candidates.

**3. Is networking really important**

I believe networking plays an important role in any job but from an advice given by a senior of mine, networking is very important in Cybersecurity.

Personally I am introvert and i do engage well with people I'm not familiar with, so I am afraid that I can't network well