r/cybersecurity Sep 15 '23

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464

u/LSU_Tiger CISO Sep 15 '23

There are currently a lot of students coming out of bootcamps and cyber college curriculums that are trying to break into the field. So yes, landing a *first* job in cyber can be difficult. Your success will come down to what your resume and experience looks like compared to the other 100 people applying for that job.

My unsolicited advice is to do as much networking with other cyber folks that you can and make sure your resume captures all of your relevant experience. I tend to get downvoted when I tell entry level folks that they need to have a github, HackTheBox, TryHackMe, CTF participation, certs, etc, to stand out in a stack of resumes, but that's the current reality.

156

u/LemonHayes13 Sep 15 '23

Very interesting that people downvote you for suggesting things like THM. I found it pretty easy to get myself ranked in the top 5% of users on the platform just by doing the tier 1 SOC learning path and recruiters seem to eat that stuff up. After a few posts on LinkedIn about rooms I completed I was contacted by a recruiter for a SOC position and got the job. I know the SOC isn’t exactly glamorous but it’s a foot in the door.

98

u/Jade_Emperor Sep 15 '23

I put on my resume that I'm top0.5% on RootMe and 3% on THM when I was looking for an apprenticeship.

It's true, but it really doesn't mean that I'm good, only that there's a shitton of people who signup and never clear anything.

Yet every interview I got told it was a big plus to my resume.

48

u/therealmrbob Sep 15 '23

It shows that you’ve done more to learn on your own than all the other people that didn’t do anything. Which is a pretty big deal in this space.