Start Your Cyber Career

Your FreeCyber Strategic Pocket Guide + Cyber Career Roadmap

Get started and explore the FreeCyber Career Development Framework. This will be a strategic approach to develop your career and by exploring this page you will be guided step by step how to do it.

For non-IT people that want to build a cyber career you can follow the FreeCyber Roadmap, starting with IT, getting you cyber foundations, to becoming a cyber analyst.

CYBER START

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CYBER ANALYST

Step 1: Environmental Scan

Do your research to understand available roles, job market trends and what companies are searching for.

This is ground zero, you want to get started but you don’t have any idea exactly what you should do. You have been hearing about how cool it is to be a penetration tester or bug bounty hunter and how much money these people are making. Everyone is making this look so easy, so you think that “hey, easy money”. Before anything else, if it looks easy that only means these people spend a lot of time learning, practicing, and researching in their field.

If someone promises you that will take you from zero to hero in 4 / 8 / 12 hours, run. There is a 10 000 hours rule to proficiency. Now, I am not saying you can only start doing things after 10 000 hours, but rest assured you will not understand even the basics in 4.

You started your research, and you are more confused now than when you started. That is normal, information security / cybersecurity is complicated. If you hear about information security and cybersecurity interchangeably like they are the same thing, they are not. Cybersecurity is a subset of information security with the main difference that InfoSec includes physical security.

FreeCyber was built as a framework for anyone that wants to get started and build a cyber career.

Get Started > FreeCyber > https://www.freecyber.info/career-path

You will find some of the best free resources to understand the roles, tasks, knowledge, skills, and abilities:

1. National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS)

https://niccs.cisa.gov/workforce-development/cyber-career-pathways-tool

You can also use “The Cyber Career Pathways Tool User Guide” to help your with your search. If that looks complicated, I will try to make it easier for you.

Let us assume that we selected “Cybersecurity”! You will get a list of the Work Roles in that category. Going further maybe we are interested to start as a Cyber Defense Forensics Analyst. As soon as you click on it there will be a new area explaining the role (Details, Tasks, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, etc). I encourage you to spend as much time as possible to understand the work roles.

2. UK Cyber Security Council

https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/careers-and-learning/cyber-career-framework/

While NICCS has 52 Work Roles, the UK Cyber Security Council provides details about 16 Specialism in cybersecurity. Let us take “Digital Forensics” as an example. As soon as you click on it you will see how this is related to other specialism (you next career move?) and a Learn More button.

You can learn about: what a digital forensics professional is doing, responsibilities, knowledge, skills, your next step in developing a cyber career, and some of the qualifications required.

More help by checking:

CyberSeek: https://www.cyberseek.org/
Cyber.org: https://cyber.org/

By checking the different roles and requirements from the shared resources you should have by now a better understanding of what’s out there and already picked a starting point and career for yourself.

Step 2: Internal Analysis

Who are you? What are your values and principles? Seek to understand yourself.

We are always learning new things about ourselves, and this must be everyone’s focus in the end. Knowing yourself, what makes you happy, your strengths and weakness, where you want to go, and what kind of person you want to become.

Use reflection as a tool, think about your past, your actions, and decisions. Is there anything you want to change; do you regret doing or not doing certain things? It’s never too late, you can start today.

An article that I wrote some time ago called “Career Development Frameworks and Tools” contains some of the tools that helped me in my self-development journey. Link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/career-development-frameworks-tools-business-tool-part-andrei/

What it covers:

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The Social Style Model
The Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)
Korn Ferry Four Dimensional Model (KF4D)
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)

Step 3: Strategic Direction

What is your perfect future? How does it look like? Is it achievable? Is it realistic?

A strategic direction is a set of activities and decisions that you have to make in order to achieve your goals and objectives. Simply put is what are you willing to do for your perfect future and what it takes to get there.

At this point is good to understand that to get there you will be required to push yourself to the limit, make sacrifices as well as understand that failure is part of success.

The best part is that you are not alone and I encourage you to seek help. The best way forward is to find a mentor (someone to guide you, someone you can ask questions – the mentor’s role is to offer you the tools that you need to develop your career)

You will find some of the best platforms here: FreeCyber > Mentoring > https://www.freecyber.info/mentoring

Step 4: Develop Goals and Objectives

What is your goal? Digital Forensics Professional? It's time to set objectives.

We used Digital Forensics as our example going through the different roles. Your goal could be becoming a CISO, or a CIO. Dream big and go big, but be realistic, start small and build your career organically, step by step.

In another article that I wrote, I have shared some of the tools that I used and am still using.

Career Development Frameworks and Tools – Business Tools

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/career-development-frameworks-tools-business-part-1-codrut-andrei/

GROW Model
Plan-Do-Check- Act Cycle (PDCA)
70-20-10 Model

You are already working towards developing your cyber career, congratulations. At this step FreeCyber is here to help you. Check the Career Development resources posted here > FreeCyber > Career Development > https://www.freecyber.info/career-development

Let’s assume that you want to become a Digital Forensics professional (or just start here). First you need to understand the cybersecurity basics (remember the tasks, knowledge, skills, and abilities from NICCS or UK Cyber Security Council). You will find everything you need by checking FreeCyber > Careers > https://www.freecyber.info/careers

There are different resources, trainings for an introduction to cybersecurity, learning the fundamentals and at the same time you will get the chance to get your certificates and digital badges that will help you stand out.

You know your fundamentals, fantastic job! Now let us get deeper into the rabbit hole and learn about digital forensics. Everything that you will ever need to get to your first role can be found if you check FreeCyber > Careers > DFIR > https://www.freecyber.info/dfir

Resources, guides, labs, certifications – all in one place and all for FREE.

Step 5: Define Metrics, Set Timelines, and Track Progress

How and when will you get there? 3 months / 6 months?

Step 5 is all about time management. How much are you going to invest in yourself to get into cyber? 2 hours a day? Half an hour? 4 hours? This is a case by case scenario and will be different if you are a student or a veteran, a single parent or a father with triplets. You already know your priorities. Whatever path you choose it will require discipline and consistency ... and patience with yourself.

Time Management article: https://www.edrawmind.com/article/time-management-mind-map.html

What is most important here is how your define success and what your milestones look like. Does your first milestone look like the moment you get into cyber or just reading this guide is a success for you? Maybe your first training or digital badge?

Celebrate all the small wins and learn from mistakes.

Step 6: Write your Strategic Plan

Document everything, from goals, objectives, to progress and skills learned.

This includes your reflection moments, the different emotions you are going through. Documentation skills will come in handy when you get your first role.

Step 7: Implement your Plan

You have done the hard part, now it's time to implement your plan and change your future.