There has been a rising hype among the IT industry, referring to the hiring of the cybersecurity specialists or individuals that can provide dedicated cybersecurity-oriented services to the clients. But precisely what kind of scope is being witnessed by the cybersecurity industry? If you came around this article featuring a particular level of curiosity, then congratulations, your interest will be rewarded with relevant knowledge and practical information regarding the current job status, skills required of the professionals, and other related information for the field of cybersecurity within USA.
But before we can move onto the city-wise and state-wise depiction of the country regarding the cybersecurity career paths, let’s have a country-wise scope of the subject first;
Global scope for cybersecurity
Talking about the global archives, the cybersecurity jobs are still in demand, and according to the market or IT industry, it doesn’t seem that the demand is going to vanish in the near future. Cybersecurity threats and attacks are becoming more and more prominent, and no company or enterprise can depict themselves as being immune to these attacks; thus, the need for cybersecurity professionals is reaching sky high. Talking about the numbers, it is projected by some of the statistics enterprises around the world that growth for jobs regarding the cybersecurity environment is going to hit 37% in the near future, no farther than 2020.
Number of Jobs—Job Roles and Responsibilities
As depicted earlier, the number of vacancies for the cybersecurity professionals is only going to increase in number given the imminent future. Although a variety of job openings are seen among the sectors of forensic investigator, auditor, network architect management, systems engineer, cloud security expert and other type of roles needs to be fulfilled by these cybersecurity professionals from around the world.
When we come around the job roles, then these can be different for a different set of jobs or positions applied; however, a primary or fundamental set of rules can be crafted for the convenience of the cybersecurity experts. Being a cybersecurity professional, you should know about;
- Implementation of various security systems, their development as well as the effective deployment regarding multiple systems such as networking, cloud and data center security as well as the overall integrity of the known systems.
- Trying to follow or align with the latest standards and protocols as directed by various organizations or standard enterprises.
- Manage the data as well as the sensitive information of the customers, enterprise as well as the organizations
- Secure this data behind the secure data vaults, inhibit the access of the unauthorized personnel and or illicit cybercriminals because otherwise they would steal the corporate data and manipulate the security of the organization and the secure processing of the information in jeopardy
- You are also responsible for the regulation of the company’s standards and protocols following the information processing, data interpretation, and the security of the sensitive artifacts lies in this area.
- You will not only be looking after the interests of multiple factors and factions of the enterprise but will also be managing their cloud presence and implementing a proper set of techniques to ensure that the cloud-oriented features are not only up to date but are also featuring the current standard and policies of the enterprise.
Skills Required
Although you should have a mix of various independent skills to make sure that you can attend to various matters of cybersecurity at hand only if you have some limited number of skills up your sleeves, then it will also do just fine. Following skillset is needed for a professional to be validated as the cybersecurity expert;
- Detection of the intrusion
- Malware analysis and report submission regarding such threats
- Programming know-how with various platforms such as Java, C++ as well as python and others
- Cloud security emphasis and analytics
- Analysis of cyber-related risks and their effective mitigation
- Fluent with people and a communication starter
- Must be able to perform the security analysis regarding various sections of the enterprise
Average salary
The average salary of various cybersecurity professionals is different for different parts of the world, and it solely depends on the skillset of the professional, what certification they have and what section of the cybersecurity business they will be serving. However, we will provide the average salary for cybersecurity professionals for you to stand on a point. The cybersecurity market is expected to hit $170 billion by 2020; by this statement, you can grasp a clear understanding of how vital this enterprise is.
According to a survey, the average salary of such professionals expected to be $110/hour. Europe and the USA are more active when it comes to facilitate the professionals according to their professional skillset and provide them with efficient salaries while Asia and other parts of the globe only facilitate the professionals with average salary packages. A cybersecurity professional can earn $110000 to $164000 easily on an annual basis.
State Wise Scope
USA is considered to be the biggest cesspool when it comes to finding the best of the best IT-based professionals and cybersecurity experts. You can find tons of jobs, better opportunities, and a scalable career among different states of the USA, as explained follows. Although the data could be centered over a variety of the USA based states but for your convenience, we have only chosen a handful few that are as follows;
Virginia
Virginia is considered to be the center space for the IT-based work, including the cybersecurity tasks and principles in the whole of the USA. There are tons of opportunities waiting to be explored there. It is the best state to become a security analyst and pursue a scalable and robust career in there. It also has a higher scoreboard for the salary status of the employees as well as the number of job vacancies that are available over the years.
Texas
The next state on the list is Texas, Texans are known to have bigger hearts, but when it comes to the cybersecurity based opportunities, the market is even bigger and brighter there. People and professionals tied with the fields of the cybersecurity lands on this platform to start their careers and are met with high scalability after rushing for a small period. Salaries do increase over time, and other benefits are also added gradually for the professionals. You can easily earn about $65000-140000 annually.
New York
New York is the venture capitalist when it comes to startup businesses, every American, as well as Non-American, reaches this amazing platform to launch their business and are often met with success. This state also offers a steady and gradual increase in the revenue and the success for not only the professionals but also the investors and other corporate settings attached to the business. Any cybersecurity professional that also has some certification among their practical field or line of work can earn almost $122000 on an annual basis.
Number of jobs - job roles and responsibilities
The employment rate for all these states mentioned above is not only steady but also centered across the current professional level or skill of the cybersecurity professionals. There are approximately 1500 professionals available for every 1000 jobs according to a state-wise survey of the number of vacancies to the professional ratio available. The competition doesn’t seem to be tight or intricate because this ratio doesn’t qualify as something to be worried over. Every professional gets an easy and convenient chance at success, given the ratio of the competition and the number of jobs also tend to increase.
There are currently about 25000 jobs available for the cloud security services alone, which is the least touched or apprehended section of the cybersecurity network. From this, you can probably grab an overview of the number of professionals and the number of jobs available for each available professional.
The role of the jobs and responsibilities for each cybersecurity professional does change from state to state and job to job. E.g., an analyst is required to fill out the performance and use of the various resources and is considered to perform his job the same way regardless of the state or city they are working on. However, on the other hand, a cloud security expert is to customize their skillset and responsibilities from job to job and from varying nature of how data is stored, processed, and secured for various enterprises and or organizations.
Skills required - Average Salary
Skills required for each job varies drastically, but the duties of the professionals would remain just about the same from state to state or city to city. The general layout regarding the responsibilities of the professionals remains the same as discussed above, although there could be slight changes for a variety of jobs changing from state to state or company to company.
A detailed interjection of the various salary packages for the professionals for different states regarding cybersecurity is provided above.
City wise scope
According to a survey, the most significant number of professional cybersecurity jobs are located in New York, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. But the location with the highest overall earning and the salary packs that are considered to be decent was located in San Francisco.
Washington D.C
D.C is considered to be the spotlight of the law enforcing agencies and other federal and government-oriented offices that requires the continued support of the cybersecurity officials and professionals consistently. There are according to a survey almost 10000 positions open and available for cybersecurity officials at all times. Higher security clearance is required for the professionals to work in dedicated intelligence agencies, parsing, decoding, and or encrypting data always. If you pass the polygraph test and convince the intelligence agencies to hire you, then you can easily earn up to $115000 on an annual basis.
San Francisco
It is considered as the financial and the tech capital of the west in the USA; there are available almost thousands of openings for different IT-related jobs, especially the cybersecurity, and related fields as well. The primary services that are required by the cyber officials are needed among the fields of health, education, intelligence agency work as well as finance and other tech corporate-related enterprises. The cost of living there is extremely high, but the salaries are also in line to meet the ever-rising standards. According to a survey, the average salary of an IT security specialist is about $160,000, and also the highest-paid cybersecurity roles ever were noticed to reach the $300,000 on an annual basis.
Chicago
The prominence or active part take of the Chicago in reaction with the cybersecurity deals and jobs doesn’t come as a surprise. Because without any doubt, it is the most critical business hub in all of the USA, which is centric to provide their IT-based services to various etch giants, corporate as well as the forex world of the United States as well as the far west to the European cost.
According to a recent survey of the past month or week, approximately 4000 openings are asking for various cybersecurity-related jobs featuring different sections of the cyber world that were open and available for the professionals to apply for. Chief information security officer openings were the highest as compared to the other similar opportunities; from this, one can estimate or guess the future of their career here in Chicago. The average salaries for different cybersecurity officials do range from $120,000 to $165,000.
Number of Jobs
The detailed job openings for dedicated cities are explained above, the job openings per person can range from 25 to a few hundred for the cities mentioned above.
Job Roles and Responsibilities
The role of the cybersecurity professional vary significantly, given their current job undertaking. However, there doesn’t lie much difference regarding the duties of these professionals. Being a cybersecurity professional, they would have to know how to develop, implement, and deploy various firewalls and other security-based systems, including the antivirus and antimalware essentials. Apart from this such professionals are also responsible for the different other attributes such as the security of the precious data and the related information of the customers and the enterprise which they are working for.
Regarding the consumer data, these professionals would have to secure their personal as well as the financial information from the reach of the cybercriminals. Other duties of these professionals include running penetration testing regularly to find about any leaks or dedicated security breaches within the security of network systems of the enterprise.
Salary
Salary details for every city are elaborated with more information above. The average payout can, however, change concerning the dedicated field the professional has indulged themselves into. The cybersecurity professionals shouldn’t only consider the jobs that have lucrative salary packages but also choose from the long term projects for better earning and chances at scalability.
Best state/city for cybersecurity professionals--# of jobs, job roles, and responsibilities, skills required, salary
According to the latest survey conducted by various enterprises related to job hunting and or facilitating the professionals with finding them a reasonable job, a cybersecurity professional should start from Virginia; the main reason for is the availability of a variety of different vacancies for the individuals. If not, then New York is considered the best possible option. The main reason for this is because the average salary of the professionals working in there is higher as compared to other states. The average salary of the information security analyst might go to $122,000, which is about 25% more than what Virginia has to offer.
Utah comes third on the list and has become the next best destination of various cybersecurity professionals. The main reason is the availability of long term projects that offer a steady stream of income instead of worrying extensively to get your hands on the next project that is made available or if made available. The only thing that doesn’t add up is the salary; salary is relatively less than the New York and Virginia but with an 18% annual increase in the payout every year, the time isn’t far when you could be reaping the same benefits as other professionals working in other states.
It is in the best interest of the professional only if they adapt the jobs that offer long term projects, the only steady earning that you will ever do lies within the long term projects. The roles of the job and the responsibilities of the professional would change according to the caliber, the skillset that professional carries as well as the requirement of the jobs as well. You don’t need to worry at all as it is not so difficult to adapt yourself and your work to the current standards of the job only unless you lack the required skills. You must know what you are doing, instead of reaching out for the job opportunities and openings of whom you don’t have even a single clue.
Least preferable state/city for cybersecurity professionals—# of jobs, job roles, and responsibilities, skills required, salary
As there are some states and the cities that score wonderful regarding the availability or opening of the new jobs, average annual payout, as well as the five-year increase in the yearly salary, so there are states and cities that are least preferred for various job roles regarding the field of cybersecurity. On top of the list is Puerto Rico, which is ranked as the lowest scoring territory when it comes to the annual average salary for the professionals indulged within the field of cybersecurity.
But if looked on the past five-year job history for this territory in events of hiring the cybersecurity individuals and a standard increase among their overall salaries, the state doesn’t seem to be lacking behind that much. The employment rates have increased during the past five years and have reached about 80%, and a gradual increase of about 20-25% can be seen among the rise in the current number of jobs available as well as the professionals available to take on the positions as well.
Vermont, Indiana, Montana, and Maine also are placed among this list of the states and or the cities that are least preferred by the cybersecurity officials. Not only the salaries don’t increase over the years, but the cybersecurity can’t find consistent jobs or extensive cybersecurity projects to earn from. The job opportunities, roles, and responsibilities of the professionals are only limited to the implementation of security over a few data centers, running errands as an IT security analyst to report the usage of the resource by the company’s personnel and also managing various IT-based systems as well.
The average salary that is being made available to the professionals on a lighter note is approximately $40000-45000, and the highest average salary ranges from $80k – $85k. The salary packages are not up to the standards, and the same goes for the availability of work; at times, it is available in bulk and at times, there is no work and thus no job openings for the cybersecurity professionals at all. This is why the states and the cities mentioned here are of less significance among cyber professionals from all around the country.
It is advised that the professionals seeking jobs within these states should give first importance or priority to the long-term projects as these are the only potential source of income or earning for the professionals. Also, professionals should invest and engage more in getting the best cybersecurity training to land good jobs. Casual jobs can’t be trusted at all bases; these don’t offer high or otherwise decent salary packages to the cybersecurity professionals but are also only available for a short duration of time.