Searching for the Ideal SOC Analyst
Looking for the Ideal SOC Analyst
I need success stories. But who can I find to help get a job? It’d need to be someone with the right education that doesn’t have the zing that I can give it. Someone with a bachelor’s degree and a sec+ would do. If they have help desk experience that’s a bonus. Any experience in IT certainly makes finding a job as an Ideal SOC Analyst easier.
They’d need to live near a large city but not one with a high cost of living. Salaries are too high there and employers are moving away from them because of the cost of living. They say it’s the taxes and that’s partially true but really it’s because they can’t pay triple their labor costs and they can’t come out and say “we want to pay people less”.
Dallas, Texas is good. Atlanta, Georgia. There’s a large list of places companies are migrating to or growing where they already have a location. Somewhere where there’s opportunity but not too expensive. Is that where you live?
A masters degree is too much. It’s counterintuitive but employers might think you’ll find something better too quickly when you get experience. If you have one, that’s fine, but a Bachelor’s degree is better for the short term.
Ideally it’d be a computer science degree. Cybersecurity degrees teach high level policy that not applicable for years and years and you have to be really technical for entry level roles.
Gender, race, sexual identity doesn’t matter. There’s an equal amount of employers looking for a balance to their teams than there is to fit their culture I would think.
Must be US citizen. That’s important.
Must have blog and show that the community means something to you. The hiring manager will look at your blog if you link it on your resume. Blog your journey to becoming a SOC analyst. Any how-tos and walk throughs of things you’ve learned. Write reviews of resources you’ve consumed (books, courses, etc..) giving honest feedback for your peers.
Must attend local cybersecurity groups. 2600, Def Con groups, OWASP, maker spaces, and hacker spaces. Must be building your network, making the coffee, and building your contacts. Sharing your resume and taking other people’s resume to share with others. If you’ve presented something, put it on your resume. Great places to pick a topic you know something about and present about it for a resume addition.
Must be in online discords. Show personality and uniqueness. Be supportive of your peers and help contribute to those that need help. Don’t be a d*ck.
Must be modest about LinkedIN. You should have one, but you shouldn’t be too personal, kept professional. Shouldn’t be an embarrassment but should contribute occasionally and show support to your colleagues. You want to show teamwork and that you can get along with your peers. Don’t want to show “Look at me” unless you’ve really just accomplished something sparingly like a degree or certification.
Must have a home lab, preference if its in the cloud and they can read about your projects on your blog.
Chances are this doesn’t sound like you
And this person is super difficult to find. While you can’t change things like where you live so easily, you can improve your odds to becoming the passionate security nerd they’re looking for. The hiring process is always going to require a fair amount of sheer luck. Suppose you just wake up feeling a million bucks that day and ace the interviews. You’d have a better chance. Not every day is a perfect day and bad interviews happen. But on paper, before the interviews, these are some of the things that you can think about doing that will increase your odds of becoming the ideal SOC analyst candidate.
Tyler Wall is the founder of Cyber NOW Education. He holds bills for a Master of Science from Purdue University, and also CISSP, CCSK, CFSR, CEH, Sec+, Net+, A+ certifications. He mastered the SOC after having held every position from analyst to architect and is the author of three books, 100+ professional articles, four online courses, and regularly holds webinars for new cybersecurity talent.
You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
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