5 Cybersecurity Career Paths (and How to Get Started)

Pursuing a career in cybersecurity means joining a booming industry where available jobs outnumber qualified candidates. Nasscom forecasts that by 2025, the cybersecurity sector will generate one million job opportunities in India [1]. As cybersecurity continues to grow in importance, more specialised roles are emerging. Starting as a cybersecurity analyst creates opportunities to follow your interests within the world of information security and build a career path that’s right for you. Explore five common career paths within this high-demand field. 

Getting started: Entry-level cybersecurity jobs

If you’re new to cybersecurity, you may start out in an entry-level IT role, such as a security administrator or security analyst.

Before you apply for your first cybersecurity role, take some time to develop core IT skills, including programming, networks and systems administration, and cloud computing. Most employers will require you to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field. Whilst not compulsory, pursuing a master's degree can lead to career advancement and a salary boost. 

The Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate can introduce you to the skills and knowledge needed for an entry-level cybersecurity analyst role.

5 career paths for an information security analyst

As a cybersecurity analyst, you can decide to take your career in a few different directions, depending on your interests and goals. 

If you enjoy planning and building, you may choose to pursue security engineering and architecture. Maybe you enjoy the thrill of incident response, or perhaps you’d prefer to hone your hacking skills to stay one step ahead of bad actors. 

Take a closer look at five ways you could specialise in security as you advance your career.

1. Engineering and architecture

As a security engineer, you’ll use your knowledge of threats and vulnerabilities to build and implement defence systems against a range of security concerns. You may advance to become a security architect responsible for your organisation's entire security infrastructure. 

Security engineering and architecture could be a good fit if you enjoy tinkering with technology and like to take a big-picture approach to cybersecurity.

Skills to develop:

• Critical thinking

• IT networking

• System administration

• Risk assessment

Common certifications: CompTIA Security+, Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer

2. Incident response

Despite a company’s best security efforts, security incidents still happen. The field of incident response involves the next steps after a security incident. As an incident responder, you’ll monitor your company’s network and work to fix vulnerabilities and minimise loss when breaches occur. 

Another area of incident response involves digital forensics and cybercrime. Digital forensic investigators work with law enforcement to retrieve data from digital devices and investigate cybercrimes. 

Incident response could be a good fit if you work well under pressure and love a good mystery. 

Skills to develop:

• Attention to detail

• Technical writing and documentation

• Intrusion detection tools

• Forensics software

Common certifications: GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH), EC-Council Certified Incident Handler (ECIH), Certified Computer Examiner (CCE), Certified Computer Forensics Examiner (CCFE)

3. Management and administration

As you gain experience in cybersecurity, you may choose to advance toward a leadership position within your organisation. Cybersecurity managers oversee an organisation’s network and computer security systems. In this role, you might manage security teams, coordinate between teams, and ensure security compliance. Typically, the highest security role in an organisation is that of chief information security officer (CISO). Working in security at the executive level often means managing operations, policies, and budgets across the company’s security infrastructure.

Management and administration could be a good fit if you are organised, an excellent communicator, and enjoy working with people.

Skills to develop:

• Project management

• Risk management

• Leadership

• Collaboration

Common certifications: Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), GIAC Certified Project Manager (GCPM), CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)

4. Consulting

Companies hire security consultants to test their computer and network systems for any vulnerabilities or security risks. In this role, you get to practise cybersecurity offence and defence by testing systems for vulnerabilities and making recommendations on how to strengthen those systems.

Consulting could be a good fit if you enjoy variety and want to make an impact by helping others manage their security.

Skills to develop:

• Penetration and vulnerability testing

• Threat management

• Operating systems

• Encryption

Common certifications: CompTIA Security+, Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP), Certified Security Consultant (CSC)

5. Testing and hacking

This field of cybersecurity goes by many names, including offensive security, red team, white hat hacking, and ethical hacking. If you work in offensive security, you’ll take a proactive approach to cybersecurity. You’ll do this by playing the part of the intruder, trying to find vulnerabilities before the bad actors do. 

As a penetration tester, you’ll seek to identify and exploit system weaknesses to help companies build more secure systems. As an ethical hacker, you can try out even more attack vectors (like social engineering) to reveal security weaknesses.

Testing and hacking could be a good fit if you want to outsmart the bad actors and get paid to (legally) hack into networks and computer systems.

Skills to develop:

• Cryptography

• Penetration testing

• Computer networking

• Scripting

Common certifications: Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), CompTIA PenTest+, GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN), Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)

How much can you make? Cybersecurity salaries by role

Cybersecurity professionals tend to get paid well for their skills, even at the entry level. As you gain experience and move into more advanced roles, salaries often go up as well. To give you an idea of what’s possible, review the average base pay of several cybersecurity jobs in India as of June 2024, according to Glassdoor.

• IT security administrator:  INR 7,00,000

• Incident response analyst:  INR 8,00,000

• Cybersecurity consultant:  INR 9,00,000

• Information security analyst:  INR 7,00,000

• Penetration tester:  INR 5,80,000

• Security engineer:  INR 10,00,000

• Cybersecurity manager:  INR 22,00,000

• Security architect:  INR 20,00,000

• Chief information security officer:  INR 63,00,000

Get started in cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is an in-demand field with numerous possible career paths to explore. If you’re interested in starting a career in cybersecurity, consider the Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate on Coursera. This programme is designed ​​to help individuals with no previous experience learn in-demand skills and prepare for Microsoft’s SC-900 exam and a first job in cybersecurity.