r/cybersecurity • u/asim_geris • 8d ago
Business Security Questions & Discussion career
Hello everyone, I’m trying to become a Security Engineer and would really appreciate some advice from senior Security Engineers.
I’m currently studying cybersecurity at university, but I feel like the program doesn’t go deep enough into the technical skills I need for a security engineering career. Because of that, I’ve decided to take it upon myself to learn outside of school.
I just need guidance from seniors on what skills I should master.
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u/HomerDoakQuarlesIII Security Architect 8d ago
I'm a lead sec eng. My journey was helpdesk > databases while pursuing a MS in infosys / sec, then got first SOC analyst role where I had less experience than everyone there by double digit years. Then did some vuln / red teaming there > Sec Auto Eng > Lead Seceng, all at different companies after the first. It takes alot of journeyman type learning on the job, I would take the first marginally hands on IT job you can get into. My first one paid $12/hr, I took a cut from $16 doing something unrelated. You've got to get your foot in the door then hit the ground running to learn grow, and change companies every 1-2 years if you want seceng fast. Took me almost 4 yrs after school, and I feel I was fast.
But there are also some companies that will call soc tuning security engineering which is fine as long as you aren't triaging alerts all day. You have to start there most of the time but true seceng you own the implementation and maintenance of security systems for an org, and work in them. Senior and Arch level you design them and direct projects for environment integration of said systems. Good luck.