BY Wealthy GrisetJuly 08, 2022, 12:53 PM
A bunch walks by Sather Tower on the UC Berkeley campus, as seen in March 2022. (Picture by Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures)
In the case of job demand, it’s exhausting to beat the sector of cybersecurity. By 2025 there will probably be an estimated 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs throughout the globe, in response to Cybersecurity Ventures, a researcher and writer that covers the worldwide cyber economic system. And that follows a 350% development within the variety of open cybersecurity jobs between 2013 and 2021.
As virtually all parts of labor, life and the whole lot in between now have a digital element, the necessity to safe our info from cybersecurity threats has solely grown. With that development, grasp’s diploma applications in cybersecurity have additionally flourished.
“The job market’s insane for cybersecurity,” says Mary McHale, a profession advisor for the grasp’s of knowledge and cybersecurity program (MICS) on the College of California—Berkeley. The college landed the No. 1 spot on Fortune’s first-ever rating of the very best on-line grasp’s diploma applications in cybersecurity. “While you have a look at the chance and demand, it’s large.”
Whether or not contending with cyber criminals who want to flip a revenue from stealing info or difficult nation-states that want to do us hurt, cybersecurity professionals are in an fascinating and ever-evolving area. And UC Berkeley grads are touchdown jobs with beginning salaries of greater than $200,000 instantly after commencement. Right here’s what it is advisable know
How large is the demand for cybersecurity professionals?
In June, Lakshmi Hanspal, the worldwide chief safety officer for Amazon gadgets and providers, was the keynote speaker for Berkeley’s MICS immersion program. In her tackle, Hanspal mentioned that Amazon had greater than 600 unfilled cybersecurity jobs.
That’s a excessive quantity, significantly given Amazon’s deep pockets. “They’re saying the demand is simply going more and more greater,” says McHale of UC Berkeley. “As soon as we assist [students] get visibility within the job market, the quantity of consideration they’re getting is large.”
Many grasp’s diploma candidates in cybersecurity applications participate in summer season internships with firms earlier than graduating.
“Most come again with a proposal of full-time employment after they end,” says Mustaque Ahamad, a professor within the Faculty of Cybersecurity and Privateness at Georgia Tech. “You may have a job lined up, completely.”
Whereas a grasp’s diploma in cybersecurity or a associated topic like pc science isn’t required to work in cybersecurity, it goes an extended option to inform graduates on the most recent developments and happenings within the area.
“A grasp’s diploma goes to organize you for the best ability, top-level careers,” Ahamad says. “A grasp’s diploma is basically going to make a specialist in cybersecurity.”
How a lot are you able to make with a grasp’s in cybersecurity?
When you’ve got a grasp’s in cybersecurity, it’s pretty frequent to earn a six-figure wage instantly after commencement. “It’s a career that may pay you properly,” says Ahamad. “The overwhelming majority of [graduates] head out to the Microsofts and the Googles and the Ciscos and the Intels.”
In response to a UC Berkeley wage survey of alumni, graduates with a grasp’s diploma in cybersecurity make a mean wage of $214,000, not together with bonuses; the median wage is $200,000. Some graduates who at the moment are executives, corresponding to chief info safety officers (CISOs), chief info officers (CIOs), and chief know-how officers (CTOs) make greater than $300,000.
“The CISO roles are going to be extra over the $250,000, $300,000 [salary mark], nearer to $400,000, relying on the corporate and the dimensions of the group,” McHale says.
The median pay for pc programmers, who write, check and modify code and scripts in order that functions and computer systems can work correctly, was $93,000 in 2021, in response to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data safety analysts, who plan and perform safety measures to guard the pc networks and programs of a company, had a median pay of $102,600. Pc community architects, who design and construct information communication networks, corresponding to Intranets, huge space networks (WANs), and native space networks (LANs), had a median earnings of $120,520 in 2021.
Although graduates who go to work for the federal government usually make much less cash, the data gained from changing into acquainted with authorities programs that should be secured can repay in the event that they ultimately work for a serious protection contractor.
“The expertise is golden,” Ahamad says. “They’re coping with refined nation-state threats, so [with] the programs and the functions and the excessive stage of safety that’s wanted, as soon as they’ve that have, that actually makes them first-class at cybersecurity.”
McHale says that whereas some cybersecurity grasp’s graduates from Berkeley head to the general public sector, most take new jobs within the non-public sector.
“Folks with this skilled grasp’s diploma at the moment are open to a path of unbelievable profession alternatives,” McHale says. “There may be a capability to use these expertise in any trade, or across the globe, as a result of they’ll take that core ability and apply it to one thing they’re very captivated with.”
