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Standing Out In Cybersec: Best Entry-Level Resume Recommendations
What are the critical components to include in your Entry-Level Cybersecurity Resume?
There are some key things an entry level cybersecurity resume should include / emphasize in order to help get you noticed. I’m sharing some critical components below, but I’d love to hear what my IT Recruiter and Cyberseeking friends have to say about what else they think should be included! PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS!
- Appropriate Contact Information: Include your LinkedIn Profile that reflects resume content; Alignment between your resume and LinkedIn profile are important. If you’ve built a personal web site, create a blog or have an online portfolio of your work, a series of cybersec YouTube videos. You will want to showcase those!
- Professional Skills: Include soft skills and technical skills relevant to the job for which you are applying. Think about any formal or self-paced courses you’ve taken, topics you’ve studied and projects, labs and CTFs you’ve completed…and the skills you built during those. What tools have you worked with? What Languages do you know [if any]? What cloud platforms are you familiar with? Use this space to share things that are relevant and meaningful to the prospective employer based on the Job Description posted…and avoid including things that are not!
- Education: List most recent and relevant training here. You need to demonstrate that you are a continuous learner! Convey your passion and personal drive to quench your ongoing thirst for more cybersec knowledge. The fact that you understand [and are commiitted to a life of non-stop learning] must be made apparent!
- Certifications: Reality is…certifications are definitely valued in this space, so list them! If you don’t have any…you’ll want to get 1-2 rlelevant entry-level certs on your resume.
- Professional Experience: Include all relevant paid work, internships, apprenticeships and your current job [regardless of field to show employment]. Focus on RESULTS you delivered, and QUANTIFY things as much as possible. Start all bullet points in this section with with action-oriented verbs only. [i.e. Managed 20…Supported 100…Identified and fixed 30 web application vulnerabilitites, etc.]
- Volunteer Experience: All volunteer experience matters, but list the IT and cybersecurity related volunteer experience first. Volunteer to help check the website and computers at local churches, non-profits or small businesses who cannot afford to hire help for that. Help with technical summer camps, run a security awareness campaign at school, teach a free personal cybersafety course at the local library, etc.
- Professional Associations: Join relevant professional organizations or communities, and support community projects.
- Cybersecurity community Involvement: I’m adding this one! List your cybersecurity community involvement and contributions. [i.e. open source project contributions, mentoring / teaching others to do things, blog posts, how-to-videos on You Tube, etc.]
This blog by cybersecurity career coach Matt Day is an excellent starting point! Check out the 7 Critical Components of an Awesome Entry-Level Cybersec Resume…and SHARE what you’ve done to make your cybersecurity resume stand out and get you noticed!
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2 Replies
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Absolutely awesome and super helpful article! So many things I haven’t thought of before. Thank you!
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I need this right now! Thanks!
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