Of course, you must have deep knowledge to succeed in the field. But not just that. Read on to find out the must-have cybersecurity skills. Without further ado, here are they.
A strong technical knowledge base
This is the first skill that comes to mind for most people. However, take note that this is only a piece of a huge puzzle. Yet, technical skills are the main piece and they will decide whether you’ll succeed in the field. There are two subcategories of technical skills – practical and conceptual.
Practical, hands-on technical skills refer to what we are doing to complete the task. This is the ‘experience’ part of the job we always notice. The needs of a company vary so the skillset for this area also greatly vary. This could range from the ability to penetrate a system as a test to the ability to configure a network.
Meanwhile, the conceptual technical knowledge supports your hands-on experience. This would bore about anyone you tried to explain it to – it’s dry. However, conceptual technical knowledge is very important in any cybersecurity job. Such cybersecurity skills include things like knowing the port numbers of various protocols.
The ability to research and learn new information
Cybersecurity is a never-ending study as technology never stops evolving. Hence, you must have a sense of resourcefulness and a love of learning to succeed in the field. Technology changes rapidly. Hence, you must learn to keep up and learn where to find such information.
Thus, you must have a natural curiosity about technology. The best way for this is to make learning a daily habit. Such curiosity will help you succeed in the field.
Logical reasoning and troubleshooting
This is another critical skillset to succeed. Employers will only hire an applicant only if he/she can detect a problem and solve it. Yet, this set of cybersecurity skills takes a lot of time and experience to develop. You need to practice as much as you can to develop these skills.
The ability to be a self-starter and work independently
Most cybersecurity positions don’t spend much time in meetings. Furthermore, most of the work in the field is not group work. Companies hire cybersecurity professionals to have them work independently in solving problems and getting the job done. Indeed, you must be a self-starter to succeed. No supervisor wants an employee that requires a lot of hand-holding.
Customer service skills and verbal communication
All employers have customers so whether you like it or not, you’ll have to interact with someone at some point in your job. Additionally, it’s not just the customers you’ll interact with. That could include vendors, executives, or a boss. Furthermore, you must know how to communicate technical information to non-techy people.
Written communication and documentation
Documentation is a must in the job as your co-workers will use it to know what you’ve done. Moreover, documentation is a way to communicate with clients. You don’t have to be an English major. All you need is to write with clarity, detail, and directness to help people understand your accomplishments in the job.
