Treffer: Skills, Certifications, or Degrees: What Companies Demand for Entry-Level Cybersecurity Jobs

People starting cybersecurity careers have three main avenues for achieving entry-level job qualifications: learning in-demand skills, earning industry certifications, and graduating with a college degree. Though people can pursue skills, certificates, and degrees together, financial and time constraints often make people focus their efforts to what they feel would help them most in their careers. Those seeking careers in information systems are reasonably asking themselves if the cost of a college degree is a worthwhile investment. In this paper, we analyze 11,938 entry-level job postings for cybersecurity jobs on Dice.com to determine required and desired qualifications. The results show that 7,177 (60%) of entry-level cybersecurity jobs require a college degree in a related field. Of those, 2,851 (24% of jobs) prefer a graduate degree. 3,406 (29% of jobs) require a certification. Structured query language (SQL), testing, Java, Excel, Oracle, consulting, and database skills are listed in 16% of jobs. The most popular certifications are "Certified Information Systems Security Professional CISSP" (listed in 4.8% of jobs), "Information Technology Infrastructure Library ITIL" (listed in 3.9% of jobs), "Security+" (listed in 2.9% of jobs), "Project Management Professional PMP" (listed in 2.8% of jobs) and "Information Assurance Technical IAT" (listed in 2.4% of jobs). The selected snapshot data show that college degrees are required for 60% of jobs--evidence that college degrees are still in high demand for the field of cybersecurity. However, employers are also looking for certifications and skills.

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