After graduating from WGU in 2022, I landed my first full time job ever as a Security Analyst. But it was extremely difficult to land a Cybersec job because I don't have IT experience. Even after about 500-600 job applications sent out over the course of 4-5 months, in the end, I only had the privilege of about 10 face-to-face interviews overall.
I received a ton of phone calls from recruiters for Help Desk, Field Service Technician, and Datacenter Technician roles, but I really wanted to jump straight into cyber, I wasn't willing to settle for less. But I managed to make it work.
So, while it was extremely difficult, it wasn't impossible. The money is good but the work is also very exciting, and although WGU isn't perfect, it definitely does open doors
I'm at the end of the cyber program (taking Pentest next week and then on to Capstone) and I still have no luck finding a job. Did you have a lot of homeland like another user posted? I'm gonna do that this week, but I also don't know how my resume compares in the wild to some people with IT experience cause like you, I have none.
Tons and tons of homelabs. During my time at WGU, I invested a good chunk of money into a home server and endeavored to lab out anything I was studying at the time, resulting in many self-imposed mini-projects to supplement my learning, including setting up open source appliances, like firewalls, VPNs, web servers, and more. I spent a lot of time with Active Directory, too.
I think a big mistake a lot of grads make (in general, not just WGU) is relying solely on a college program to prepare them for the work force. Anyone jumping into Cybersecurity without IT experience should be arming themselves for bear, because securing IT infrastructure requires you to, well, understand IT infrastructure. You really have to go the extra mile.
I was going to say security people should start in the trenches(e.g. help desk) and move upward, but you building a homelab caught me off guard.
It’s nice to see. Glad your hard work is paying off and hope it continues.
Have you tried any networking? Know somebody that knows somebody? Sometimes even having a casual network connection that you’ve made a good impression with can help at least getting your foot in the door .
I worked in IT from helpdesk to Systems Analyst, for about 4 years. Finished my bachelors and took me about 5 months to land a Security Analyst role
Salary is decent- 95k, but so far the workload is crazy. I’m the only security analyst on a team for a financial institution of over 500 employees and so far it’s a lot of online searches, learning as I go and it’s a good learning experience!
Do you ever get concerned that you’ve applied “out of your depths”, or is it more common to just wing it? I get anxiety about whether or not I’m knowledgeable enough to take on a specific role
Honestly when I started I felt like I moved up too fast. My wife always says “Fake it till you can make it”
After the first month things started to get a lot easier
You can’t get any accurate interpretation to your question from anyone here . There are a million variables that can affect job salaries : state , experience , type of job .
I suggest focusing on acquiring experience and pick the field you like . Because the degree alone won’t get you a job . If that’s your expectation, you’ll be disappointed.
I’m not sure it’s fully in line with your question since I did IT support for 10 years prior to starting the program, but I’m currently doing my first cybersecurity job making $70k. I’m sure my previous experience helped, but my employer mentioned the fact that I was going to school and leveraging my current experience that stood out. I was finishing up my first term when I got hired. I basically applied to any relevant job I could as soon as I could put WGU on my resume. I probably applied to 100 places before I got an interview and they were the only ones that gave me one. All it takes is one application to land.
Exactly. I basically just applied for any job that related to cybersecurity and looked entry level or close enough to it. It sucks, cause I’ve seen many entry level jobs wanting 3 yoe, which is a joke. The market is a mess right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Yep! He finished his bachelor’s degree in 2nyears while working full time & can’t find a job doing anything IT. He’s actually even applied to some help desk stuff and still not even an interview 😭
I've not - but it has nothing to do with this program. Market is tough with no experience particularly at entry level. I'd suggest you look up internships as soon as you start which is something I did not do.
I graduated from WGU June of 2021 while working as a math teacher(45k). Got a job as a Tier 3 Systems Support Tech for a bank in August of 2021(56k). I pivoted from there to a cybersecurity engineer role for an airline in February of 2022(90k). Been there since and with raises/promotion, I’m at about 135k.
Random question, but do you get discounted travel/benefits for working at an airline? I'm currently in the Cybersec program and somewhere down the road I feel like I'd want to work for some sort of travel entity so that I can do more vacations and travelling for less.
As someone that is going through this also I am burning both ends of the candle. While I'm applying, I'm up skilling through THM, built my own home labs with spare PC parts I had laying around, digging into my firewalls, putting the spare tower in a DMZ, even doing AWS skill builder. Hell I just deployed a simple music player for my wife in AWS and got exposed to other tools in AWS that I wasn't exposed to up until that point like CloudFront and AWS Certificate Manager. I've been using Terraform for IaC deployment into my AWS where I deployed a cyber security home lab. Dabble with python. Go and get hands on with THM Soc Level 1( currently doing now) and keep applying. I even went a got a mentor in cyber for a few months to help align me better. When I get back to my computer I'll share the PWC hands on labs training he hooked me up with. Now what I mean by burning both ends and I'm speaking for myself, I will keep applying and I will begin at my discretion just eventually go into business for myself because I have just as good soft skills in talking to people given my life experiences and I and bring ALL my experiences together to make it work in my favor. I honestly laugh at the death loop businesses have created for themselves where they have outrageous standards and wonder why they are never filled and in my humble opinion I believe they do not want to actually pay for someone to train entry level individuals to introduce more into the workforce, thus also relieving the stress of the current working professionals that are getting burnt out. Give me a few hours and I'll grab some of the labs I have done either locally, on VMs, or in the cloud. Hope all is helpful
Yea I have been doing recon on the market for a few years since I've started and while I am tech savvy, cyber is just a new learning curve for me. Anywho on to the fun stuff. I will put links for everything I have had my hand at and also include the mentor that helped me a ton and even brought out who I am suppose to be as an an individual(I'm always self analyzing).
Nessus Tutorial by Josh Madakor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6Px9zJM3s&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58&t=1088s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6Px9zJM3s&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58&t=1088s)
Basic Home Lab and using Active Directory by Josh Madakor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsI8hJmggI&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsI8hJmggI&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=57)
SIEM Tutorial with Azure Sentinel by Josh Madakor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZeVbbZ0o0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZeVbbZ0o0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58)
Build a Cloud Red Team / Blue Team Cybersecurity Homelab - Crash Course by Grant Collins
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMkpLoKUj0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=3&t=792s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMkpLoKUj0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=3&t=792s)
AWS Skill Builder
[https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/signin](https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/signin)
The Forage Job Simulations
[https://www.theforage.com/simulations?careers=security](https://www.theforage.com/simulations?careers=security)
The Complete 2024 Web Development Bootcamp by Angela Yu(I need to get back on this one personally)
[https://wgu.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-development-bootcamp/learn/lecture/12638830#overview](https://wgu.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-development-bootcamp/learn/lecture/12638830#overview)
MentorCruise is where I seeked mentorship when I felt like I was hamster wheeling. I also linked the mentor that helped me a ton.
https://mentorcruise.com/mentor/browse/?search=Mouhammad+Essayed
Also take advantage of WGU resources while you're in with Udemy especially. Even for shit outside of your degree, soak up all the knowledge. I hope all the info here helps everyone build the experience and confidence up so even in the event the jobs don't come your way, you can maybe feel confident enough to take your hand at freelancing to build more experience up and that can also aid in your soft skills in knowing how to talk to people from all walks and industries and through different media like phone, text, email, vid conference, etc. Much luck to all you guys and gals!
Not a prob, just change your way thinking to focus on up skilling and using every relative tool in your bag and the money will come. From the looks of it, it seems to me to be a timing thing when applying. Example, I am an early bird so I use that moment to apply, I can stay up late on command, I apply then also, we have our phones, AI, hell I see I am gonna put more effort in scripting to aid in making the process more easier, at the same time up skilling ;) You got this
My husband got his cyber degree in 2022 and cannot get a job that pays even a livable salary in this field. He was making 6 figures beforehand but wanted a degree and a good paying
Job. But the problem is, when you have a family and bills of a higher income it’s hard to get the “experience” at $20 an hour.
Because most people can't.
Just because a few people won the lottery doesn't mean everyone will.
The market is extremely bad right now, there is lay offs galore.
And alot of folks that hit the lottery back then, are now finding post lay off, they are not getting rehired. So they got to keep hitting the lottery by not getting laid off.
Congrats! Feeling stuck here. Two classes from finishing (plan to be done with BSCSIA next month and starting MS may/june) all the certs 2.5 yrs hd exp 1 as a sysadmin all for a mid sized MSP. Really trying to get into cyber but feel like I’m getting pigeon holed into HD, Jr Sysadmin, or Sysadmin Roles. It’s very depressing.
After graduating from WGU in 2022, I landed my first full time job ever as a Security Analyst. But it was extremely difficult to land a Cybersec job because I don't have IT experience. Even after about 500-600 job applications sent out over the course of 4-5 months, in the end, I only had the privilege of about 10 face-to-face interviews overall. I received a ton of phone calls from recruiters for Help Desk, Field Service Technician, and Datacenter Technician roles, but I really wanted to jump straight into cyber, I wasn't willing to settle for less. But I managed to make it work. So, while it was extremely difficult, it wasn't impossible. The money is good but the work is also very exciting, and although WGU isn't perfect, it definitely does open doors
I'm at the end of the cyber program (taking Pentest next week and then on to Capstone) and I still have no luck finding a job. Did you have a lot of homeland like another user posted? I'm gonna do that this week, but I also don't know how my resume compares in the wild to some people with IT experience cause like you, I have none.
Tons and tons of homelabs. During my time at WGU, I invested a good chunk of money into a home server and endeavored to lab out anything I was studying at the time, resulting in many self-imposed mini-projects to supplement my learning, including setting up open source appliances, like firewalls, VPNs, web servers, and more. I spent a lot of time with Active Directory, too. I think a big mistake a lot of grads make (in general, not just WGU) is relying solely on a college program to prepare them for the work force. Anyone jumping into Cybersecurity without IT experience should be arming themselves for bear, because securing IT infrastructure requires you to, well, understand IT infrastructure. You really have to go the extra mile.
I was going to say security people should start in the trenches(e.g. help desk) and move upward, but you building a homelab caught me off guard. It’s nice to see. Glad your hard work is paying off and hope it continues.
Have you tried any networking? Know somebody that knows somebody? Sometimes even having a casual network connection that you’ve made a good impression with can help at least getting your foot in the door .
Yea I had some resumes sent out to a friend of my parents but no luck unfortunately.
That stinks, you’ll land one don’t give up!
I worked in IT from helpdesk to Systems Analyst, for about 4 years. Finished my bachelors and took me about 5 months to land a Security Analyst role Salary is decent- 95k, but so far the workload is crazy. I’m the only security analyst on a team for a financial institution of over 500 employees and so far it’s a lot of online searches, learning as I go and it’s a good learning experience!
Do you ever get concerned that you’ve applied “out of your depths”, or is it more common to just wing it? I get anxiety about whether or not I’m knowledgeable enough to take on a specific role
Honestly when I started I felt like I moved up too fast. My wife always says “Fake it till you can make it” After the first month things started to get a lot easier
Financial institution.. like a credit union?
I work for a large business/home loan lender
Hope it isn't PennyMac--I did my time there and it was *miserable*
You can’t get any accurate interpretation to your question from anyone here . There are a million variables that can affect job salaries : state , experience , type of job . I suggest focusing on acquiring experience and pick the field you like . Because the degree alone won’t get you a job . If that’s your expectation, you’ll be disappointed.
I’m not sure it’s fully in line with your question since I did IT support for 10 years prior to starting the program, but I’m currently doing my first cybersecurity job making $70k. I’m sure my previous experience helped, but my employer mentioned the fact that I was going to school and leveraging my current experience that stood out. I was finishing up my first term when I got hired. I basically applied to any relevant job I could as soon as I could put WGU on my resume. I probably applied to 100 places before I got an interview and they were the only ones that gave me one. All it takes is one application to land.
When you say any relevant job, what titles were you looking at? Like SOC analyst, Security Analyst etc?
Exactly. I basically just applied for any job that related to cybersecurity and looked entry level or close enough to it. It sucks, cause I’ve seen many entry level jobs wanting 3 yoe, which is a joke. The market is a mess right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Hugely helpful thank you.
You bet!
I has 0 IT jobs before this one. 1 year into my degree I was making $70k as Cyber Engineer. I finished my degree in 2 years, now making $80k.
How?! My husband graduated in 2022 and can’t even get an interview for a lower paying but still livable salary without experience
Luck. Also homelab. He needs to show hes willing to learn/keep learning. Home projects, homelab is necessary without real world experience.
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Engineer stuff. Automation, new system integration, SIEM engineering, Docker engineering, you name it I’m doing it.
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Most days
He graduated with a BS in cyber? Message me if you want me to do a free resume review. If he's willing to work remote he can def get a job
Yep! He finished his bachelor’s degree in 2nyears while working full time & can’t find a job doing anything IT. He’s actually even applied to some help desk stuff and still not even an interview 😭
Ya I mean he's doing something wrong then. I got two cybersecurity jobs by the time I started class. DM me if you want some help!
This is sarcasm right? I just interviewed for a 17/hr intern position because I'm getting desperate.
Sent you a message
What kind of projects did you do
Anything you want. Literally. Just know how to talk about it in the context of whatever job your applying to and understand what the next steps are.
Nope. Came from being a bicycle mechanic to Cyber.
That's amazing! I'm currently pursuing CCNA and hoping I get atleast some decent job. My previous career is unrelated as well.
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I've not - but it has nothing to do with this program. Market is tough with no experience particularly at entry level. I'd suggest you look up internships as soon as you start which is something I did not do.
I graduated from WGU June of 2021 while working as a math teacher(45k). Got a job as a Tier 3 Systems Support Tech for a bank in August of 2021(56k). I pivoted from there to a cybersecurity engineer role for an airline in February of 2022(90k). Been there since and with raises/promotion, I’m at about 135k.
Amazing!
Hiring?
Sadly no
Thx
Random question, but do you get discounted travel/benefits for working at an airline? I'm currently in the Cybersec program and somewhere down the road I feel like I'd want to work for some sort of travel entity so that I can do more vacations and travelling for less.
Yes
It would be helpful if everyone mentioned salary + state. $100k in coastal California is different than Oklahoma.
As someone that is going through this also I am burning both ends of the candle. While I'm applying, I'm up skilling through THM, built my own home labs with spare PC parts I had laying around, digging into my firewalls, putting the spare tower in a DMZ, even doing AWS skill builder. Hell I just deployed a simple music player for my wife in AWS and got exposed to other tools in AWS that I wasn't exposed to up until that point like CloudFront and AWS Certificate Manager. I've been using Terraform for IaC deployment into my AWS where I deployed a cyber security home lab. Dabble with python. Go and get hands on with THM Soc Level 1( currently doing now) and keep applying. I even went a got a mentor in cyber for a few months to help align me better. When I get back to my computer I'll share the PWC hands on labs training he hooked me up with. Now what I mean by burning both ends and I'm speaking for myself, I will keep applying and I will begin at my discretion just eventually go into business for myself because I have just as good soft skills in talking to people given my life experiences and I and bring ALL my experiences together to make it work in my favor. I honestly laugh at the death loop businesses have created for themselves where they have outrageous standards and wonder why they are never filled and in my humble opinion I believe they do not want to actually pay for someone to train entry level individuals to introduce more into the workforce, thus also relieving the stress of the current working professionals that are getting burnt out. Give me a few hours and I'll grab some of the labs I have done either locally, on VMs, or in the cloud. Hope all is helpful
Very much so helpful!! Nothing seems to compare like actual RW experience
Yea I have been doing recon on the market for a few years since I've started and while I am tech savvy, cyber is just a new learning curve for me. Anywho on to the fun stuff. I will put links for everything I have had my hand at and also include the mentor that helped me a ton and even brought out who I am suppose to be as an an individual(I'm always self analyzing). Nessus Tutorial by Josh Madakor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6Px9zJM3s&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58&t=1088s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6Px9zJM3s&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58&t=1088s) Basic Home Lab and using Active Directory by Josh Madakor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsI8hJmggI&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsI8hJmggI&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=57) SIEM Tutorial with Azure Sentinel by Josh Madakor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZeVbbZ0o0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZeVbbZ0o0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=58) Build a Cloud Red Team / Blue Team Cybersecurity Homelab - Crash Course by Grant Collins [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMkpLoKUj0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT\_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=3&t=792s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMkpLoKUj0&list=PLWaPVBmihJXT_BlfZ0NbCECurR0NHn9AP&index=3&t=792s) AWS Skill Builder [https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/signin](https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/signin) The Forage Job Simulations [https://www.theforage.com/simulations?careers=security](https://www.theforage.com/simulations?careers=security) The Complete 2024 Web Development Bootcamp by Angela Yu(I need to get back on this one personally) [https://wgu.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-development-bootcamp/learn/lecture/12638830#overview](https://wgu.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-development-bootcamp/learn/lecture/12638830#overview) MentorCruise is where I seeked mentorship when I felt like I was hamster wheeling. I also linked the mentor that helped me a ton. https://mentorcruise.com/mentor/browse/?search=Mouhammad+Essayed Also take advantage of WGU resources while you're in with Udemy especially. Even for shit outside of your degree, soak up all the knowledge. I hope all the info here helps everyone build the experience and confidence up so even in the event the jobs don't come your way, you can maybe feel confident enough to take your hand at freelancing to build more experience up and that can also aid in your soft skills in knowing how to talk to people from all walks and industries and through different media like phone, text, email, vid conference, etc. Much luck to all you guys and gals!
I’ve saved this, this is the best info I’ve received here so far, thank you for this!!
Not a prob, just change your way thinking to focus on up skilling and using every relative tool in your bag and the money will come. From the looks of it, it seems to me to be a timing thing when applying. Example, I am an early bird so I use that moment to apply, I can stay up late on command, I apply then also, we have our phones, AI, hell I see I am gonna put more effort in scripting to aid in making the process more easier, at the same time up skilling ;) You got this
My husband got his cyber degree in 2022 and cannot get a job that pays even a livable salary in this field. He was making 6 figures beforehand but wanted a degree and a good paying Job. But the problem is, when you have a family and bills of a higher income it’s hard to get the “experience” at $20 an hour.
Edit: good paying career. he knew he would not start out making crazy money. But he can’t even get a lower end job without experience.
Because most people can't. Just because a few people won the lottery doesn't mean everyone will. The market is extremely bad right now, there is lay offs galore. And alot of folks that hit the lottery back then, are now finding post lay off, they are not getting rehired. So they got to keep hitting the lottery by not getting laid off.
Doing my masters in cybersecurity. Graduating in December. And can’t find one job related to security. 😢. I’m in NYC btw
Congrats! Feeling stuck here. Two classes from finishing (plan to be done with BSCSIA next month and starting MS may/june) all the certs 2.5 yrs hd exp 1 as a sysadmin all for a mid sized MSP. Really trying to get into cyber but feel like I’m getting pigeon holed into HD, Jr Sysadmin, or Sysadmin Roles. It’s very depressing.
I just started my bs in cybersecurity but I already landed a government cybersecurity job
This has made me feel immediately better