With zero experience, how do I crack into the security industry?

With zero experience, how do I crack into the security industry?

I hear this question all the time. Mostly from college students but more from high schoolers and those who decided not to pursue the traditional college route.

The qualities I look for in green candidates are simple and straightforward :

Demonstrate discipline and curiosity.

At this stage in your career you have zero momentum. That tiny pebble made up of expertise and success you’re pushing up the hill will be heavier now than ever.

Passion, excitement, industry knowledge and raw intelligence are fantastic traits but it doesn’t help me feel better about whether you’ll be a resourceful addition to the team.

By demonstrating the amount of discipline and curiosity applied thus far helps me understand if you’re willing to consistently apply yourself to complete the necessary work, you can do what needs to get done when no one is looking over your shoulder and are open to figuring out how stuff works. Even if you don’t know how to do something you have to start to use that self-discipline muscle to go figure it out by going out and gathering the necessary resources whether it's from people, existing knowledge or building something original.

So how can you demonstrate discipline and curiosity?

• Networking: Go to conferences. Meet people. Offer help. Ask for help.
• Internships: Apply early and often. Companies start looking in the fall for summer internships
• Practical Application: Capture the Flag’s. Virtual Lab Work. Build a Home Network - Break it, fix it, hack it, etc.
• Training: (Training is great but must be combined with practical application)
• Volunteer: Help secure a non-profit. High school. Work in IT at your college.
• Teacher’s Assistant: Get a reference from your teachers and better yet contacts to their connections.
• Write and Share: Blog. Tweet. Post to LinkedIn.

Consistently learning by doing and putting yourself out there will drastically increase your chances of getting hired over your degree, books read, courses taken, operating systems installed, tools used, etc.

If you find yourself blasting out resumes to companies with no response you’re probably not consistently doing the above activities.

Being able to demonstrate that every day you’re working on practical activities, opening your mind and connecting to new types of real-world skills will go a long way to make you stand out from the volumes of candidates competing for your first industry job.