Cyber Security Resume Examples and Tips to Get You Hired

Online security is beginning to become more of a concern for corporations and individuals alike. The cybersecurity industry has risen in lockstep with the growth of that sentiment: according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job prospects for Information Security Analysts alone is growing at 33%, which is a lot higher than the average. There are more cyber security jobs available than ever before, but if you want to land a cyber security job, you will compete with thousands of others.

Considering those factors, your cybersecurity resume can be your golden ticket to a job in an industry that’s showing no signs of slowing down. And we’re going to help you out by breaking down exactly what comprises a great cybersecurity resume.

How Important Is a Cyber Security Resume?

Recruiters hiring in the technology industry are going to take a look at your LinkedIn, social media profiles, along with your Github profile. But in order to get to a stage where they’re screening those profiles, you have to send them a resume that grabs their attention and positions YOU as a strong fit for a role.

Resumes become all the more important when you’re applying for a role in cybersecurity because of the nature of the job itself. When you work in security roles, companies will often have to share sensitive data with you that they expect to be kept away from anyone who isn’t authorized to access it. So your cyber security resume is an opportunity to establish trust with your future employer, which is an important part of the process for them.

A strong cyber security resume offers the following benefits:

1. A cyber security resume gives you increased chances of getting an interview: Cyber security is a highly competitive field, so a strong resume is essential for getting your foot in the door. A well-written resume that highlights your skills and experience will make you more likely to be selected for an interview.

2. A cyber security resume helps you with better salary negotiations: A strong cyber security resume can also help you negotiate a better salary. When hiring managers see that you have the skills and experience they are looking for per your cyber security resume, they will be more likely to offer you a competitive salary.

3. A cyber security resume will give you the ability to apply for more senior positions: A strong cyber security resume can also open up the door to more senior positions. As you gain more experience in the field, you can use your resume to demonstrate your skills and accomplishments to potential employers.

4. A strong cyber security resume will give you increased credibility and professionalism: A well-written and professional cyber security resume shows potential employers that you are serious about your career and that you have taken the time to prepare for the job search. This can increase your credibility and make you more attractive to employers.

5. Increased confidence: A strong cyber security resume can also boost your confidence. When you know that you have a resume that highlights your cyber security skills and experience, you will feel more confident in your ability to land the job you want.

6. A strong cyber security resume gives you the ability to stand out from the competition: Cyber security is a competitive field, so it is important to stand out from the crowd. A strong cyber security resume is a great way to do this. By highlighting your cyber security skills, experience, and accomplishments on your cyber security resume, you can show potential employers why you are the best candidate for the job.

Overall, a strong cyber security resume is essential for job seekers in this competitive field.

What Does a Hiring Manager Look For in Your Cybersecurity Resume?

When evaluating your cyber security experience, a hiring manager will look for:

Cyber security technical skills

Most cyber security jobs require strong technical experience. Highlight skills such as network forensics, intrusion detection, malware analysis, vulnerability assessment, database security, and penetration testing. Remember, an important cyber security resume objective is to demonstrate your ability to identify and mitigate security threats. Pay close attention to the cyber security job description and try to match your skills to their requirements. Match your resume summary to reflect these technical skills highlighted in the job description.

Information security expertise

Showcase your knowledge and experience in information security and as a cyber security professional, including understanding security vulnerabilities and cyber security risks, implementing security measures, and safeguarding sensitive data. Familiarity with industry-standard security frameworks and compliance regulations is highly valued, even in entry level cyber security positions. If you’ve completed cyber security audits, or dealt with cyber security breaches, mention that in your cyber security resume summary.

Cyber security certifications

Certifications like Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Information Systems Security (CISS), Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), or any other relevant certifications validate your expertise in specific areas of cyber security and can enhance your credibility and prove your value to the cyber security team.

Cyber security experience

Showcase your relevant experience in the field of cyber security, highlighting specific cyber security projects, achievements, and outcomes. This can include incident response, malware analysis, security architecture design, policy development, or implementing security controls, cloud security, or anything else you may have done during your time working in the cyber security field.

Education and qualifications

Include your educational background in information security and technology, particularly if it includes a degree in computer science, information technology, or a related field. Mention any additional certifications, training, or workshops you have completed to stay updated on the latest trends and technologies in the cybersecurity industry.

Understanding of cyber security risks

Cyber security engineers and cyber security analysts have to stay on top of their game. As a cyber security professional, demonstrate your knowledge of current and emerging security threats, such as cyber attacks, malware, social engineering, or insider threats. Showcase your ability to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks.

Experience with security tools and software

Mention any experience you have with cyber security software, intrusion detection systems, firewalls, encryption technologies, or other relevant tools commonly used in the cyber security industry.

Penetration testing skills

Highlight your experience in conducting penetration tests to identify vulnerabilities and assess the overall security posture of systems and networks. Emphasize your ability to think like a hacker to uncover potential weaknesses while working as a cyber security engineer.

Awareness of security policies and compliance

Highlight your understanding of industry-specific cyber security standards, regulations, and best practices. This can include knowledge of frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST, GDPR, or HIPAA.

Remember to tailor your resume to each job application, highlighting the skills and qualifications that align with the specific job requirements. Use a cyber security resume example to guide you. Use bullet points to clearly present your skills and experience, making it easy for the hiring manager to identify your strengths. Even you don’t get a specific job, your cyber security resume will be kept in the company’s applicant tracking systems – you never know when a new job will pop up.

What Should You Include in Your Cybersecurity Resume

Let’s take a look at a cyber security resume example to guide you.

Name & Contact Information

Something that we touched on earlier, the fact that companies really care about your identity when they’re hiring for a cybersecurity role, especially if they work in industries with very sensitive data (like defense or governance-related information). For that reason, it’s important to mention the same name on your cybersecurity resume summary that you use in other IDs.

When it comes to contact information, you don’t need to include your physical address unless explicitly mentioned. But you do need to mention your phone number and email since most recruiters prefer one of those two channels.

Another important inclusion in this section is your LinkedIn profile. Hiring managers use your LinkedIn to corroborate some of the information in your resume and to verify your professional profile in general. So clean up your LinkedIn if you need to and throw a link to it up in the contact section of your resume.

Education

Start by listing the accredited colleges you’ve attended along with information on your tenure there.

To add to that basic information, including information on the coursework that you’ve done that is relevant to the cybersecurity space. Any classes that you’ve taken in areas like information security, information risk management, network security, and penetration testing will count. Listing these classes shows recruiters that you have at least an academic understanding of some of those topics.

Skills

You could just put all your skills in a bulleted list in this section but there’s a better way to format it for readability. Group your skills under three categories:

• Cybersecurity techniques
• Cybersecurity domains
• Cybersecurity tools

Cybersecurity techniques include things like penetration testing, reverse engineering, encryption, and incident response. If you’re more of a specialist in specific areas like data center security, cloud forensics, and operational resilience, then put those under the cybersecurity domains category.

In some rarer cases, you might need to know how to use a specific tool for a job. Place tools like Syxsense, Netsparker, and Acunetix under that header. Certain companies tend to use specific tools to carry out their cybersecurity operations. Knowing how to use them can make you appear like an easier fit in those organizations.

You can also mention a few relevant soft skills in this part of the resume, but don’t go too crazy with it or you’ll end up sounding self-congratulatory. Soft skills like critical thinking, accountability, and collaboration are worth mentioning in a cybersecurity resume, especially if mentioned in the job description.

Certifications

It’s quite rare for individuals to specialize in cybersecurity at the undergraduate or even graduate level. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a job in this space. A great way to make an entry into cybersecurity is to get yourself certified. The more reputed certifications sometimes carry more weight on a cybersecurity resume than a four-year degree.

Certifications in the cybersecurity space achieve two main goals. The first is that they give you a regimented path to understanding a specific domain within cybersecurity. For example, the much sought after Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification will teach you about things like penetration testing and white hat hacking.

Certifications also help hiring managers quickly gather the information they need about your skills. When they see that you have a CEH certification, for example, they instantly know that you have at least some of the tools to do well in a team that works on vulnerabilities and systems security.

You can list your certifications in much the same way as you would your educational background. Include the name of the certification, the certifying authority, and the dates between which you completed it. Include your grade or any distinctions you received along with that information.

Employment History

Any existing experience you have in the cybersecurity industry is very valuable. It shows recruiters both an interest in the field and a demonstrated ability to deliver on projects.

Always list your previous jobs in reverse chronological order. Include the name of the company, location, your job title, tenure, and your most important contributions to the company.

When talking about what you did at each job, always quantify your achievements. As much as possible, connect your work to what the company gained through it. So instead of saying that you “built a DNS zone audit system,” say that you “built a DNS zone audit system, thus reducing DNS attacks by 25%.” This is a great way to show recruiters that you understand how your skills can tie into an organization’s larger cybersecurity goals.

Projects

Personal or passion projects in the cybersecurity domain are not the most common thing. However, if you do have any projects, then list them with information on what you created and for what purpose. Things like text encryption tools, keyloggers, network traffic auditing tools, and image encryption software all look good on cybersecurity resumes.

You can also include projects where you built security features within an application whose core focus wasn’t security. For example, let’s say you built a password analyzer for a social media app. Then you can mention the analyzer specifically and talk about the skills that you used while building it.

You can also mention open source contributions that you’ve made to cybersecurity projects, plenty of which are available on Github. Be sure to include the name and purpose of the project at large along with details on your contribution to it.

Awards

An award is evidence of an unusual level of skill in a cybersecurity discipline, so of course, you want to mention it on your resume. There are also cybersecurity challenges where you can compete and gain recognition in the field.

When talking about an award or winning a competition, mention the details of the project. Talk about the skills that you used, the problem that you solved, and the results you achieved that helped you win.

Cyber Security Resume Samples Based on Career Stage

Here are a few examples of real cybersecurity resumes. We’re going to analyze each cyber security resume example to get an idea of what the good ones are made up of.

Entry-Level Cyber Security Resume Sample

What To Include

• If you have any job experience in the cybersecurity industry, then mention that first. If not, start with your academic history.
• List college coursework that you’ve taken that is related to cybersecurity. Any subjects related to systems security, networks, and data protection are worth mentioning here.
• At this stage, any online courses or bootcamps that you’ve taken can also come in handy, so include those under the certifications section of your resume.

Source: Reddit

This cybersecurity resume has a lot of the right content for an entry-level role but could be structured better.

The first thing we notice is that the candidate’s education is mentioned before their work experience. That’s a big no-no and those two sections should be swapped. Cybersecurity engineers who have worked in the industry should always mention their employment history before their academic history because that carries more weight to recruiters.

We also see that the candidate’s certification is relegated to a single line between the sections about the languages they speak and personal interests. The right thing would be to put the certification in its own section after the one on education. There should also be more information on what the subjects covered in the certification and if relevant, the grading the candidate achieved in it.

Senior Cybersecurity Resume

What To Include

• Put the section on your employment history at the very top of your resume. When you’re a senior cybersecurity professional, that’s the information that matters most.
• Highlight certifications that you’ve completed in the domain. Recruiters like when cybersecurity engineers take the time to get certified in a particular discipline and recertify when the time comes.
• Flesh out your employment history by detailing how your work has contributed to previous companies’ goals. Quantify this information as much as possible, in terms of things like penetration tests completed, network throughput, system recovery times, and so on.

Source: Zety

Here we have a simple, well-formatted cybersecurity resume for a senior role. The candidate starts with their employment history and then moves on to education and skills, which is exactly what you want to do.

Within the employment history, we see the information broken down into responsibilities and achievements. This is a good way to articulate details on the job that you were given and the quantifiable results you achieved. In this case, the candidate is able to show that they identified a certain number of viruses and secured a website so it faced no major attacks. That shows hiring managers that you can deliver key results by applying your skills.

Cybersecurity Resume Samples Based on Target Job

There is a range of jobs that fall under the cybersecurity banner. We take a look at resumes from a few specific roles.

Cyber Security Analyst Resume Example

What To Include

• Cybersecurity analysts are often required to rewrite software after understanding threats, so include experience that you have working with languages like Java and C++ and applying them to threat detection and negation.
• Analysts need to know how to work with diverse network types. Mention experience or coursework that has to do with networks and network security.
• If you have been working as a junior cyber security analyst for a while, but have been groomed to step into a more senior cybersecurity analyst role, mention that in your cover letter.

Source: Velvet Jobs

This candidate has created a cybersecurity resume covering all the important details of their work as an analyst. There is mention of experience with both threat analysis and networks, which hiring managers look out for. The only missing element is quantifiable results. The candidate talks about their responsibilities, but not the important part of talking about the results of that work.

The skills section of this resume could have been formatted better. It’s currently a wordy, long list. It would be better to categorize skills as we mentioned earlier and list individual ones under those categories.

You could also write your own, using this cybersecurity analyst resume to guide you:

Cybersecurity Analyst Resume Summary

Cybersecurity Analyst with 5+ years of experience in protecting organizations from cyberattacks and security breaches. Proven ability to identify and mitigate security risks, develop and implement security policies and cyber security audits and respond to security incidents. Expertise in a variety of cybersecurity tools and technologies, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and security information and event management (SIEM) systems.

Key Skills and Accomplishments:

• Developed and implemented a new cloud security policy that reduced security incidents by 25%
• Led a team of analysts in investigating and responding to a major security breach, resulting in the recovery of all stolen data
• Managed the implementation of a new SIEM system that improved security visibility by 50%
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Security+

Seeking a challenging cybersecurity analyst position in a fast-paced environment where I can use my skills and experience to protect organizations from cyberattacks.

SOC Analyst Resume

What To Include

• The main responsibility of a security operations center analyst is to detect vulnerabilities and mitigate them within data and computer systems. Your resume should demonstrate experience as a cyber security specialist.
• SOC analysts usually work with large teams, so talk about skills that you have in collaborating with cybersecurity engineers and security managers and other cyber security specialists.

Source: Live Career

This SOC analyst candidate’s cybersecurity resume mentions some of the keywords that you would want to see. There is information about their work in intrusion detection, vulnerability scanners, and network monitoring. These are all important terms to cover in your SOC resume to land a job as a cyber security specialist.

One key change to make in this resume has to do with its structure. This candidate’s work history section comes after the one on their skills. This should never be the case. Always mention your work history first and then go into talking about your education, certifications, and skills.

Information Security Analyst Resume

What To Include

• The main job of an information security analyst is network protection and IT systems defense. Any experience you have in those areas should show up in your cybersecurity resume.
• Include details on how you’ve influenced security policy in your organization. Mentioning how you’ve been associated with new policies shows recruiters that you can go beyond threat detection and lay the groundwork for better preemptive actions as a cyber security engineer.

Source: Kick Resume

This is the cybersecurity resume of an entry-level information security analyst. It demonstrates a clear understanding of the responsibilities of such a role through the mention of network systems, penetration tests, and security evaluations.

The candidate displays additional competence in the field by mentioning how they drafted new policies and procedures for the company. This shows hiring managers that you’re able to go from detecting vulnerabilities to creating procedures to mitigate them.

While this is an entry level resume, a certified information security manager would include a lot more certifications and projects.

The Difference Between a Cyber Security Resume and a Cyber Security Analyst Resume

There are two types of resumes that showcase your skills and expertise: a general cyber security resume and a specialized cyber security analyst resume. Let’s break down what makes each of them unique and provide an example of a cyber security analyst resume.

A cyber security resume is a document that highlights your qualifications and experience in the field of cybersecurity. It gives an overview of your knowledge in areas like network security, information security, and responding to cyber threats. This type of resume is suitable for various roles within cybersecurity and shows your expertise in the field.

A cyber security analyst resume, on the other hand, is specifically tailored for the role of a cyber security analyst. This type of resume focuses on skills and experiences directly relevant to the responsibilities of a cyber security analyst. It highlights your ability to analyze threats, assess risks, and respond to security incidents. This resume showcases your expertise in protecting systems and networks and contributing to the overall security of an organization.

Tips for Creating an Awesome Cybersecurity Resume

Now that we’ve taken a look at a few cybersecurity resumes, let’s see how you can create a great one yourself.

How To Stand Out

Be Strategic With Formatting

With a stack of resumes on the table (or in their inbox), prospective employers can only spend a couple of minutes, max, scanning your resume. So do them a favor; make it “scannable.” Bold the headings of each section (traditionally, these sections are “About Me,” “Experience,” “Skills,” “Education,” and “References”).

Also, make the title text slightly bigger. You can italicize subheadings such as company names and dates as well. But let’s take it one step further: bold the main points of your cybersecurity resume to not only make the document easier to read, but also to allow those words and phrases to stand out, immediately communicating to your prospective employer that you have the required job experience and understand the responsibilities.

Shining a Light on Your Job Experience

Your job experience is proof that supports how good you are at your job, so take some time with this one. As mentioned above, start by ordering your previous roles in reverse-chronological order.

Each short blurb underneath each job experience is a mini slay-the-dragon moment. Highlight your main job responsibilities, as well as how you used them to slay the dragon (solve the problem) and rescue the town (company or client). Then, highlight the significance of this job experience at the end: what specific skills and lessons did you learn? How does this experience make you a good candidate for the job? How can you use this experience to help the company get the results it wants?

Skills and Education: What You Need To Know

Go beyond the standard “expert in Microsoft” and “good social skills.” Yes, these are important and useful, but get specific: which programming languages do you know? What malware and antivirus programs are you familiar with? Now’s the time to list these skills out. Bullet points will do. And consider noting expert, proficient, and beginner status.

The education part is your chance to show off the cybersecurity courses you’ve taken and the degrees you’ve earned. Be sure to include any certifications. A simple set of bullet points will work here.

What To Avoid

Extraneous Information

There is a common mistake job-seekers are most likely to make, padding resumes with information that isn’t necessarily relevant to the job that they’re applying to. This can only hurt your cause. Cybersecurity recruiters don’t care about the work you’ve done in front-end development or chip design. You have to show the experience that you have in the cybersecurity industry and leave out everything else.

Using Passive Voice Excessively

Use the active voice in your cybersecurity resume as much as possible. Here’s an example: “I helped X cybersecurity company run routine pen-tests for small and mid-level businesses.” “I” is the subject, “helped” is the verb, and “X cybersecurity company” comes after the object. It’s succinct and straight to the point.

Unlike this example, which is in the passive voice: “X cybersecurity company was helped by me via running routine pen-tests for small and mid-level businesses.” Notice how the subject, “me,” is after the object, “X cybersecurity company,” and the verb, “was helped.” Classic passive structure: object, verb, subject.

Why is passive voice a NO when writing your resume? As you can see from the passive sentence, it’s wordy and unclear. Since it’s important to convey that you’re the best candidate as quickly as possible (and to stick to one page), you can’t afford extra words, much less confusion. Use passive voice sparingly, if at all.

Where To Find Cybersecurity Resume Templates

The internet has many cybersecurity resume templates to offer if you’re looking to mimic some best practices. But be sure to use them only as inspiration and not as your own resume. Always write your resume yourself and make sure that it accurately reflects your skills and the requirements of the job you’re applying to.

Here are a few places to find cybersecurity resumes:

• Kick Resume
• Velvet Jobs
• Live Career

Cybersecurity Resume FAQs

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