Top 3 Groups to Join for Women in Cybersecurity

As a woman in cybersecurity, I think there is a lack of diversity in my field. As you can see in the Women In Cybersecurity chart below, women only represent 20% of the cybersecurity workforce. This is a great improvement since 2013 when we only represented 11%, but I argue that this is still not good enough!
From the Women In Cybersecurity chart you can see there is a large talent gap with a projected 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs needing to be filled in 2021. I talked more about the talent gap in my post Why Are So Many Cybersecurity Jobs Not Being Filled? Since women are underrepresented in the workforce already, we could fill this job gap by improving our marketability and skills.

Women need to join together to support one another and increase our numbers in the cybersecurity workforce. We should be joining groups for several reasons.

  • Networking
  • Learning new skills
  • Improving your marketability

And most importantly

  • Giving back by inspiring other women and girls

I have provided a list of three groups that I think can help you advance as a woman in cybersecurity. I have included information on their background, what they can offer you, cost, and how to join.

1.International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP)

What it is

ICMCP provides resources to minorities, both students and professionals, within the field of cybersecurity. These resources include mentor programs, job opportunities, skill assessments, and scholarships. ICMCP is a non-profit and is focused on achieving better representation of women and minorities in cybersecurity.

Why you should join

ICMCP gives its members access to multiple educational, networking, and career development tools.

What it costs

Free for students. Beginners are $15 per month, Practitioners are $30 per month, and Executives are $50 per month.

https://www.icmcp.org/

2.CybHER

What it is

CybHER works to empower, motivate, and educated girls K-12 to become cybersecurity professionals. Their mission is to increase diversity within the cybersecurity workforce and to create relationships between current industry professionals and students.

Why you should join

CybHER is a large group with a lot of major sponsors. It has many programs to support and encourage students from elementary school through college. As a professional, it is a great way to give back and build your professional network.

What it costs-

Free! If you are a student you can enter contests, apply for scholarships, summer camps, and awards through their website. If you are a professional you can apply or be nominated to be a CybHER Warrior or a CybHER Star.

https://www.cybher.org

3.Executive Women’s Forum (EWF)

What it is

EWF is the largest members only organization for women in the fields of information security, risk management, and privacy. Members are made up of influential female executives and emerging leaders. The first Executive Women’s Forum Conference was held in 2003 as a place for women to exchange ideas and network.

Why you should join

  • EWF provides members a chance to network with over 6,000 women
  • Annual EWF Conference and year-round events like regional meetings, networking dinners, and industry meet and greets
  • Programs such as LIFT mentoring and Leadership Journey
  • Cybersecurity Women on Capitol Hill which includes panel discussions and individual congressional meetings

What it costs

The cost of an annual membership is $395. For students and government workers, the cost is $195 a year. You can join by making an account on their website and requesting membership.

https://www.ewf-usa.com/default.aspx

Why Are So Many Cybersecurity Jobs Not Being Filled? And how it could benefit you!

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs next year. So how can you snag one of those open positions? It is not as simple as it seems. The number of job openings depends greatly on location. The skills or certifications required to get the job can be surprising.

Figure 1-

The Cybersecurity Heat Map (Figure 1) is a great tool to use when searching for what kinds of cybersecurity professionals’ employers are looking for. You can narrow down searches by state, public or private sector jobs, and even see supply and demand ratios.

You can also use the map to see the top job titles in each state. Figure 2 is a great chart that shows you what categories of cybersecurity the job openings are in such as operate and maintain or oversight and governance. You can see by the size of the box, how many job openings there are in that category. The exact number of openings is listed at the bottom of the box in bold numbers. Figure 2 is the chart for the whole country, but you can also view a chart for each individual state.

Figure 2-

One of the most useful parts of cyberseek.org is that you can look at the number of openings in each state that request certificates. As a broke and overworked college student, it can be hard to commit hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours toward a certificate. If you do have the time and money which certificate will give you the leg up on finding a job?

Figure 3 can help you choose which certificate to pursue. This chart shows you the number of certificate holders, how many openings request that certificate, and the ratio between the two is shown in the circle. The red line shows you how many people hold the certificate and the blue line shows you how many job listings request that certificate.

Figure 3-

Figure 3 is for the whole country, but you can break it down by each state as well. If you were looking for a job anywhere in the U.S. your money and time would be best spent getting a Certified Information Systems Security Professional certificate which has the lowest ratio. If you know the state or states where you want to work, you can focus your time and money on a certificate that will make you stand out as a good candidate for the job.

I encourage you all to check out this site and explore all the options and data within the map!

https://www.cyberseek.org/heatmap.html

COVID-19 and Cybersecurity Job Hunting

As COVID-19 tears across the country, millions of Americans are suddenly out of a job and millions of students are getting ready to graduate from college. Finding a job suddenly seems impossible!

It is a scary time, but as a senior in college and a job seeker myself, I have come up with some tips and tools for you to try.

Tips-

  1. Update that LinkedIn profile… RIGHT NOW!

Seriously people, your LinkedIn is MORE important than your resume when looking for cybersecurity jobs. Recruiters will be looking at your profile and you might even get a job offer from a company you were not aware of. So, go fix these issues RIGHT NOW-

  • Make sure your profile picture is professional
  • Is your profile public and does it include key search words?
  • How many connections do you have? Have you connected with any and all classmates and coworkers?
  • Make “cold” connections (they are the new cold call I promise!) look for recruiters and managers in companies you are interested in
  • Get those endorsed skills sorted out and ask friends, classmates, teammates, supervisors ANYONE to endorse them
  • Make sure your location and contact information is current
  1. Network, Network, and Network!
  • Not just on LinkedIn
  • Join any alumni organizations online that you can even if you have not graduated yet
  • Ask friends and family if they know anyone that works at whatever companies you are interested in and ask for an introduction
  • Go to cybersecurity conferences. Yes, it can often be a big investment, but the connections can last a lifetime

Tools-

Check out these websites for help with your job search-

  • I cannot say enough good things about Cyber Seek. I will be dedicating a whole post to this site I love it so much so keep an eye out for that! As a student, it can help you locate the best geographical areas to look for jobs. It can help you sort out what kinds of certifications give you the most marketability. It also can show you how much money you can expect to make. https://www.cyberseek.org/
  • Learn what job you are actually looking for and what its name is. Read the NIST article that describes all the different fields that are considered part of cybersecurity. https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/publications/sp/800-181/archive/2016-11-02/documents/sp800_181_draft.pdf