Cybersecurity Freelance: Soft Skills To Win
Hard skills and soft skills are the two categories of skill sets that may be used to evaluate employees’ skills whenever it comes to the workplace. There is no such thing as a successful career without either of them. These days, it’s not enough to have a diploma or a certificate only; “soft” qualities like outstanding communication and the ability to work well with others are also highly valued by prospective employers or clients if you are starting out as a freelancer. Soft skills may reflect employee performance better than hard skills like software knowledge, writing ability, or arithmetic aptitude.
Hard skills like coding, academic success, or taught skills from university or certified courses are important, but if you get to an interview and you do not know how to speak to people, or how to dress, or show respect, the job will go to someone else who possesses a good mix of skills. Life skills are just as important as hard skills learned through study.
Anyone interested in cyber security should develop both soft and hard skills. But in this article, we will only focus on the soft-skills you will need to win your career journey in Cybersecurity. What exactly are they? This article will tell you.
Top soft skills required:
1. Problem-solving is a critical ability in many industries, but it’s highly relevant in cybersecurity, since you’re frequently confronted with problems that need troubleshooting. Furthermore, working in cybersecurity oftenly entails making high-stakes choices regarding the security of your organisation or client. Problem solving can come from logical thinking, in part can be learned in school, but comes with experience and common sense. Being able to see the bigger picture of the problem is essential in problem solving.
2. Recruiters want people who are confident in taking the initiative to use resources like automation and data analysis software to develop successful security measures and to identify work that might be automated. Meaning, you must have strong-sense of leadership as it allows you to take risks, while also evaluating areas of improvement. Being able to remain objective and distant from a problem is a good skill. Getting stressed and getting too close to a problem is less desirable.
3. Senior cybersecurity practitioners are tasked with planning and coordinating technical vulnerability assessments such as those involving systems and network vulnerabilities.. Hence, being organised in doing your job is a relevant soft-skill you must possess because by being organised, you avoid crucial mistakes like neglecting details. Cyber security involves seeing a bigger picture and working across multiple platforms. You need to take into account the website, the database, and how different customers might find you, or attack your systems.
There are many ways to improve your cybersecurity skills. You may already have some of these skills, but improving others might make you a much more highly competitive candidate in the discipline.
People look for well rounded people, with skills and transferable skills. Showing potential means that you might not have the skills now, but you know how to get them and where from.
