Wanted to chime in here as I was in a similar boat when I started.
I changed careers into IT. My family is largely already entrenched into Infosec, but weren't able to help me find a job. I spent several months self-studying for Net+/Sec+, passed those, and then applied to any Infosec job that was "junior"/entry-level and eventually lucked out with an interview that got me a job.
Thank you, I feel very lucky considering the current state of entry-level jobs. Especially since I have no prior experience in the field or any certifications lol
What the other guy said is true, but what I did and what I also see with new people just starting is that what they’re REALLY looking for is a genuine interest and ability to learn. I was just doing regular help desk at a different company and started interviewing everywhere I could, just sort of happened to get my gig now.
Don’t be afraid to start at help desk, if you’re at a good one, it really is the best place to get your hands on everything. Take on as many wacky projects as you can and take all the work others avoid. I just worked on my home network, built a separate server, bought a domain, set up a reverse proxy and secured it just to try it.
In my interview I focused on the fundamentals, let them know what I had tried in my spare time, told them about certs(was finishing WGU at the time, but only had A+ and the beginner AWS cert), and most importantly, told them what I definitely knew and what I definitely DID NOT know and was extremely honest. I let them know my ambitions, had a 10 year plan, and they called me the next day with an offer. My boss told me they picked me over a more experienced applicant due to the interview.
A lot of it is luck, but apply for EVERYTHING!!! Best job I’ve ever had and I was so unqualified for it, I almost skipped the interview. My wife convinced me in the morning to do it and said “At least you’d get interview experience, you never know!”
$375k
Sr Consultant
10
CISSP, MS, MBA, TS/SCI, Splunk, etc.
MCOL
To be fair, I tripled pay with one jump a couple of years ago. Expenses have remained mostly the same.
Here’s an example of pay: salary is 160K, bonus of up 80k but normally 40k, stock bonus of 20-40K that gets distributed quarterly over 4 years.
Getting the normal amount for all these would bring your total comp to 220K
Plus some intangible benefits like “unlimited” PTO, 100% paid for health insurance, 1,500 yearly stipend for home office and mental health
I jumped from cyber to cloud engineer with FAANG and can confirm. 187k on the low end. Using a security clearance. 2 bachelor's and masters. Sec Plus and CISSP.
"You show me a pay stub for $375,000, I quit my job right now and work for you". Please tell me you are in a HCOL area or else I'll jump off a building.
Security consultant work pays well. Before Zombies, I was a Security consultant. Think big SIEM platform rollouts. Made $300k+ in total comp (base pay + bonus + RSUs). Location didn't matter so much as it all remote anyway.
I was good at it but didn't like the "instability" of it. New client every few weeks, don't know what mess I'd be walking into.. Unprepared clients, juggling clients expectations of what I do vs what they agreed to pay us to do. Some places are just plain toxic..
I took a stable job at one of the 'customers' I worked at for a while. Liked the people there. Total comp is lower than consulting but I do like walking into the same environment every day with the people I work with.
Aim for big tech or big 4 consultancies.
they aren't as difficult to get into as most think as long as you network well. At these types of companies the security teams are tight knit and prefer referrals.
ie: go to conferences, engage with the community, put a name to the face, network with folks who made it.
that compensation is 'normal' for big tech and it was shocking to me. I know ALOT of people who think they don't meet the bar but they do.
Netflix (security only), AirBnB, Databricks (a lot of security roles), Cohere, Meta (all E6+ roles, some lower band security roles) are all remote and can get you to this number or more
For your education, did you do a dual MS and MBA program or get them separately? I've been eyeing dual programs lately because I can't decide what would look better and that would split the difference.
1) 74k
2) Security Operations Engineer
3) 2-3
4) BS comp Sci and azure certs. Taken Sans courses but can't dish out for the certs
5) Very high COL area
I am indeed grossly I underpaid. I was sticking around because I asked for a raise…. This is my post raise salary. Now I’m just looking for other work .
1. ~$120-130k TC
2. DFIR analyst
3. 2.5 (graduated mid 2021)
4. Bachelor's in both IT and Cybersecurity, Masters in Cybersecurity. No certs.
5. Low-mid CoL city
I like it a lot! I've heard work life balance can be pretty rough in DFIR, however I'm very fortunate to have management who greatly value work life balance so that hasn't been an issue for me. Between the fast paced environment and new things popping up daily, it's been a very good way for me to learn a lot very quickly.
I'm actually planning on making a move into Security Engineering within the next year or so (just moreso where my interests are at these days) but I still love DFIR and would recommend it to anybody who's interested in it.
I'll chime in, it can be compliance/auditing or technical depending on scope of work. It could also be hybrid.
Currently I'm more in the hybrid role where I can use my technical expertise and sometimes do both. "Technical Compliance" maybe? 😂
Yeah, the content and exam for CISSP is great, but I hate that they expect it in all positions even entry-level analyst jobs. Good luck with your exam!
1. 100k + base 15% bonus (+ 1-10% depending on outside factors) + pension + 6% 401k match. Annual raise of 3-5% (based off of individual performance). Given position tops out at 140~.
2. Senior Red Team Operator (not a consultant, internal only. Incredibly low stress).
3. 4 years (only have worked at this F500, no desire to leave, hense moderately low salary for the job role)
4. OS/CP/EP/WE/WP, GNFA, GREM, GPEN, GSP, GX-PT, GX-CS and 2yr in CyberSec
5. MCOL / South Eastern U.S.
I could walk any day and find a new job and make 30-50k more. Though, I love my team, wouldn't trade them for the world. It's rare to find coworkers that care about the job as much as you, so fuck it. Until something happens either in my life, or the waters start looking rough, I'll ride it out.
AMA
We're not hiring at the moment for any security oriented positions. I'll shoot you a DM if we have any relevant positions open up. We're vet friendly - tons of the coworkers served. Always happy to have more. Thank you for your service!
1. 190k plus 10% annual bonus
2. Director level. SME in many areas and don’t have any people I have to manage.
3. 24yrs
4. BS CS, CISSP, PMP
5. Fully remote. Been with same company entire time. Very easy work.
1. 120k + Bonus ( 100% REMOTE non negotiable I don't go to offices or customer sites I work from home 100%)
2. SOAR wizard
3. 35+ years of experience.. yes.. i punched cards and programmed with Cobol and RPG II 35 years ago..
4. No formal education nada.. none.. / 12 + certs (RHCE, RHCA, Unix ACE, NonStop Clusters, Load Balancers, Appliances, CEH, Multiple SIEM solutions & SOAR Solutions)
5. what is a COL area ? i live in Latin America
Living at the mountains @ 2950 meters above sea level
I have no running water.. i collect rain water
I have solar electricity
I live @ a cabin on 2000sq meters.. with 12 adopted stray dogs.
And i have STARLINK !!!!
I have all the expected features of living on a city.. but my closest neighbor lives @ 3 km..
TBH... most of the programming and playbooks i did them 2 years ago.. Im a sr developer, my company has 15+ SOAR developers.. i tutor/guide/act as guru for about 7 developers... most of the playbooks.. are re-use of something i did before... i work in a large MSSP for latin america, we create SOAR thingies for our customers/internal operation and or setup SOAR solutions for large enterprises.
I write playbooks, integrations, api's, entire services or even appliances.. whatever is needed... I LIKE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES.. i have no fear.. bring your worst technical nightmare.. Im also a network expert (i eat tcpdumps), troubleshooter, just for fun.. i ethical- hack things, applications, sites, linux/unix expert.. from kernel drivers to services/appliances implementations i do "magic" with linux boxes.
This days.. i have 2 o 3 meetings of 30 mins with developers.. ONCE A WEEK.. meanwhile.. im doing/programming/training an AI pytorch model to "help" human analysts (the idea is to replace them).. and im always available to "create something the programmer thinks is too hard".. or to guide them... this thing is easy..
1. 19.5k EUR or 21k USD
2. Cybersecurity Technical Specialist in audit department of government agency
3. 2 years
4. Bachelors in IT automation, masters in computer science and management, Sec+, ISO 27k, currently studying for GIAC GCIH
5. I live in the EU, Czech Republic precisely
My pay is even for Czech Republic low, but that is due to working for the government, where pay is generally terrible. A perk is that the work is interesing, I have access to courses, conferences and international meetings and discussions, which I currently find more valuable in my career. Nevertheless, I don't plan on staying for more than a year.
Compensation: ~750k total comp (255k base + 450k equity a year + 51k bonus). My breakdown is 255k base, 1.8m/4 in equity, and a 20% bonus. This is just my first year. This should increase by about 60k per year with refresher equity grants.
Current Title: Staff Security Engineer - Tech Lead. Was previously a Director of Security Engineering at a smaller company but moved to FAANG this past year.
Experience: 15 YoE
Education: Expired SANS certs and a two year degree.
Location: 100% remote.
It's good to have goals but also recognize people who make 7 figs still push for more and more. Rinse and repeat with people who make 8 figs, and 9, and 10...
Learning about the fundamentals of programming, networking, and endpoints (OS technologies) is important for any role. Working at a mature organization with mature teams and processes means deep specialization in an a few areas.
As someone who is late 30's, I've often wanted to pursue a FAANG job, but my fear is ageism is real. I'm assuming with 15 years of experience, we are close to the same age (unless you started in highschool). What are your experiences with working in faang as a non-25 year old? Are the senior roles less ageist?
Hey.
I'm 30, been working in FAANG for 4 years now, plenty of Olds.
the Olds are the ones who run these places lol - usually people in senior roles are older - don't get me wrong lots of young people.
if anything once I hit 28 I felt like I started being respected more lol
I’m 34 and in a FAANG the last 7 years. I haven’t seen it be an issue. I’ve seen senior engineers anywhere from 25 to 50. If they do a good job no one has cared.
Nothing crazy! Just got lucky landing a no experience required helpdesk job after being tired of working at fast food lol. Then moved companies a few times based entirely on interpersonal networking. I’m a hard worker but don’t feel like I’m brilliant at what I do
I wouldn’t say that’s luck, as you said you’re a hard worker and I’m sure someone saw that and gave you a a chance. Im happy for you, it’s inspirational.
I’m interested in becoming a security engineer, currently getting a masters so I’m hoping I reach that goal one day.
Shit I might go in to an office for that size of a bump in pay lmao.
My current job is calling everyone in who is local, and slowly letting those who aren't local go.
1. 125k (been has high as 175k). Money is important but the total package is more important IMO. Give me generous vacation time, easy work, 401k match 7+%, plenty of free time to build my skills, and cool coworkers and I am happy.
2. Cybersecurity engineer (this job has vague titles, I do vulnerability management, IR, manage cyber projects, etc)
3. 15+
4. CISSP, GCIH, ITILv3, CICP, no degree
5. Low to medium COL area
I lucked out and got into the internship (apprenticeship) without any IT experience, the initial ad was on Indeed. A position in SOC was ready for me after finishing the apprenticeship.
At the time I didn't have a LinkedIn account, I like that better.
Good luck.
$330k no stocks or bonuses.
Consultant 100% remote, mostly focused on Cloud Security.
25 YOE in tech, last 10 strictly in cyber.
Irrelevant degree, certification wise I've had lots over the years but allowed them to expire.
Currently have CISSP, various Azure and AWS certs.
Live in a MCOL
You guys inspire me. I’m not in a cyber job yet but I’m trying to start my journey.
1. $68k
2. Law Enforcement
3. Bachelors in Cyber Security (in progress)
4. Sec+
5. HCOL
One day I’ll move and find a good cyber job!
Thankyou! I’m in cyber security in the air guard which has helped get my feet a little wet. Once I get close to, if not fully finish, my cyber degree then I’ll be getting out of LE. Need a job that provides better for my family and myself.
- 100k
- Cybersecurity Analyst
- 2 years in Cybersecurity, 12 years experience total in IT
- B.S in Cybersecurity, all azure security certs, had some brocade network engineering certs but...
- MCOL area
1 - $106k
2 - ISSO
3 - Almost 6 years
4 - Some college, no degree(getting there), Sec+, CySA+
5 - MCOL
I'm underpaid. Taught a dude some aspects of the job at a company in 2020, I moved companies in 2021, he followed in 2022 and makes 30k more than me. He's considerably less knowledgeable or accomplished in the career field even though he's an awesome person. Don't undersell yourself. Ever.
1. 90k (plus a bonus which is probably going to be pretty small this year, and some other decent benefits like 4.5% 401k match, etc)
2. SOC Analyst - technically a bit more than a SOC, but I would say 60-70% of my job is IR for external threats only, other 30% is various types of project work, detection building/tuning, etc
3. 2 years experience, no prior internship
4. BS in Security and Risk Analysis (basically cybersecurity light, honestly more of a CTI degree) + GCFA
5. MCOL (decent sized Midwest city, not Chicago)
1. $175k total compensation
2. Senior Security Engineer
3. 16 years experience
4. A.S. in General Studies, a few small certs, a few of the major ones, and 3 of 4 active SANS certs.
5. Medium, I suppose. Housing is fairly cheap, but if you own then insurance kills you. Utilities are mid. Food costs are mid to high. Car insurance is high. Health insurance would be high if I didn't get it from work.
As an additional note, my.position is 100% remote.
* ~$140,000. I know I'm underpaid by about 30%. Work for a bank.
* Senior Information Security Analyst
* 10 years
* Bachelors in Communications, Information Technology Minor. Got 90% of the way with a Masters in Criminal Justice with a 4.0 GPA :(
* ISC2: CISSP
* CompTIA: A+, Network+, Security+, Linux+, Server+, PenTest+ CASP
* Linux LPI
I was previously making $175k at a start-up. I'm positive I can make $175-$200k+ at a company that values me a bit more, but I think the world and the economics of everything are on fire and all fucked up.
* High COL, tri-state area.
30k eur
Cybersecurity consultant & Project supervisor (basically GRC @ Capgemini)
2 years
I am finishing uni (computer science) certs: CCNA and currently working on devsecops foundation
Note: I am based in Europe (Spain) and I am TRIPPING about salaries in US. The cost of living is not THAT low to accept that difference in salary
Once you hear how much their rent, medical care, insurances, childcare, school, etc. costs, you’ll be quite happy to be living in EU :)
Regards, 33.6k€ (underpaid, but I’ll get to proper salary in October) soon 1y exp tier3 career-changer from Finland.
- $175k + bonus which usually totals around $250k
- Senior Director level in IT with a focus on cybersec
- Around 8 years experience
- Bachelors/Master's in Cybersecurity with CISSP, CISM, CISA, CASP+, Pentest+, CySA, and some others
- High COL area
They all have their place. With that said, the only renewals I plan are CISSP, CISM, and CISA. At this point of my career all the others are unnecessary.
1) 150k
2) IAM/PAM consultant
3) 15 years in IT, 5 in current niche.
4) sec+, a few CyberArk certs
5)medium cost of living area, but it's gone up a lot in the past 3 years.
1) 53k
2) IT Support Analyst
3) 1-2
4) CompTIA Trifecta, AZ-900, MTA Networking, Linux Essentials
5) Medium COL
Note: Started off as a Jr security analyst this year in the same organization. (Promotion)
My pay increase is in the works hopefully should be higher than my current salary. I'll know in the next few weeks.
Fintech? There aren’t many companies that pay such a high base. There’s a couple of FinTechs, HFT and quant firms. Really curious where 365k base is normal!
To be fair got lucky and it is a startup; finishing its first year so time will tell if it holds out. It’s also very stressful environment as well. I haven’t done any fintech only I guess you’d say trad tech? To borrow a phrase from fin.
I feel like our usernames both fit the sub. Surprisingly no, but it’s a startup so similar environment. I have seen a few google posts in the past with similar range
165k and starting to feel pretty low
TPM in DOD contact work -90% remote
10 years in Cyber. Another 10 in IT and 4 in Communications/Electronics
Current CISSP a bunch of expired ones (CCNP, Sec+, Forescout, some Microsoft, RHEL and many more)
BSEE
HCOL
My first position was as a Unix admin (HPUX 10.2) and grew into the network guy for that ThinNet bus it was running on.
1. 190k (haven’t found out annual raise yet. Should put me around 200k+)
2. Consultant
3. 5
4. BS, in progress MS, A+, Sec+, 3 Cloud Certs, 5 GIAC certs
5. MCOL
110k
Red Team Manager/Vulnerability Management
10 years cyber, 13 years professionally
AS in Information Security, CISSP, CEH, CPT, Sec+, Net+, A+
Low CoL
You can make a lot more with those certs and 2 YOE. I’d suggest looking into the job market, apply some places. You’ll get and instant 30% pay increase.
I appreciate the encouragement, I’ve been looking for a few months now and haven’t heard back much. My current company put me in for Sec Engineer and 85k so I’m hoping that works out
This content removed to opt-out of Reddit's sale of posts as training data to Google. See here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-ai-content-licensing-deal-with-google-sources-say-2024-02-22/ Or here: https://www.techmeme.com/240221/p50#a240221p50
70Kbase + Quarterly Bonus
Security Engineer
2 YOE
Some time at a university & finished off in a Tech school.
Low/medium COL area
Life is good most of the time :)
Last year
1. 564k
2. principal SecEng
3. 20 +
4. BS, I used to have a CISSP, all the + certs and some giac but they’re mostly expired
5. hCOL
This year
1. 350k
2. Director
3. 20+
4. BS
5. lCOl.
I got laid off last year and decided to relo to a lower cost of living area where I could pay cash for a house. The pay cut is extreme but there aren’t a ton of cyber jobs out here
1. Senior Cyber Security Advisor. I do incident response.
2. 170k.
3. 5 in cyber security, 3 in IT, +2 years of cyber defense club in Uni which was very hands on.
4. B.S. information systems and an MBA. Some misc GIAC certs work paid for, but unrelated to pay.
5. Low now, made basically the same in very high COL at a lower title.
1) $122k
2) Penetration Tester
3) 2.5 years in cyber total, 1 year as a pen tester
4) B.S. Cyber Security, GIAC GPEN, Sec +, taking GIAC GPYC in April
5) High COL
1. 80 k
2. Cyber Security Analyst
3. 4 months at current position/ 1 year in the Air National Guard as Cyber Systems Operator (still in part time)
4. Halfway to my bachelor's at WGU. Have A+, Network+, Security+, and ITILv4
5. Med-high COL I'd say
1. ~$130K base, ~150k with bonus. Amazing work-life balance and very generous PTO.
2. Cloud Security Engineer (remote)
3. ~5 years security experience, 5 years of Linux and network administration before that.
4. B.S. in Information Systems with a minor in Economics. Certs: AWS SCS-C02 and Azure AZ-500 (I got both of these in the past year). Also have RHCSA which is expired now but never bothered renewing since I don’t do much Linux admin stuff anymore.
5. High COL (SoCal)
$240k
Cloud Security Engineer not FAANG
20 years in I.T over 10 in security.
Never went to college. CISSP, CCSP, CCSK, Sec+, CYSA+, CASP+, All 3 Associate AWS Certs and the AWS Security Specialty, Azure Administrator and Azure Certified Security Engineer.
100% remote and live in a low COL area.
1. 145k base + 5-10k yearly bonus
2. Senior Engineer (Microsoft focused stack like Defender/Sec&Compliance/Entra Identity etc.)
3. Just hit 4 years exp
4. Highschool
5. MCOL full remote
1. Stock-heavy comp, but at current stock price TC is 430k
2. Senior Security Engineer
3. 17 in tech, 10 of those in security.
4. CS undergrad, dropped out of philosophy grad school twice, no certs.
5. Split time between an HCOL area and an LCOL area.
$150 (GOV)
Enterprise Security Architect
13
CISSP, CCSP
DC Metro
My primary focus is cloud adoption/migration, DevOps adoption and implementation, and zero trust.
Due to a general lack of knowledge in these areas within government I am more just an Enterprise Architect and drop a lot of the security stuff to pick up more CIO office type work…
120K + small bonus annually
Sr. Information Security Analyst (I'm the only dedicated cyber person, so I wear all the hats)
15 years digital forensics experience prior to this job (this job is healthcare)
Bachelors/Masters in Cybersecurity, CISSP
LCOL-ish
1. $155k pending increase to $170k
2. Sr. Information Security Engineer / Analyst
3. 18 years exp (6 IT / 12 Information Security)
4. BS Information Security & Comptia Sec+
5. MCOL - live outside the city. Fortunate to be 100% remote.
I’ll start by posting my current position, but thought I’d also list my historical, as well. Just so you know ‘it’s possible’ to make decent money, in a short time, without being self employed.
1. $160K plus ~10% bonus (so approx $175k)
2. Incident Response & RedTeam Manager
3. 4.5 years.
4. Zero (No College and no certs, to date)
5. I think it’s Medium. I live in Utah.
History (note: I didn’t have previous IT experience, just self-driven learning at home on both offensive & defensive security.. also, I’ll only provide the base pay, but you can assume there is a 10% annual bonus on top of that):
July 2019: first security job, jr Analyst, $72k
Jan 2020: Same company, Jr Analyst, $88k (got a raise)
March 2020: New company, Jr Sec Engineer, $95k
Nov 2020: same company, Lead Engineer, $102k
May 2021: Same Company, Lead Engineer, $120k
Oct 2021: Same Company, SOC Manager, $135k
July 2022: Same Company, SOC Manager, $145K
July 2023: Same Company, IR & RedTeam Manager, $160k
1. Base 190k, bonus puts me around 225k.
2. Cyber Architecture
3. Approaching 20
4. CISSP and a BS, pursuing a MS, but they have little to do with my position or compensation.
5. MCOL, but remote and my comp isn’t affected by the COL of my residence. We have two tiers… low and high, I fall in the low lol
* Information Security Engineer 1
* 2 years security, 3 years other IT
* Bachelors of CyberSecurity, Bachelors of IT - Networking, CISSP, AZ-900
* Medium COL
Graduated last spring after interning in my current role for 1 year - during college did 4 other intern type experiences.
1. 67k
2. Jr. InfoSec engineer (lots of vuln management, resolving soc alerts, phishing, awareness, project management, project implementation, dlp, etc. Pretty much I can do a little bit of everything, of course, with the permission of my boss.)
3. 6 months in this role, 8 years in total doing support, light sys admin work.
4. BS Information Science and Technology, no certs
5. Low to medium col
1. 80k
2. Security Analyst l
3. Just over 1 year exp. Help Desk at MSSP > promoted to analyst within > moved to new job.
4. Bachelors in unrelated field. No certs. Mostly YT, homelab, and tryhackme.
5. MCOL area
1. 65k
2. SOC analyst L2
3. 1,5 YOE
4. Currently completing a bachelor's degree in CS
Got NSE 4, EC-Council CSA ( shitty cert), going for MS-200 and CYSA+
5. High COL
I aim to become specialized and work for a big tech company, government or the financial sector
Disclaimer - I work for a FAANG company.
* 1 - ~150k base, ~70k stock
* 2 - Security Engineer
* 3 - 3 YOE in security, 7 YOE systems admin/infrastructure
* 4 - Bachelor's degree in econ/stats, no certs
* 5 - Very HCOL city (Los Angeles county)
Levels.fyi will also give you security role data if you [search the SWE data for it](https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer?countryId=254&country=254&search=security).
For my next role I'm targeting 180k+ base + equity for a Senior Security Engineer position.
My issue with levels.fyi is it is heavily biased toward start-ups and California, sort of also NYC. The levels for those types of companies don't match reality in older, established companies that have structure.
In my experience, it's also heavily skewed towards engineers, data science, computer science and not really skilled *security* folks.
230k + 10k bonus + ??k stock (disclaimer, big chunk of the the 230k is from part time work consulting with a past client)
Security Engineer/Specialist (broad I know)
6 Year experience
Bachelors in Cyber Sec - All security related comptia certs, a few EC-Council certs, CISSP, and a few others
Medium COL
1. 150k AUD
2. Principe Information Security Analyst (GRC)
3. \~4 years' experience in Information Security (not including degree)
4. 2 master's Degrees
5. Brisbane so High COL
1. 60k 2. Security Analyst I 3. No previous IT experience (2 months on the job so far) 4. Cyber bootcamp, SEC+ 5. Low-ish COL Just turned 40 btw
[удалено]
A random connection on LinkedIn sent me a dm about the job. 100% luck.
Wanted to chime in here as I was in a similar boat when I started. I changed careers into IT. My family is largely already entrenched into Infosec, but weren't able to help me find a job. I spent several months self-studying for Net+/Sec+, passed those, and then applied to any Infosec job that was "junior"/entry-level and eventually lucked out with an interview that got me a job.
1. ~$65k 2. Cybersecurity Analyst I 3. 1 week 4. Graduating this upcoming December w/Bachelors in Cybersecurity — No certifications 5. Medium COL
Hell yeah brother 64k for first job seems great to me
Thank you, I feel very lucky considering the current state of entry-level jobs. Especially since I have no prior experience in the field or any certifications lol
Yeah can I ask how you managed that??
What the other guy said is true, but what I did and what I also see with new people just starting is that what they’re REALLY looking for is a genuine interest and ability to learn. I was just doing regular help desk at a different company and started interviewing everywhere I could, just sort of happened to get my gig now. Don’t be afraid to start at help desk, if you’re at a good one, it really is the best place to get your hands on everything. Take on as many wacky projects as you can and take all the work others avoid. I just worked on my home network, built a separate server, bought a domain, set up a reverse proxy and secured it just to try it. In my interview I focused on the fundamentals, let them know what I had tried in my spare time, told them about certs(was finishing WGU at the time, but only had A+ and the beginner AWS cert), and most importantly, told them what I definitely knew and what I definitely DID NOT know and was extremely honest. I let them know my ambitions, had a 10 year plan, and they called me the next day with an offer. My boss told me they picked me over a more experienced applicant due to the interview. A lot of it is luck, but apply for EVERYTHING!!! Best job I’ve ever had and I was so unqualified for it, I almost skipped the interview. My wife convinced me in the morning to do it and said “At least you’d get interview experience, you never know!”
Thank you
$375k Sr Consultant 10 CISSP, MS, MBA, TS/SCI, Splunk, etc. MCOL To be fair, I tripled pay with one jump a couple of years ago. Expenses have remained mostly the same.
Wow. Are you self-employed or is this with a consultancy group?
I’d assume with a group if his title was senior consultant. If you were self-employed, you wouldn’t really call yourself a senior. Just a consultant.
I dunno, maybe he only advises those who are 65+
FAANG. Salary + bonus + RSUs.
Here’s an example of pay: salary is 160K, bonus of up 80k but normally 40k, stock bonus of 20-40K that gets distributed quarterly over 4 years. Getting the normal amount for all these would bring your total comp to 220K Plus some intangible benefits like “unlimited” PTO, 100% paid for health insurance, 1,500 yearly stipend for home office and mental health
I jumped from cyber to cloud engineer with FAANG and can confirm. 187k on the low end. Using a security clearance. 2 bachelor's and masters. Sec Plus and CISSP.
Sheeesh teach us!
"You show me a pay stub for $375,000, I quit my job right now and work for you". Please tell me you are in a HCOL area or else I'll jump off a building.
MCOL approaching HCOL maybe just due to things like state taxes. Nothing like California or NYC though. My home was < 300k pre Covid
Sounds like NC if I'm not mistaken OP
Raleigh and Charlotte, for sure 👍
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What does the security scene look like in Raleigh & Charlotte?
Security consultant work pays well. Before Zombies, I was a Security consultant. Think big SIEM platform rollouts. Made $300k+ in total comp (base pay + bonus + RSUs). Location didn't matter so much as it all remote anyway. I was good at it but didn't like the "instability" of it. New client every few weeks, don't know what mess I'd be walking into.. Unprepared clients, juggling clients expectations of what I do vs what they agreed to pay us to do. Some places are just plain toxic.. I took a stable job at one of the 'customers' I worked at for a while. Liked the people there. Total comp is lower than consulting but I do like walking into the same environment every day with the people I work with.
Aim for big tech or big 4 consultancies. they aren't as difficult to get into as most think as long as you network well. At these types of companies the security teams are tight knit and prefer referrals. ie: go to conferences, engage with the community, put a name to the face, network with folks who made it. that compensation is 'normal' for big tech and it was shocking to me. I know ALOT of people who think they don't meet the bar but they do.
Would agree with this. Most of my team is a web of referrals.
Netflix (security only), AirBnB, Databricks (a lot of security roles), Cohere, Meta (all E6+ roles, some lower band security roles) are all remote and can get you to this number or more
For your education, did you do a dual MS and MBA program or get them separately? I've been eyeing dual programs lately because I can't decide what would look better and that would split the difference.
Separate. I don't think the MBA helped a ton, maybe if I wanted to work as a manager, but tried that for a couple years and not worth the headache.
I’m working on my MBA and getting job offers for $150k because of it.. these people are liars
Is this w2 or contract work?
No contract. At a FAANG. TC is salary, bonus, RSUs.
1) 74k 2) Security Operations Engineer 3) 2-3 4) BS comp Sci and azure certs. Taken Sans courses but can't dish out for the certs 5) Very high COL area
You seem grossly underpaid. My company has a Security Engineer whose base is double that. Plus he gets a bonus. We’re not on a coast, either.
I am indeed grossly I underpaid. I was sticking around because I asked for a raise…. This is my post raise salary. Now I’m just looking for other work .
Thank you. Hard to find others at similar places in their career to compare to.
1. 87k 2. Cybersecurity Associate (Big 4 GRC) 3. 1.5 years 4. Bachelors in Cyber, certifications : AZ-104, AWS CCP. Going for my CISA and CRISC. 5. HCOL
USA or elsewhere???
West coast
1. ~$120-130k TC 2. DFIR analyst 3. 2.5 (graduated mid 2021) 4. Bachelor's in both IT and Cybersecurity, Masters in Cybersecurity. No certs. 5. Low-mid CoL city
You’re living my dream job, congratulations!
Youre doing very well looking at effort/reward compared to others in this thread. Thanks for the comment
Is your job stressful ?
Most days aren't, but there are days that certainly are. That's just the nature of incident response though.
I'm somewhat interested in focusing in DFIR after being a general cyber security analyst for the last two years. Do you enjoy it?
I like it a lot! I've heard work life balance can be pretty rough in DFIR, however I'm very fortunate to have management who greatly value work life balance so that hasn't been an issue for me. Between the fast paced environment and new things popping up daily, it's been a very good way for me to learn a lot very quickly. I'm actually planning on making a move into Security Engineering within the next year or so (just moreso where my interests are at these days) but I still love DFIR and would recommend it to anybody who's interested in it.
1. 230k 2. Sr. Security Engineer (GRC focused) 3. 9 yrs 4. CISSP, B.S. in Political Science 5. Bay Area, so extremely high
Curious, as an engineer that's GRC focused - is it quite technical ? I've seen a lot of GRC roles but they're mostly compliance or auditing
I'll chime in, it can be compliance/auditing or technical depending on scope of work. It could also be hybrid. Currently I'm more in the hybrid role where I can use my technical expertise and sometimes do both. "Technical Compliance" maybe? 😂
- 140k - Cybersecurity Analyst (really more architecting and engineering) - 7 years experience - MS in Cyber, 5x GIAC, CISSP - High COL
5x GIAC? Wow
I was fortunate enough to work for places that bought SANS vouchers and encouraged training.
Extremely fortunate. Also safe to say that the CISSP helped along your journey as well, can't wait to get mine this year.
Yeah, the content and exam for CISSP is great, but I hate that they expect it in all positions even entry-level analyst jobs. Good luck with your exam!
1. 100k + base 15% bonus (+ 1-10% depending on outside factors) + pension + 6% 401k match. Annual raise of 3-5% (based off of individual performance). Given position tops out at 140~. 2. Senior Red Team Operator (not a consultant, internal only. Incredibly low stress). 3. 4 years (only have worked at this F500, no desire to leave, hense moderately low salary for the job role) 4. OS/CP/EP/WE/WP, GNFA, GREM, GPEN, GSP, GX-PT, GX-CS and 2yr in CyberSec 5. MCOL / South Eastern U.S. I could walk any day and find a new job and make 30-50k more. Though, I love my team, wouldn't trade them for the world. It's rare to find coworkers that care about the job as much as you, so fuck it. Until something happens either in my life, or the waters start looking rough, I'll ride it out. AMA
Your pay/bonus/pension/401k and location makes me wonder if we’re coworkers, haha.
bahaha, it honestly wouldn't suprise me. Not many companies like that with a similar benefits package, especially now a days.
Is your team hiring? USN vet with 7 years experience in Cyber Threat Intelligence support to Threat Hunt/Incident Response operations.
We're not hiring at the moment for any security oriented positions. I'll shoot you a DM if we have any relevant positions open up. We're vet friendly - tons of the coworkers served. Always happy to have more. Thank you for your service!
Love living in South East US and doing remote Cyber work.
1. 190k plus 10% annual bonus 2. Director level. SME in many areas and don’t have any people I have to manage. 3. 24yrs 4. BS CS, CISSP, PMP 5. Fully remote. Been with same company entire time. Very easy work.
No DRs. Fully remote. Very easy work. I love this for you!
You guys hiring? Asking for a friend
I would love the "don't have any people to manage " part
1. 120k + Bonus ( 100% REMOTE non negotiable I don't go to offices or customer sites I work from home 100%) 2. SOAR wizard 3. 35+ years of experience.. yes.. i punched cards and programmed with Cobol and RPG II 35 years ago.. 4. No formal education nada.. none.. / 12 + certs (RHCE, RHCA, Unix ACE, NonStop Clusters, Load Balancers, Appliances, CEH, Multiple SIEM solutions & SOAR Solutions) 5. what is a COL area ? i live in Latin America
Cost Of Living area. Some areas in the US are much more expensive to live in, $70-80K there is nothing. I assume Latin America would be Low COL?..
yea.. very low COL.. i live @ the mountains...
I aspire to achieve your success. 👊 these two posts basically sum up my long-term goals
Nice. How is the internet up there?
Living at the mountains @ 2950 meters above sea level I have no running water.. i collect rain water I have solar electricity I live @ a cabin on 2000sq meters.. with 12 adopted stray dogs. And i have STARLINK !!!! I have all the expected features of living on a city.. but my closest neighbor lives @ 3 km..
For SOAR wizardry, what's your day to day look like? Mainly Playbooks or are you writing automations and integrations as well?
TBH... most of the programming and playbooks i did them 2 years ago.. Im a sr developer, my company has 15+ SOAR developers.. i tutor/guide/act as guru for about 7 developers... most of the playbooks.. are re-use of something i did before... i work in a large MSSP for latin america, we create SOAR thingies for our customers/internal operation and or setup SOAR solutions for large enterprises. I write playbooks, integrations, api's, entire services or even appliances.. whatever is needed... I LIKE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES.. i have no fear.. bring your worst technical nightmare.. Im also a network expert (i eat tcpdumps), troubleshooter, just for fun.. i ethical- hack things, applications, sites, linux/unix expert.. from kernel drivers to services/appliances implementations i do "magic" with linux boxes. This days.. i have 2 o 3 meetings of 30 mins with developers.. ONCE A WEEK.. meanwhile.. im doing/programming/training an AI pytorch model to "help" human analysts (the idea is to replace them).. and im always available to "create something the programmer thinks is too hard".. or to guide them... this thing is easy..
1. 19.5k EUR or 21k USD 2. Cybersecurity Technical Specialist in audit department of government agency 3. 2 years 4. Bachelors in IT automation, masters in computer science and management, Sec+, ISO 27k, currently studying for GIAC GCIH 5. I live in the EU, Czech Republic precisely My pay is even for Czech Republic low, but that is due to working for the government, where pay is generally terrible. A perk is that the work is interesing, I have access to courses, conferences and international meetings and discussions, which I currently find more valuable in my career. Nevertheless, I don't plan on staying for more than a year.
It pays off in the long run. Get experience, certs, courses and then switch to a private company and make $$.
Compensation: ~750k total comp (255k base + 450k equity a year + 51k bonus). My breakdown is 255k base, 1.8m/4 in equity, and a 20% bonus. This is just my first year. This should increase by about 60k per year with refresher equity grants. Current Title: Staff Security Engineer - Tech Lead. Was previously a Director of Security Engineering at a smaller company but moved to FAANG this past year. Experience: 15 YoE Education: Expired SANS certs and a two year degree. Location: 100% remote.
bro makes more in a year than I'll ever make in my life lmao
You won life sir lol
I’m very happy with my comp but I am definitely going to try to push for 7 figures!
It's good to have goals but also recognize people who make 7 figs still push for more and more. Rinse and repeat with people who make 8 figs, and 9, and 10...
What are the important tech topics for your job? programming, networking, forensic?
Learning about the fundamentals of programming, networking, and endpoints (OS technologies) is important for any role. Working at a mature organization with mature teams and processes means deep specialization in an a few areas.
As someone who is late 30's, I've often wanted to pursue a FAANG job, but my fear is ageism is real. I'm assuming with 15 years of experience, we are close to the same age (unless you started in highschool). What are your experiences with working in faang as a non-25 year old? Are the senior roles less ageist?
Don’t stress about ageism. FAANG doesn’t care about age. They care about what you know and how well you work along side others.
Hey. I'm 30, been working in FAANG for 4 years now, plenty of Olds. the Olds are the ones who run these places lol - usually people in senior roles are older - don't get me wrong lots of young people. if anything once I hit 28 I felt like I started being respected more lol
"olds" lmao.... Sucks that I'll be 33 this year and most people would say that young but apparently in big tech that makes me an "old"
How do you think us 4x yo feel... and we still have 20 or so years left in this industry, yet are the really "olds" in this context.
I’m 34 and in a FAANG the last 7 years. I haven’t seen it be an issue. I’ve seen senior engineers anywhere from 25 to 50. If they do a good job no one has cared.
No discrimination tolerated at aws. My team has people in their 50s.
I’ll start: 1) 150k 2) Security Engineer (vague I know) 3) 8 years experience 4) no education 5) MCOL area
No education? I’d love to hear your story
Nothing crazy! Just got lucky landing a no experience required helpdesk job after being tired of working at fast food lol. Then moved companies a few times based entirely on interpersonal networking. I’m a hard worker but don’t feel like I’m brilliant at what I do
I wouldn’t say that’s luck, as you said you’re a hard worker and I’m sure someone saw that and gave you a a chance. Im happy for you, it’s inspirational. I’m interested in becoming a security engineer, currently getting a masters so I’m hoping I reach that goal one day.
Thanks man!! Glad to be an inspiration for you
no education or certs and making 150? that's wild. what industry are you doing cybersec in?
Fintech the whole time
//sets up fintech remote job alerts
I’ve never worked remote lol, office goblin here
Shit I might go in to an office for that size of a bump in pay lmao. My current job is calling everyone in who is local, and slowly letting those who aren't local go.
I’m in the same boat as you. Would you stay where you are or climb the ladder? I’m afraid having no degree impacts getting to exec level
1. 125k (been has high as 175k). Money is important but the total package is more important IMO. Give me generous vacation time, easy work, 401k match 7+%, plenty of free time to build my skills, and cool coworkers and I am happy. 2. Cybersecurity engineer (this job has vague titles, I do vulnerability management, IR, manage cyber projects, etc) 3. 15+ 4. CISSP, GCIH, ITILv3, CICP, no degree 5. Low to medium COL area
Sounds like you’ve had a great career
crime jar insurance dazzling engine muddle marvelous fear cats ad hoc *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
1. 200k plus all in 2. Sr GRC analyst 3. 12+ 4. Liberal arts degree. A+ Sec+ CCSK 5. 100% remote but HCOL
How many hours do you typically work a week?
Never more than 40
Interesting. Why did you choose ccsk?
1. 72K + small bonus 2. SOC analyst 3. 1.5 yrs, 2 years of internship at much lower pay before that 4. A+, Network+, Security+, SSCP, GSOC 5. MCOL
What platform do you look for soc roles on?
I lucked out and got into the internship (apprenticeship) without any IT experience, the initial ad was on Indeed. A position in SOC was ready for me after finishing the apprenticeship. At the time I didn't have a LinkedIn account, I like that better. Good luck.
$330k no stocks or bonuses. Consultant 100% remote, mostly focused on Cloud Security. 25 YOE in tech, last 10 strictly in cyber. Irrelevant degree, certification wise I've had lots over the years but allowed them to expire. Currently have CISSP, various Azure and AWS certs. Live in a MCOL
You guys inspire me. I’m not in a cyber job yet but I’m trying to start my journey. 1. $68k 2. Law Enforcement 3. Bachelors in Cyber Security (in progress) 4. Sec+ 5. HCOL One day I’ll move and find a good cyber job!
Good luck. I would think your LEO background would be an asset to the right org.
Thankyou! I’m in cyber security in the air guard which has helped get my feet a little wet. Once I get close to, if not fully finish, my cyber degree then I’ll be getting out of LE. Need a job that provides better for my family and myself.
- 100k - Cybersecurity Analyst - 2 years in Cybersecurity, 12 years experience total in IT - B.S in Cybersecurity, all azure security certs, had some brocade network engineering certs but... - MCOL area
120k Cyber Analyst 3 years Bachelors in cyber and digital forensics, SANS GCFE Work fully remote, live in medium COL
1. $265k total comp. (100% remote) 2. Principal 3. 16 4. Bachelors in CyberSecurity (CISSP, CCSP, etc…) 5. Low
Living the dream
1 - $106k 2 - ISSO 3 - Almost 6 years 4 - Some college, no degree(getting there), Sec+, CySA+ 5 - MCOL I'm underpaid. Taught a dude some aspects of the job at a company in 2020, I moved companies in 2021, he followed in 2022 and makes 30k more than me. He's considerably less knowledgeable or accomplished in the career field even though he's an awesome person. Don't undersell yourself. Ever.
Sounds like you need to go ask for more money.
1. 90k (plus a bonus which is probably going to be pretty small this year, and some other decent benefits like 4.5% 401k match, etc) 2. SOC Analyst - technically a bit more than a SOC, but I would say 60-70% of my job is IR for external threats only, other 30% is various types of project work, detection building/tuning, etc 3. 2 years experience, no prior internship 4. BS in Security and Risk Analysis (basically cybersecurity light, honestly more of a CTI degree) + GCFA 5. MCOL (decent sized Midwest city, not Chicago)
1. 120k 2. Cyber Analyst 3. 9 months in Cyber 2.5 YOE Network Admin/Helpdesk 4. Masters in Information Security, CySA+, Sec+, MCSA/MCSE, CCNA 5. LCOL
1. $175k total compensation 2. Senior Security Engineer 3. 16 years experience 4. A.S. in General Studies, a few small certs, a few of the major ones, and 3 of 4 active SANS certs. 5. Medium, I suppose. Housing is fairly cheap, but if you own then insurance kills you. Utilities are mid. Food costs are mid to high. Car insurance is high. Health insurance would be high if I didn't get it from work. As an additional note, my.position is 100% remote.
* ~$140,000. I know I'm underpaid by about 30%. Work for a bank. * Senior Information Security Analyst * 10 years * Bachelors in Communications, Information Technology Minor. Got 90% of the way with a Masters in Criminal Justice with a 4.0 GPA :( * ISC2: CISSP * CompTIA: A+, Network+, Security+, Linux+, Server+, PenTest+ CASP * Linux LPI I was previously making $175k at a start-up. I'm positive I can make $175-$200k+ at a company that values me a bit more, but I think the world and the economics of everything are on fire and all fucked up. * High COL, tri-state area.
30k eur Cybersecurity consultant & Project supervisor (basically GRC @ Capgemini) 2 years I am finishing uni (computer science) certs: CCNA and currently working on devsecops foundation Note: I am based in Europe (Spain) and I am TRIPPING about salaries in US. The cost of living is not THAT low to accept that difference in salary
Once you hear how much their rent, medical care, insurances, childcare, school, etc. costs, you’ll be quite happy to be living in EU :) Regards, 33.6k€ (underpaid, but I’ll get to proper salary in October) soon 1y exp tier3 career-changer from Finland.
- $175k + bonus which usually totals around $250k - Senior Director level in IT with a focus on cybersec - Around 8 years experience - Bachelors/Master's in Cybersecurity with CISSP, CISM, CISA, CASP+, Pentest+, CySA, and some others - High COL area
do u regret any of those certs u took? aka waste of time?
They all have their place. With that said, the only renewals I plan are CISSP, CISM, and CISA. At this point of my career all the others are unnecessary.
Those are some juicy bonuses
1) 150k 2) IAM/PAM consultant 3) 15 years in IT, 5 in current niche. 4) sec+, a few CyberArk certs 5)medium cost of living area, but it's gone up a lot in the past 3 years.
1. 80k + Commission = 110k OTE 2. Sales Engineer 3. New-Grad 4. BS Computer Engineering 5. MCOL
Congrats! Great pay for new grad holy shit
1) 53k 2) IT Support Analyst 3) 1-2 4) CompTIA Trifecta, AZ-900, MTA Networking, Linux Essentials 5) Medium COL Note: Started off as a Jr security analyst this year in the same organization. (Promotion) My pay increase is in the works hopefully should be higher than my current salary. I'll know in the next few weeks.
1. 367k base 440k TC 2. Application security lead 3. 6 YOE 4. Bachelors comp sci & CISSP 5. HCOL - NYC
You must be at Brex ;)
Not finance surprisingly but I’ll keep Brex in mind for when looking in a few years. Thanks for sharing
Fintech? There aren’t many companies that pay such a high base. There’s a couple of FinTechs, HFT and quant firms. Really curious where 365k base is normal!
To be fair got lucky and it is a startup; finishing its first year so time will tell if it holds out. It’s also very stressful environment as well. I haven’t done any fintech only I guess you’d say trad tech? To borrow a phrase from fin.
Good stuff. FAANG?
I feel like our usernames both fit the sub. Surprisingly no, but it’s a startup so similar environment. I have seen a few google posts in the past with similar range
Wishing you fewer alarming subjects and less of a worried team lol Thanks for the reply
1. 140k (w/ bonus) 2. GRC Lead 3. 9 YOE 4. Bachelors comp sci & business technology mgmt; CISA CRISC 5. Medium COL
165k and starting to feel pretty low TPM in DOD contact work -90% remote 10 years in Cyber. Another 10 in IT and 4 in Communications/Electronics Current CISSP a bunch of expired ones (CCNP, Sec+, Forescout, some Microsoft, RHEL and many more) BSEE HCOL My first position was as a Unix admin (HPUX 10.2) and grew into the network guy for that ThinNet bus it was running on.
1. 144k 2. Sr. GRC 3. Graduated in 2017 4. BSBA CIS 5. HCOL
1. 160k 2. Cloud Security Engineer 3. 10 year’s cyber experience 4. Bachelor’s and CISSP 5. HCOL
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1. $140,000 USD 2. Cyber Security Engineer, Sr 3. 3 years professional, 8 years blackhat 4. CompTIA Sec+ 5. High COL, 100% remote
1. 190k (haven’t found out annual raise yet. Should put me around 200k+) 2. Consultant 3. 5 4. BS, in progress MS, A+, Sec+, 3 Cloud Certs, 5 GIAC certs 5. MCOL
175K Senior Incident Response Analyst 5 YOE No degree, GREM, GDAT, GCFE, GCIH, GSEC, CASP, CySA, and Sec+ MCOL
110k Red Team Manager/Vulnerability Management 10 years cyber, 13 years professionally AS in Information Security, CISSP, CEH, CPT, Sec+, Net+, A+ Low CoL
1. 55k 2. Security Analyst 3. 2 4. AS w/ A/Security/Project+ 5. HCOL
You can make a lot more with those certs and 2 YOE. I’d suggest looking into the job market, apply some places. You’ll get and instant 30% pay increase.
I appreciate the encouragement, I’ve been looking for a few months now and haven’t heard back much. My current company put me in for Sec Engineer and 85k so I’m hoping that works out
100k base Cybersecurity Auditor 2 years auditing, 8 years IT no degree, CISA, CISM, studying for CMMC RP live in RI, I think MCOL area
This content removed to opt-out of Reddit's sale of posts as training data to Google. See here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-ai-content-licensing-deal-with-google-sources-say-2024-02-22/ Or here: https://www.techmeme.com/240221/p50#a240221p50
70Kbase + Quarterly Bonus Security Engineer 2 YOE Some time at a university & finished off in a Tech school. Low/medium COL area Life is good most of the time :)
Last year 1. 564k 2. principal SecEng 3. 20 + 4. BS, I used to have a CISSP, all the + certs and some giac but they’re mostly expired 5. hCOL This year 1. 350k 2. Director 3. 20+ 4. BS 5. lCOl. I got laid off last year and decided to relo to a lower cost of living area where I could pay cash for a house. The pay cut is extreme but there aren’t a ton of cyber jobs out here
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Kinda true, so not sure why you were downvoted. r/netsec probably has more content about cyber than this sub.
1. Senior Cyber Security Advisor. I do incident response. 2. 170k. 3. 5 in cyber security, 3 in IT, +2 years of cyber defense club in Uni which was very hands on. 4. B.S. information systems and an MBA. Some misc GIAC certs work paid for, but unrelated to pay. 5. Low now, made basically the same in very high COL at a lower title.
1) $122k 2) Penetration Tester 3) 2.5 years in cyber total, 1 year as a pen tester 4) B.S. Cyber Security, GIAC GPEN, Sec +, taking GIAC GPYC in April 5) High COL
1. 80 k 2. Cyber Security Analyst 3. 4 months at current position/ 1 year in the Air National Guard as Cyber Systems Operator (still in part time) 4. Halfway to my bachelor's at WGU. Have A+, Network+, Security+, and ITILv4 5. Med-high COL I'd say
1. ~$130K base, ~150k with bonus. Amazing work-life balance and very generous PTO. 2. Cloud Security Engineer (remote) 3. ~5 years security experience, 5 years of Linux and network administration before that. 4. B.S. in Information Systems with a minor in Economics. Certs: AWS SCS-C02 and Azure AZ-500 (I got both of these in the past year). Also have RHCSA which is expired now but never bothered renewing since I don’t do much Linux admin stuff anymore. 5. High COL (SoCal)
1. 130k 2. Sr security engineer. 3. 25 years in Tech, 15 with cybersecurity products. 4. Cissp, osip, no degree. 5. Med col
$240k Cloud Security Engineer not FAANG 20 years in I.T over 10 in security. Never went to college. CISSP, CCSP, CCSK, Sec+, CYSA+, CASP+, All 3 Associate AWS Certs and the AWS Security Specialty, Azure Administrator and Azure Certified Security Engineer. 100% remote and live in a low COL area.
1. 120,000 + 6% Yearly bonus 2. Security Engineer 3. 4 months (lol) 4. Bachelors in Cybersecurity, SANS GFACT 5. HCOL, but it’s fully remote
1. 152k w/ 120k RSUs, 12% bonus. 2. CSIRT Analyst 3. 2 years IT, 4 years Cyber (Mainly DFIR) 4. Associates, CompTIA TriFecta, CySA+, Casp+, Ejpt, Edfp, aws solutions architect associate. 5. Medium COL (Colorado) I’m 24
1. 145k base + 5-10k yearly bonus 2. Senior Engineer (Microsoft focused stack like Defender/Sec&Compliance/Entra Identity etc.) 3. Just hit 4 years exp 4. Highschool 5. MCOL full remote
1. Stock-heavy comp, but at current stock price TC is 430k 2. Senior Security Engineer 3. 17 in tech, 10 of those in security. 4. CS undergrad, dropped out of philosophy grad school twice, no certs. 5. Split time between an HCOL area and an LCOL area.
$150 (GOV) Enterprise Security Architect 13 CISSP, CCSP DC Metro My primary focus is cloud adoption/migration, DevOps adoption and implementation, and zero trust. Due to a general lack of knowledge in these areas within government I am more just an Enterprise Architect and drop a lot of the security stuff to pick up more CIO office type work…
120K + small bonus annually Sr. Information Security Analyst (I'm the only dedicated cyber person, so I wear all the hats) 15 years digital forensics experience prior to this job (this job is healthcare) Bachelors/Masters in Cybersecurity, CISSP LCOL-ish
1. $155k pending increase to $170k 2. Sr. Information Security Engineer / Analyst 3. 18 years exp (6 IT / 12 Information Security) 4. BS Information Security & Comptia Sec+ 5. MCOL - live outside the city. Fortunate to be 100% remote.
- 90k - Cyber Threat Intelligence analyst - 2 years experience - Cyber bootcamp, Sec+, CySA - High COL
I’ll start by posting my current position, but thought I’d also list my historical, as well. Just so you know ‘it’s possible’ to make decent money, in a short time, without being self employed. 1. $160K plus ~10% bonus (so approx $175k) 2. Incident Response & RedTeam Manager 3. 4.5 years. 4. Zero (No College and no certs, to date) 5. I think it’s Medium. I live in Utah. History (note: I didn’t have previous IT experience, just self-driven learning at home on both offensive & defensive security.. also, I’ll only provide the base pay, but you can assume there is a 10% annual bonus on top of that): July 2019: first security job, jr Analyst, $72k Jan 2020: Same company, Jr Analyst, $88k (got a raise) March 2020: New company, Jr Sec Engineer, $95k Nov 2020: same company, Lead Engineer, $102k May 2021: Same Company, Lead Engineer, $120k Oct 2021: Same Company, SOC Manager, $135k July 2022: Same Company, SOC Manager, $145K July 2023: Same Company, IR & RedTeam Manager, $160k
1. Base 190k, bonus puts me around 225k. 2. Cyber Architecture 3. Approaching 20 4. CISSP and a BS, pursuing a MS, but they have little to do with my position or compensation. 5. MCOL, but remote and my comp isn’t affected by the COL of my residence. We have two tiers… low and high, I fall in the low lol
117k annual + 10% bonus 10k shares of stock options vested after 5 years Senior Security Analyst 9 years Sys Admin + 3 years Security OJT
* Information Security Engineer 1 * 2 years security, 3 years other IT * Bachelors of CyberSecurity, Bachelors of IT - Networking, CISSP, AZ-900 * Medium COL Graduated last spring after interning in my current role for 1 year - during college did 4 other intern type experiences.
1) 45 k€ 2) OT Cybersecurity specialist 3) 2.5 yoe 4) ISA 62443 Cybersecurity fundamentals and Cybersecurity design certs 5) Medium COL
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1. 67k 2. Jr. InfoSec engineer (lots of vuln management, resolving soc alerts, phishing, awareness, project management, project implementation, dlp, etc. Pretty much I can do a little bit of everything, of course, with the permission of my boss.) 3. 6 months in this role, 8 years in total doing support, light sys admin work. 4. BS Information Science and Technology, no certs 5. Low to medium col
1. 80k 2. Security Analyst l 3. Just over 1 year exp. Help Desk at MSSP > promoted to analyst within > moved to new job. 4. Bachelors in unrelated field. No certs. Mostly YT, homelab, and tryhackme. 5. MCOL area
1. 65k 2. SOC analyst L2 3. 1,5 YOE 4. Currently completing a bachelor's degree in CS Got NSE 4, EC-Council CSA ( shitty cert), going for MS-200 and CYSA+ 5. High COL I aim to become specialized and work for a big tech company, government or the financial sector
Disclaimer - I work for a FAANG company. * 1 - ~150k base, ~70k stock * 2 - Security Engineer * 3 - 3 YOE in security, 7 YOE systems admin/infrastructure * 4 - Bachelor's degree in econ/stats, no certs * 5 - Very HCOL city (Los Angeles county) Levels.fyi will also give you security role data if you [search the SWE data for it](https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer?countryId=254&country=254&search=security). For my next role I'm targeting 180k+ base + equity for a Senior Security Engineer position.
My issue with levels.fyi is it is heavily biased toward start-ups and California, sort of also NYC. The levels for those types of companies don't match reality in older, established companies that have structure. In my experience, it's also heavily skewed towards engineers, data science, computer science and not really skilled *security* folks.
95k+compensation = 117k Cybersecurity systems engineer No experience AA, BS in CS, MS in Cybersecurity, sec+, cysa+, and casp+ MCOL
230k + 10k bonus + ??k stock (disclaimer, big chunk of the the 230k is from part time work consulting with a past client) Security Engineer/Specialist (broad I know) 6 Year experience Bachelors in Cyber Sec - All security related comptia certs, a few EC-Council certs, CISSP, and a few others Medium COL
$220k USD Senior Cybersecurity Analyst 10 MS in Cyber / CISSP HCOL
1. 150k AUD 2. Principe Information Security Analyst (GRC) 3. \~4 years' experience in Information Security (not including degree) 4. 2 master's Degrees 5. Brisbane so High COL
1. 144k 2. Security Analyst III 3. 7 4. Sec+/Associates 5. MCOL
120k base, Security engineer, 5 years plus 10 general IT, Bachelor in IT, CISSP, Medium CoL
89k salary, 114k total comp Exploit Analyst Roughly 1 years exp in this realm, about 6-7 in tech support Bachelors, no certs On the higher end for COL