Grow Your Career With Cybersecurity Learning Platforms
One of the most exciting things about cybersecurity is that change is built-in. Cybersecurity is a dynamic field, and the jobs you hold 5 and 10 years from now could look very different than the one you started in.
The field needs people who are willing to learn and up-skill. At a national level, there are over a million cybersecurity professionals working in the industry–but that number is far from enough. There are still over 750,000 job openings waiting to be filled. Self-paced cybersecurity learning platforms, like the ones we cover in this blog post can help you try out new areas in cybersecurity, build expertise, and keep your skills razor-sharp for the challenges ahead.
In this blog post about ongoing cybersecurity education, we’ll explore:
Examples of cybersecurity learning platforms
How to assess self-taught cybersecurity learning platforms
3 knockout strategies to achieve your goals
Why driving your own career growth is critical to success
Cybersecurity Learning Platforms
While cybersecurity education is offered by many educational institutions, there are also online platforms that let you pursue instruction at your own pace. Cybersecurity certifications are valuable, but you may want to dip a toe in on your own before committing to a longer course of study.
How valuable are cybersecurity learning platforms? Self-taught cybersecurity skills can help you build knowledge, gain confidence, and stand out when targeting a new cybersecurity role (or later on, that promotion you’re eyeing). Growing your skills could help you unlock better roles and a higher salary in cybersecurity over time.
Let’s look more closely at two popular cybersecurity learning platforms, how they differ, and the value they might offer you as you get your career off the ground.
TryHackMe
Offering gamified lessons, opportunities to cultivate and try out new skills, and a community of two million users to its students, TryHackMe goes beyond textbook learning to help you put theory into practice.
TryHackMe positions itself as “hands-on cybersecurity training through real-world scenarios” for all skill levels. It offers a variety of learning paths, testing modules, and virtual vulnerable networks so you can learn and practise critical cybersecurity skills, building confidence in your abilities to execute on the job. With free and premium features, you can try it out before going all-in on a subscription.
HackTheBox
With a community of 1.7 million members, HackTheBox aims to connect and upskill the global cybersecurity community. It offers hacking labs and battles, cybersecurity courses, and a job board.
HackTheBox provides gamified upskilling, certification, and talent assessment through a software platform created to help you dig deep and build your cybersecurity expertise. The company hopes to redefine standards in the industry by offering challenging hacking experiences that help create smart, sophisticated cybersecurity pros ready to face online security threats in the real world.
How To Choose a Self-Learning Cybersecurity Platform
When you start exploring self-learning platforms, give yourself time to compare options to figure out the right fit. Sometimes, just like great style, you’ll know it when you see it, but it doesn’t hurt to dig a little. A few things we like to check out are each company's mission or purpose, how they structure learning experiences, flexibility, and cost.
Company mission
Take time to nose around each platform and read about the companies and what guides them.
See what you can explore before becoming a paying member. It may help you figure out who they help, what they offer, and how they fit into the industry before you commit. For example, some learning platforms are geared towards hacking. They may not be the best platform for you if you want to learn digital forensics or cybersecurity governance.
User experience
Get a feel for the type of learning experiences they provide and how usable each site feels for your skill level. Is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Do the challenges look tempting or do you find yourself skimming over boring content? Are you thrown in from the start to figure things out, or does the pace allow you to learn, then practise?
Flexibility
Does the platform you’re considering offer pre-scripted learning paths to follow or allow you to choose your own cybersecurity training adventures? Which is of more value to you? Can you do both, depending on preference? Do they offer any completion certificates or other tracking of challenges or training? You’ll want to be able to show off the skills you’re racking up.
Cost
Most platforms offering value to online users need a way to earn revenue. This is often in the form of a subscription fee, though some features will likely be free. Totally fair, but you should still figure out what you’re getting for your hard-earned coin. Look around each platform to compare free versus paid content and the potential value.
3 Knockout Strategies to Achieve Your Goals
With the right approach, you can set goals that will lead you to a kickass cybersecurity career, then enjoy the satisfaction of crushing them.
Set “habit” goals
Making progress toward a goal will require consistent effort. We recommend setting daily habit goals to help you carve out time for learning.
To successfully add a new habit to your routine, connect it to an already-established habit. Make it easy and rewarding so you’re more likely to adopt the habit long term. A little bit of learning each day will go a long way over the course of your career.
Create a plan
Lofty goals won’t get you anywhere unless you map out a plan. Now that you have the right goals, break down the steps you’ll need to take to achieve them.
For example, you may have set a goal of adding a new skill to your resume by a certain date so you can leverage it when applying for jobs. A specific plan should break your goal into small steps, with milestones interspersed every so often so you can keep yourself on track. You may want to block out periods for researching learning opportunities, a deadline for choosing a path, and time to complete instruction or training.
Identify obstacles in advance
The pandemic drove employees to remote work and pushed organizations to hastily move more information to the cloud to keep staff connected and data accessible. These shifts increased cybersecurity risk in many organizations, many of which will need to keep remote or hybrid work structures in place to hold onto their employees in the future.
Cybersecurity tied to business outcomes
Gaining new skills will take time and will likely be challenging. Do yourself a favor and run through potential obstacles that could crop up before you dig in and brainstorm possible solutions ahead of time.
For example, you may know that once a week you end up working overtime at your current job and won’t be able to make progress on learning. Choose a replacement time period elsewhere in your week and when the inevitable overtime pops up, make the switch and keep moving.
Why Driving Your Own Career Growth Is Critical to Success
Taking charge of your career means looking for creative ways to get where you want to go. This may mean exploring cybersecurity learning platforms, pursuing cybersecurity certifications, and building your network, so you don’t miss opportunities.
There’s no coasting your way to a six-figure salary, but coasting’s never been your style. Getting strategic and using your ambition to set goals, then create plans to achieve them, is how you’ll build the kind of career growth you’ve been craving.
We’ll help you get there–on your terms. Ready for a strategic, effective approach to building your cybersecurity career? Join our exclusive Insiders community for the insights, connections, and support you need to grow.
