Cyber Security CV, Template & Examples

Cyber Security CV, Template & Examples

Most HR managers and recruiters spend at most 7 seconds at first glance at a resume. The candidate has just those precious few seconds to catch the recruiter’s eye. The CV is scrutinized further in the subsequent rounds of the selection process, so the challenge becomes to make the CV stand out at all phases of the selection process. This guide will hopefully help you find a balance and improve your chances of a shortlist.

Make Those Core Skills Pop Out

Cyber security is a role (get a detailed breakdown/ JD of the position) where you need demonstrable skills in your niche. Education in IT or related fields is going to help a long way. Certifications like CISM, CISA, and CRISM will help your CV stand out. Ensuring these certifications or academic courses stand out by highlighting them in bold font or using a bulleted list is critical. These are great ways to highlight the relevant experience. We cover just what certifications, academic courses, and other complex skills are helpful in Cyber Security roles in our detailed article on Cyber Security Qualifications and Skills.

Soft skills like communication or general skills (like with non-specialised tools) are good, but these will likely be considered a bare minimum rather than distinguishing qualifications. Therefore, avoid persuading the hiring manager to recruit you based on these soft skills alone.

Work Experience

For cyber security roles, you want to ensure your experience closely matches the roles on offer. It is advisable to heavily edit your CV for each particular position based on the Job Description. Most candidates skimp on this and just shoot across the same CV for different roles without making the necessary edits that are sub-optimal. Rather than being a jack of all trades, it is better to be the master of the relevant ones for cyber security roles.

Your work experience should highlight your measurable achievements. It will always be preferable to have objective statements that prove (numerically, if possible) what exactly you achieved or saved rather than vague, subjective comments.

Check out this post for a 5 step guide to becoming a Cyber Security Analyst/ Manager.

Length and Structure

Your CV should ideally be a one-pager unless you have over a decade of solid experience. Always put your work experience at the top because it counts much more than most academic achievements.

You can see the attached templates for formatting and fonts, but the general idea is that the CV should be easily scannable while ensuring the key bits pop out.

Extracurricular activities aren’t that important. Some candidates focus too much on this, and being on the CV is not critical. If you want to showcase your great personality (and you should want to focus on that), do so at the interview stage rather than state it on paper.

Download Cyber Security Analyst CV

Learn more about a career as a cyber security analyst. The following articles cover:

Job Description, Salaries, How to Become, Qualifications, Skills & Requirements

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