The Best Cyber Security Jobs in The UK According to Data

By Karim Adib, Data Analyst, The SEO Works

According to a report commissioned by the UK government, 82% of job openings advertised online across the UK require digital skills. The same study attributes a 29% higher salary and a 59% reduced risk of redundancy (due to automation-led obsolescence) for these digital jobs. Not only does this illustrate the importance of digital skills – it also suggests that job openings that do not require digital skills are dwindling and paying less.

While digital industries are booming and demand has never been higher, some niches are easier to break into than others, and some niches pay higher than others. The Digital PR team at The SEO Works gathered data on the average salary from top UK job boards Glassdoor, indeed, and Prospects to reveal some of the most in-demand digital jobs along with how difficult it is to get started in them. Here are the findings.

The data shows that the digital industry has opportunities catering to a variety of skill sets as well as a variety of interests. At a glance, it is not surprising to see a correlation between salaries and job ‘difficulty’ (how many years of training/experience are required), whereby easier jobs tend to pay less, and more ‘difficult’ jobs pay more. Here are the findings for the cyber security industry.

Cyber security: One of the toughest digital industries to get into, but not without extra benefits.

A huge advantage of many digital careers is that it’s possible for anyone to get most if not all of the skills they need online. This is not the case with cyber security, but this is not necessarily a downside. It might be harder to get into cyber security, but the demand is there and you will be compensated handsomely for your hard-earned knowledge. This is why Cyber Security Analyst has the overall second best difficulty to salary ratio in the study and Penetration Tester is ranked as the second best-paid job on the chart. When technology exists, so does the need to keep this technology safe.

Penetration Tester Is Well-Renumerated, But It’s The Hardest Job To Get Into

Penetration Tester is the second-highest paid job on the chart with an average salary of £54,000. This relatively high salary is because getting into penetration testing needs a university degree as well as 2-4 years of experience in the industry. This means on average it takes 5-6 years to be able to become a Penetration Tester – a high bar to entry when compared with, for example, a job in Digital Marketing. The demand is clearly there, but is it worth pursuing compared to other cyber security jobs, like being a Cyber Security Analyst, which offers a much better demand to difficulty ratio?

Cyber Security Analyst is a great career choice due to its difficulty to salary ratio

When looking at a job, you want to consider how tough a career is to get into versus how much the skills you get will be worth. This is why when we compare being a Cyber Security Analyst to other digital jobs it comes out as the second best career choice on the chart. The reason this ranked so well on the difficulty scale compared to other jobs in the cyber security sector was that a lot of companies do not require a university degree to apply. However, it will be difficult to find information online to get you to mastery level.

Is Cyber Security the Industry for You?

This chart is one way to consider your future career, but such a big decision is never as straightforward as it might seem at first. So, do not let the chart dictate too much about what you want to go for. One thing is for certain, however – demand for cyber security professionals is strong, and that shows no sign of changing anytime soon.

About the Author

Karim Adib is a data researcher and analyst at The SEO Works. His background in civil engineering and marketing allows him to combine data analysis with storytelling to create data-led pieces.

Karim can be reached online at @karimadib99 on Twitter and at our company website seoworks.co.uk/services/digital-pr-agency/