The cybersecurity talent funnel is still short 3.5M professionals. Promotion-ready analysts share three traits: investigative storytelling, automation comfort, and stakeholder empathy. Use the ladder below to calibrate your next sprint.
Stage 1 – SOC Foundations
- Skills: log triage, SIEM query writing, packet captures, malware basics.
- Certs: Security+, CySA+, or Blue Team Level 1.
- Projects: build a homelab with Wazuh, Suricata, and TheHive. Publish incident write-ups with MITRE ATT&CK mapping.
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Stage 2 – Detection Engineering
- Skills: threat hunting, detection-as-code, CI/CD for Sigma/rulesets.
- Certs: GCTI or Splunk Core Certified Advanced Power User.
- Projects: convert manual playbooks into Python automation, then showcase metrics (MTTD/MTTR) in Grafana.
Advance to Detection Engineering
Master threat hunting, automation, and detection-as-code to move from SOC foundations to advanced security engineering roles.
Stage 3 – Security Leadership
- Skills: budgeting, executive briefings, tabletop exercises, product security reviews.
- Certs: CISSP, CCSP, or Certified CISO (as needed).
- Projects: lead a purple-team simulation and summarize board-level impact (downtime avoided, attack paths closed).
Promotion tip: pair each certification with a business win, not just a badge. “Reduced credential stuffing by 62%” beats “Earned CISSP”.
By 2025, security leaders who can speak revenue, risk, and roadmap will outpace purely technical peers. Document every cross-functional collaboration—the story is the differentiator.
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