Your Online Cybersecurity Degree Can Lead to Job Opportunities
It's hard to read the news today without seeing the world's need for skilled cybersecurity professionals. People who have the education and experience to enter the cybersecurity field often find themselves responsible for protecting and securing information as small as family photos ranging to international banking information.
With more and more of the world digitizing every day and threats growing more and more sophisticated, cybersecurity and indeed all computer science and computer engineering jobs are on the rise.
How Do You Become Qualified for a Cybersecurity Job?
The first step is always education. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, most information security analyst positions require a bachelor's degree in a computer-related field. This could include computer science, computer engineering, or cybersecurity specifically. You'll likely need to study a variety of programming languages as well as networking systems, management, and certain technological aspects of law and ethics.
Often, cybersecurity students opt to take classes or a whole minor in a related field, such as finance or health sciences. This can help cybersecurity students better prepare for highly lucrative specialized fields, such as healthcare or financial cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity Job Prospects
Graduates in cybersecurity can find work in practically any field. Nearly every industry has an online networked component to it, and fields ranging from finance to healthcare to the military need information security analysts.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for information security analysts is projected to grow 31 percent from 2019 to 2029. The BLS says this is much faster than the average for all occupations.
These positions will be critical, especially in creating innovative solutions to prevent hackers from stealing information or causing problems for computer networks.
Cybersecurity Jobs in Virginia
As of December, 2020, there are more than 58,000 cybersecurity job openings in Virginia. That's almost 6 times the national average, and supply in Virginia is relatively low. As Virginia industry booms with the addition of Amazon's second HQ as well as a new distribution center, technology jobs will naturally follow. When you add in the expanding shipping, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors which are thriving in Virginia, the job market is expected to remain up.
How Soon Can You Start Your New Cybersecurity Job?
Surprisingly, these in-demand, highly-paid jobs often require less than 5 years experience in the field. According to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), from October 2019 through September 2020, there were 166,000 openings for Information Security Analysts, but only 125,570 workers employed in those positions. It can take longer to fill cybersecurity jobs, so there's a good chance that when you graduate with a cybersecurity degree, you'll already be a prime candidate for hire.
About ODUGlobal's Cybersecurity Degree
In 2020, Old Dominion University opened a School of Cybersecurity, the first of its kind in the nation. With 800 students and growing, ODU's School of Cybersecurity pledges to offer cutting-edge cybersecurity education and develop high-impact, cross-disciplinary research while being a source of expertise to the Hampton Roads community, the country, and the world.
ODU was designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO) in May 2019. Students in ODU's online bachelor's, master's, and certificate programs in cybersecurity are taught by the same instructors who teach at ODU's main campus in Norfolk, Virginia. Classes follow the same schedule and level of academic rigor, ensuring that a student earning their degree online will graduate ready to join the field.
In ODU's online cybersecurity degree, you'll have the option of taking courses from:
- computer engineering
- computer science
- criminal justice
- engineering management
- information technology
- modeling and simulation engineering
- philosophy
ODU's cybersecurity curriculum includes calculus, physics, and a number of computer engineering and computer science courses that require good math skills.