CYBERSECURITY JOB HUNTING GUIDE
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  • (Employment) fraud & scams
    • Suspicious Offer
    • Second Offer
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  • Analyzing a job ad
    • The Header
    • Building a Bridge
    • The Responsibilities
    • Desired Skills
    • Preferred Qualification
    • Benefits
    • Own skills vs job ad
    • Dealing with poorly written job ads
  • Resume writing
    • Templates
    • Building a draft
    • Resume in Detail
    • Understand the company
    • ATS and tailoring
    • Last Step
  • Cover letter
    • Writing a cover letter
  • Preparation & Interview
    • Organize your job hunt
    • SWOT Again (interview)
    • Twitter
    • The interview
    • Interview Questions Designed To Trick You
    • Post interview tasks
  • I did it all, but...
    • You are not alone
    • Try Something New
    • Why You'll Fail in Cyber Security
  • Yes, I got a job!
    • Two, or more offers?
    • Continued learning
    • Moving up
    • Lessons learned
  • Conclusion
  • Additional things
    • Reviews (labs, courses, certs) >
      • CompTIA A+
      • CompTIA Network+
      • CompTIA Security+
      • CompTIA Server+
      • CompTIA PenTest+
      • DroneSec DSOC
      • Defensive-Security Purple Labs
      • FAA Part 107
      • INE eCPPT & PTP
      • Letsdefend review
      • Microsoft AZ-500
      • RangeForce SOC 1
      • RangeForce SOC 2
    • Work In A Different Country >
      • The Work Permit
      • Working in the US
      • Studying in the US
      • Studying in Germany
      • Work in a different country
    • Other Resources >
      • Useful Links >
        • All about careers
        • Red resources
        • Blue resources
      • YouTube
      • Twitch
      • Podcasts
      • Books
      • Udemy
      • Thanks
    • Contributors
  • Stefan Waldvogel, where can I help?
  • Home
  • Introduction
    • Things you should know
    • The strategy
  • Paths into Cybersecurity
    • First steps
    • SWOT Analysis
    • How much time do you need?
    • Calculate& Evaluate Knowledge
    • Imposter syndrome
    • Time Management
    • Cybersecurity Domains
    • Cloud Security
    • Financial advice >
      • Credit score
    • The salary
    • Advocacy for underrepresented groups
  • Goal Setting & Career paths
    • Find your career in 5 steps
    • Cybersecurity career options
    • Career finding with LinkedIn
    • Transferable Skills (general)
    • Transferable IT Skills
    • Find a path with job descriptions
    • The I do not know path
    • Do you know “garbage” jobs?
    • “Bonus” knowledge
    • Learning & Motivation
    • Particular vs. any job
    • Pentester path (start)
    • Pen Testing as Career
    • SOC Analyst as career
    • Security Engineer as career
    • Compliance & Risk as career
    • How to find a career (IAM Engineer)
    • Find a company
  • Networking
    • Networking like a pro
    • LinkedIn
    • Referrals & Skills
    • LinkedIn Recruiters >
      • Working with a recruiter
    • Cyber Community
    • Networking University
    • Mentoring
    • Build your personal brand
    • Goal of Networking
  • Hands-on
    • The home lab >
      • Designing a home lab
      • Ways to create a home lab
      • Hypervisors >
        • VirtualBox
        • VMWare Player
        • QEMU/KVM
      • Docker
      • Operating Systems >
        • Kali Linux >
          • Installing Kali with VirtualBox
        • Parrot
        • BlackArch
        • Red Hat Enterprise Linux >
          • RHCSA
        • Security Onion >
          • Installation Security Onion
        • Metasploitable2
        • Ubuntu
        • Windows >
          • Windows in a VM
          • Windows with Virtual Machine Manager
          • Preparing Windows logging
          • John Strand's ADHD VM
      • Firewalls >
        • pfSense Installation
        • pfSense configuration for Security Onion
    • Volunteer Work
    • Note Taking
    • Red labs >
      • Cyberseclabs
      • HackTheBox >
        • HackTheBox Academy
      • INE red side
      • RangeForce
      • Offensive Security
      • TryHackMe
      • Virtual Hacking Labs
    • Red tools & techniques >
      • Atomic Red Team
      • DVWA
      • Metasploit
      • OSINT tools
      • OWASP Juice Shop
    • Blue labs >
      • Blue Team Labs Online
      • DetectionLab (free)
      • INE
      • Letsdefend >
        • LetsDefend password stealer
      • Opensecuritytraining (free)
      • PurpleLabs
      • RangeForce
    • Blue tools >
      • Install a Canary Token
      • CyberChef
      • EDR Lima Charlie installation
      • EDR LimaCharlie configuration
      • EDR Velociraptor (free)
      • EDR Bluespawn (free)
      • DeepBlueCLI (logs Powershell, free)
      • Raccine (ransomware protection, free)
      • Install RITA (detects C2 traffic, free)
      • Sandboxes >
        • Joe's Sandbox
      • SIEM ELK Stack
      • SIEM Graylog >
        • Getting started with Graylog
        • Install Graylog
        • Graylog Windows agent
        • Graylog Linux agent
        • Graylog as application
      • Suricata with RangeForce
      • Identifying IoCs with RangeForce
      • What2Log
  • Certifications, Degree & Courses
    • Overview
    • Free & Affordable Resources
    • Pick your cert
    • Skill Assessment
    • Get a cheap degree
  • (Employment) fraud & scams
    • Suspicious Offer
    • Second Offer
    • Certification Scams
    • Fraud with courses
  • Analyzing a job ad
    • The Header
    • Building a Bridge
    • The Responsibilities
    • Desired Skills
    • Preferred Qualification
    • Benefits
    • Own skills vs job ad
    • Dealing with poorly written job ads
  • Resume writing
    • Templates
    • Building a draft
    • Resume in Detail
    • Understand the company
    • ATS and tailoring
    • Last Step
  • Cover letter
    • Writing a cover letter
  • Preparation & Interview
    • Organize your job hunt
    • SWOT Again (interview)
    • Twitter
    • The interview
    • Interview Questions Designed To Trick You
    • Post interview tasks
  • I did it all, but...
    • You are not alone
    • Try Something New
    • Why You'll Fail in Cyber Security
  • Yes, I got a job!
    • Two, or more offers?
    • Continued learning
    • Moving up
    • Lessons learned
  • Conclusion
  • Additional things
    • Reviews (labs, courses, certs) >
      • CompTIA A+
      • CompTIA Network+
      • CompTIA Security+
      • CompTIA Server+
      • CompTIA PenTest+
      • DroneSec DSOC
      • Defensive-Security Purple Labs
      • FAA Part 107
      • INE eCPPT & PTP
      • Letsdefend review
      • Microsoft AZ-500
      • RangeForce SOC 1
      • RangeForce SOC 2
    • Work In A Different Country >
      • The Work Permit
      • Working in the US
      • Studying in the US
      • Studying in Germany
      • Work in a different country
    • Other Resources >
      • Useful Links >
        • All about careers
        • Red resources
        • Blue resources
      • YouTube
      • Twitch
      • Podcasts
      • Books
      • Udemy
      • Thanks
    • Contributors
  • Stefan Waldvogel, where can I help?
  CYBERSECURITY JOB HUNTING GUIDE

The interview

Author: Stefan Waldvogel
​If you get an interview, outstanding job! One thing to remember, if you apply for an entry-level position and you get an interview, you did a lot of things right. Out of 50 or 100 applicants, you and 3 to 10 got an invitation for an interview. 
​
In America, interviews are very different, but at least at the moment, you will use Zoom, Skype, Teams, or a different online tool. The next aspect is, some companies are insane and send you through 5 or more steps. You have an HR screening interview, a technical interview, a different screening interview, again a technical interview... 

What should you prepare?
Before you go into an interview, research the company and prepare smart questions. Do not ask “google” questions, you want to know more about the work culture. An interview is a 2-way path, you are interviewing a company, too.

Some ideas for questions:
  • ​What is your retention after one year?
  • What is your progression plan?
  • What do you expect from me after 90 days?
  • How much time do I have for self-study?
  • Why do you hire people for this position right now?
Most likely you have 10 to 20 minutes and some questions are hard for an employer, especially if they want you. Most likely you get a feeling about the people in this company and the work culture. Toxic work environment? Unfriendly people? What happens if you ask inconvenient questions? You want to know the red flags before you accept a position.
​

You can ask technical questions:
  • What do I do every day?
  • How is your SOC structured?
  • Do you have tiers?
Prepare these questions in advance! Gerald Auger has more matching videos and questions about this topic in his YouTube channel.

An employer will ask you questions, too. Use google to get the matching answers.

The next step is preparing for the interview. You need a professional and clean environment. You can prepare a great background with technical things or pictures. You want that job and your place at home is a deep insight into your personality.

Dress up correctly and sit in a chair. This is an interview and a T-shirt with a Mickey Mouse does not look professional. 
Next: Security Interview Questions Designed To Trick You
© 2021. This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license​