Graduates with a master’s diploma in cybersecurity are reporting regular salaries of $214,000

When it comes to work demand, it’s really hard to beat the industry of cybersecurity. By 2025 there will be an approximated 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity work opportunities across the globe, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, a researcher and publisher that addresses the global cyber economy. And that follows a 350% advancement in the variety of open cybersecurity employment in between 2013 and 2021.

As nearly all things of function, daily life and almost everything in among now have a digital component, the have to have to safe our data from cybersecurity threats has only grown. With that development, master’s degree programs in cybersecurity have also flourished.

“The occupation market’s crazy for cybersecurity,” suggests Mary McHale, a profession advisor for the master’s of information and facts and cybersecurity software (MICS) at the College of California—Berkeley. The college landed the No. 1 spot on Fortune’s to start with-ever position of the finest on the net master’s diploma courses in cybersecurity. “When you seem at the prospect and need, it is large.”

Regardless of whether contending with cyber criminals who want to switch a gain from thieving information and facts or demanding nation-states that wish to do us harm, cybersecurity pros are in an appealing and at any time-evolving field. And UC Berkeley grads are landing positions with salaries of additional than $200,000. Here’s what you need to know

In June, Lakshmi Hanspal, the world-wide chief stability officer for Amazon gadgets and providers, was the keynote speaker for Berkeley’s MICS immersion plan. In her tackle, Hanspal reported that Amazon had far more than 600 unfilled cybersecurity employment.

Which is a superior number, specifically provided Amazon’s deep pockets. “They’re expressing the demand is just likely ever more higher,” states McHale of UC Berkeley. “Once we help [students] get visibility in the occupation industry, the amount of money of awareness they are obtaining is great.”

Numerous master’s degree candidates in cybersecurity courses take section in summer time internships with companies ahead of graduating.

“Most occur back again with an offer you of complete-time work when they finish,” suggests Mustaque Ahamad, a professor in the College of Cybersecurity and Privateness at Georgia Tech. “You have a work lined up, totally.”

When a master’s degree in cybersecurity or a similar subject like personal computer science is not required to do the job in cybersecurity, it goes a extensive way to advise graduates on the newest trends and happenings in the area.

“A master’s diploma is going to prepare you for the greatest ability, major-degree occupations,” Ahamad claims. “A master’s degree is in essence likely to make a specialist in cybersecurity.”

If you have a master’s in cybersecurity, it is rather frequent to generate a six-figure salary right away after graduation. “It’s a occupation that will pay you perfectly,” states Ahamad. “The wide bulk of [graduates] head out to the Microsofts and the Googles and the Ciscos and the Intels.”

According to a UC Berkeley income study of alumni, graduates with a master’s diploma in cybersecurity make an ordinary income of $214,000, not together with bonuses the median wage is $200,000. Some graduates who are now executives, this kind of as chief information stability officers (CISOs), chief information and facts officers (CIOs), and chief engineering officers (CTOs) make much more than $300,000.

“The CISO roles are likely to be a lot more over the $250,000, $300,000 [salary mark], nearer to $400,000, based on the organization and the dimensions of the corporation,” McHale claims.

The median pay back for computer system programmers, who publish, take a look at and modify code and scripts so that applications and computers can do the job thoroughly, was $93,000 in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information protection analysts, who approach and carry out safety actions to protect the pc networks and techniques of an business, experienced a median fork out of $102,600. Computer community architects, who layout and develop knowledge interaction networks, such as Intranets, large place networks (WANs), and neighborhood area networks (LANs), had a median cash flow of $120,520 in 2021.

Even though graduates who go to function for the federal government usually make much less dollars, the expertise gained from turning into familiar with federal government devices that will need to be secured can spend off if they sooner or later work for a main defense contractor.

“The practical experience is golden,” Ahamad claims. “They’re working with subtle country-condition threats, so [with] the systems and the apps and the higher degree of security which is required, the moment they have that expertise, that truly helps make them initial-course at cybersecurity.”

McHale states that though some cybersecurity master’s graduates from Berkeley head to the public sector, most take new work in the non-public sector.

“People with this experienced master’s diploma are now open up to a path of remarkable job prospects,” McHale states. “There is an potential to apply those people abilities in any industry, or all around the globe, simply because they can take that core talent and implement it to a thing they are quite passionate about.”