I worked in many roles within the IT field and security is by far the most interesting. I was an enterprise architect who worked on security, not a security person who expanded to architecture.

I work for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The first thing I do on a typical day is check for any security incidents that may have occurred overnight and then check my email. Being a cybersecurity architect is not only a technical job, you must also be able to communicate to a broad range of stakeholders such as business, legal, software developers and technical.

I usually mentor a person earlier in their career at my jobs. I am happy to mentor individuals starting out in the cybersecurity field.

You must be a “big thinker” to excel in this field and you must be able and interested in communicating with non-technical people.

Do not be discouraged if you are not the best developer. This is a different skill set. It is probably akin to the old adage that the best football coaches were not the most gifted players. Take a look at any of the standard security frameworks out there, for example the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). If that interests you more than writing code or configuring firewalls, architecture may be your position. Security Architecture is a polymath field, any related training, certification and knowledge would be helpful. Take advantage of seminars offered by vendors and organizations such as MITRE, the Software Engineering Institute Computer Emergency Response Team (SEI CERT) and government organizations such as NIST and the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (DHS CISA). Build up your network to include individuals already practicing in the field.