International news constantly covers stories of migration – from the migration across the US–Mexico border, to the refugee crisis sparked by the conflict in Ukraine, Syria, and Palestine, and many other stories of migration. People leave their native countries for various reasons. A major factor is a war, conflict, or government persecution, or there is a significant risk of them. The environment is also a driver of migration, as people flee natural disasters, such as floods. Another factor of migration is employment and higher education.
According to a report by the UN International Labour Organisation, migrant workers stood at roughly 164 million worldwide in 2017 with 70% being in high-income countries. There are an estimated 272 million international migrants around the world, which is about 3.5% of the world’s population, already surpassing some projections for 2050. Since 1970, the number of people living in a country other than where they were born has tripled. Among the 272 million immigrants, half of them reside in only 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Canada, and the United States of America.
Of course, to migrate to another country, one would have to be eligible for it – be it in terms of age, skill level, language competency, and prior qualifications, to name a few. However, specific fields of study may have an added advantage when migrating. While fields like medicine, nursing, and early childhood have always been in high demand, there has been one particular field that has recently spiked in immigration demand – Cyber Security.
Within the last two years, the role of cyber security has become undeniably essential. While the Covid-19 pandemic brought out the best in the world of online operations, cyber criminals also had much more opportunities to steal from organisations.
Canadian employers are on the lookout for migrant workers specialising in cyber security – including experienced professionals, recent graduates, or even prospective students – provided that they meet the criteria of the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The top 5 cities in Canada that have a high demand for cyber security experts are Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal, with the average salary ranging from $60,000 to $70,000 a year.
Australia is another country with high demand for cyber security experts. Recent research conducted showed that Australia has a shortage of cyber security professionals and has resorted to recruiting talent from other countries. The research stated that fewer than 25% of Australian cyber security applicants are qualified to perform the skills necessary for the job; meaning that 75% of staff in cyber security are effectively learning on the job.
The fast-paced field of cyber security is estimated to be about 31% in the next ten years. Due to the lack of trained professionals, those who pursue a career in cyber security can expect plenty of opportunities, high-paying salaries, and great benefits. The cyber security field includes a wide range of different jobs from entry-level up to executive management and everything in between. Below are a few types of jobs in the cyber security field:
- Security Specialist – protect the organisation’s software and network systems, conduct internal and external security audits, as well as vulnerability tests, risk analysis, and security assessments.
- Incident Responder – identify and quickly resolve threat issues and take the necessary steps to avoid any cybercrime against the organisation.
- Security Analysts – find out the weaknesses within the organisation’s infrastructure and provide new methods to protect it from cyber criminals, as well as plan, implement and upgrade security measures and controls.
- Security Auditor – audit or examine the security systems of the organisation and protect it from cybercriminals.
- Forensic Expert – analyse the threats or breaches caused and find out who perpetrated the cybercrime.
- Security Architecture and Engineer – defines and attests security architecture and standards for all technology solutions, infrastructure, and applications, also engineers security solutions and services to reduce the attack surface in infrastructure.
- Ethical Hacker – hack the organisation’s cyber security systems to assess the strength of the system.
- Cyber Engineer – enables cyber innovation by the rapid design, creation, and deployment of technologies and processes that will provide a level of confidence and protection to the organisation.
Cyber security could easily be labelled as one of the best jobs in the world. With the increased demand for cyber security experts, migration opportunities have also spiked in high-income countries. Salaries are well above average and experienced technicians can easily make around $100,000 a year. By some estimates there could be as many as 3.5 million unfilled cyber security positions in 2022 – now’s your chance!!
