Many people asked me if the freelancing marketplace right place to start the cybersecurity career. As we know, Day by day businesses are relying on digital platforms, causing the need for strong cybersecurity became mandatory. In this growing demand, many professionals now work as freelancers on various online platforms.
Is it right platform everyone to hire cybersecurity professional or to search for right jobs? Let’s see.
Understanding the Cybersecurity Expertise
Before discussing the freelance cybersecurity expert, let’s quickly understand their cybersecurity expertise.
Cybersecurity experts are specialized professionals who work to protect digital assets, systems, networks, or infrastructure from unauthorized access. Cybersecurity experts utilize a wide range of skills in cybersecurity, such as vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, application testing, threat analysis, and incident response.
Concept of Freelancers and Freelancing
Before diving further, it is also essential to understand what freelancing is or who freelancers are. We need to understand these two terms.
Freelancing is the practice of independently that offer specialized skills and services to clients. The services can be project-by-project, long-term services, or short-term contract basis.
Organizations or individuals often hire freelancers for various tasks such as web development, graphic design, or writing. But when someone needs to hire a freelancer for their cybersecurity-related tasks, they must consider understanding some key points.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Freelancer Cybersecurity Expert
It is imperative to assess the advantages and disadvantages before procuring the services of a freelance cybersecurity specialist. Below is a summary of both.
Advantage
Cost Effectiveness
It is possible to reduce the cost by hiring a freelance cybersecurity expert based on your requirement instead of a full-time cybersecurity expert. For example, if you need a quick pentest of your web application two times every year, a freelancer could be a choice too.
Access to Diverse Expertise
Cybersecurity consultants that operate on a freelance basis typically have dealt with a wide range of businesses and organizations. Including people from various backgrounds and experiences in your company might be beneficial. Those familiar with the area know there are always new hazards and technology to be aware of.
Flexibility:
Freelance cybersecurity experts are not bound to a single organization. It makes them possible to adapt to your needs, allowing you to access expertise and ensuring you have the proper support whenever needed.
Disadvantages
Even though there are some pros, business owners shouldn’t forget its cons.
Difficulty in Finding the Right Expert
Talented professionals usually prefer to offer services through their platforms. Even if they choose to try freelancing marketplaces, they often find it challenging to distinguish themselves in a crowded market, where many may offer lower rates but lack the same level of expertise.
Clients might struggle to find the ideal freelancer for their requirements, risking hiring someone who fails to meet their expected standards. Unfortunately, we haven’t found that many freelancers are OSCE3, OSCP, or even CISSP certified.
Limited Freedom
Many marketplaces can impose various restrictions, such as communication rules or dispute resolution processes, that prevent freelancers and buyers from building long-term relationships. Being heavily platform-dependent, there are risks of account suspension and policy change.
High Fees and Commissions
Many freelancing platforms deduct as much as 20% from their earnings, which leads clients to face additional fees.
Choosing the Right Cybersecurity Expert
Finding the right cybersecurity expert might be challenging. Some freelancers have recently entered this field without enough skills, and some are well-established. This makes it harder to search the right one.
Some companies accept the newbie who quickly responds to the message and offer very low prices. Newbies are OK as long as they have the proper knowledge and credentials. Let’s see some critical points to selecting the right cybersecurity experts:
- Define your requirements: Before you search for an expert, you should outline the specific skills, experience, and certifications. Outlining your needs will help you to search for a suitable cybersecurity expert.
- Verify Credentials: If you have found a cybersecurity expert, you should ask for the certifications, skills, and experience and try to verify them. For example, If you are eagerly searching for someone to test security flaws, you need to look for someone who is OSCP or OSCE3 certified.
- Review Portfolios: While evaluating potential candidates, you can review their portfolios. You can search for him on search engines and check previous work.
- Conduct Interview: Interviewing the candidate will help to determine his skills.
Conclusion
The freelancing marketplace has both opportunities and challenges. To help both parties, I wanted to highlight the most important pros and Cons of the cybersecurity freelancing marketplace.
If you want guaranteed quality work, I would recommend you to work with alternative and dedicated team like Bytium®. Bytium® is a dedicated IT Consultancy Firm with certified experts providing cybersecurity services worldwide and making everything easier for Small and Medium size business.