Fact: if you want to get into cybersecurity, you don’t need a bachelor’s degree. In fact, many cybersecurity professionals start in cybersecurity through help desk or IT roles, then build their skills with a CompTIA certification and home lab projects.
However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics still lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education for information security analysts, a role with a median annual salary of $129,180 as of May 2025, and is expected to grow 21% by 2035.
Getting into the field is a challenge, and moving up the ladder is a different story. Because the fact is, getting started in cybersecurity can take significant time. And growing your career can take years of dedicated study.
This guide is for people already working in cyber or IT with an associate degree, a few certifications, or no formal credentials at all.
We’ll look at tips to grow your security career without a bachelor’s degree, when not having one can hold you back, and when an online degree can be worth it.
5 ways to grow your cyber career without a four year degree
Most hiring managers place significant value on proof of skill. In ISC2’s 2025 survey of 929 hiring managers, 47% called certifications critical for junior hires, versus 44% for IT experience and 43% for relevant education. In the same survey, 90% said they would consider a candidate whose only background is IT work experience. And 89% would consider someone with nothing more than an entry-level certification.
1. Stack certifications with a plan
Don’t collect certificates randomly. Pick a career path and build your certifications around it. For example: Security+ as your baseline, then CySA+ for SOC work, PenTest+ for offensive roles, or an AWS or Azure security certificate if your employer runs in the cloud.
Your next certificate should match the next role you’re seeking, rather than a position that’s several steps away.
A CISSP study guide on your desk won’t help if you’re two years away from qualifying for your desired position. ISC2 requires five years of work experience in the field before it awards the full certification.
2. Move sideways inside your company
Moving internally can make the transition easier. If you’re on the help desk or doing sysadmin work, volunteer for security tickets: phishing triage, vulnerability scans, access reviews, and patch reporting.
Then tell your manager you want a SOC or security role, and clearly ask what it would take. A documented track record within the company can often be more valuable than a degree from an outside candidate.
3. Build proof people can see
Your home lab can be a strong asset when you are trying to break into cybersecurity. Document your projects, write up CTF challenges you’ve completed on platforms such as TryHackMe or Hack The Box, and share useful detection rules or scripts on GitHub.
These give interviewers something concrete to discuss. They also get you ready for the hiring process itself. In the ISC2 survey, 84% of hiring managers said they use skills-based assessments or tests for entry- and junior-level applicants.
They also answer an important question recruiters may have about a non-degree candidate: can they actually learn on their own?
4. Specialize
Don’t aim for generality; you will have to compete with everyone. Specialize in a subfield that interests you, such as cloud security, identity and access management, OT/ICS security, and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). These areas can offer more opportunities to develop and grow.
GRC is especially accessible from IT audit or compliance work, and it rewards people who know frameworks like NIST CSF, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.
5. Get known in the community
A referral can make it much easier to get your résumé noticed. Local BSides conferences, ISSA and OWASP chapters, and Discord groups tied to training platforms are where many security hires actually start.
Go to local events, give a short talk on something you built in your lab, or share a useful detection technique. These activities can help your reputation more than a dozen LinkedIn posts.
Where the missing degree starts to cost you
A 2024 study by the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School found that fewer than 1 in 700 hires in 2023 benefited from employers dropping degree requirements. And nearly half of the companies that announced they were dropping degree requirements did not ultimately hire more candidates without degrees.
Only 37% of the firms in the study made a real change to who they hired. The upside? Workers without a bachelor’s who did land a role that used to require one saw their pay go up by about 25% on average. They also stayed longer: 58% were still at the company two years later, compared to 48% of their coworkers with degrees.
So while skills-based hiring happens often, it is still more limited than cybersecurity subreddits may make it seem sometimes.
Why an online bachelor’s makes sense if you’re already working
For someone already in the field, the degree isn’t about learning cyber from scratch (after all, you already know your stuff). It’s about removing the ceiling while keeping the paychecks coming in.
First of all, you keep your job. Most online programs are asynchronous, so coursework fits around shifts, including on-call SOC schedules.
Second, your credits and certs can count. An associate degree often transfers in as your first two years. Some schools also grant credit for certs you already hold, and WGU’s cybersecurity bachelor’s builds exam vouchers for Security+, CySA+, and others into tuition.
Finally, tuition varies more than you’d think. Which means affordable degrees are out there. Programs.com’s ranking of the best online cybersecurity bachelor’s degrees looked at 134 programs with an online option. According to their data, average total tuition was $58,247, with a range from $18,960 to $79,380.
The bottom line
Yes, you can certainly start (and grow) a cyber career without a bachelor’s degree. Certs and individual projects can get you in the door with HR departments (assuming they don’t list a BS degree as a requirement).
