Which cybersecurity roles does the skills assessment cover?

Seven: SOC Analyst, DFIR Analyst, Penetration Tester, Cloud Security Engineer, IAM Security Analyst, GRC Analyst and DevSecOps Engineer. Between 14 and 32 skills are assessed per role, 167 in total.

How much does it cost to get into cybersecurity?

For most roads the only unavoidable cost is CompTIA Security+ at around £350. SOC Analyst comes in near £400 to £450 all in, GRC from £365, Cloud Security around £715, and Penetration Tester is the expensive one at £1,870 to £2,270 because of OSCP. Home labs, SIEM platforms and forensic tooling are free.

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What Cybersecurity Skills Am I Still Missing?

Pick your target role, rate yourself against the skills it actually demands, and get a readiness score plus a prioritised map of your gaps — the exact skills you are missing, in the order to tackle them, with how to close each one. Seven roles, 167 skills, built from the same roadmaps a working CISO uses to mentor career changers. Free, no signup, about five minutes.

The seven roles, with their real timelines and costs

SOC Analyst — 22 skills · 6–9 months · ~£400–£450. Security+ plus practice exams and TryHackMe. Home lab, SIEM and tools are all free.
GRC Analyst — 14 skills · 6–9 months · £365–£1,200. Security+ and practice exams, with ISO 27001 lead implementer optional.
Cloud Security Engineer — 17 skills · 10 months · ~£715. Security+ and CCSK. Everything else is free.
IAM Security Analyst — 27 skills · 10–12 months · £480–£545. Security+ and SC-300. Entra ID and the other platforms are free to learn on.
DFIR Analyst — 32 skills · 12–14 months · £350–£850. Security+ with CCD optional. Every forensic tool is free.
DevSecOps Engineer — 27 skills · 12–14 months · £350–£1,000. Security+ with CDP optional. Every tool is free and open source.
Penetration Tester — 28 skills · 12–18 months · £1,870–£2,270. The expensive road, because of OSCP.

How the assessment works

Each role's roadmap is broken into five or six phases, from foundations through to job-ready. You rate your current level against every skill, tool, platform, framework, lab and project in it. The result is a readiness band rather than a vanity score, and a gap list ordered by what unblocks the most: the foundational gaps first, because a missing fundamental makes every later skill harder.

What you get at the end

A readiness score and band for your target role
Every gap, ranked by the order to close it in
What each gap takes — the time, the cost, and the free resource to use
The phase of the roadmap you are actually at, rather than where you think you are
A downloadable copy of the whole gap plan

Frequently asked

How long does it take to become job ready in cybersecurity?

It depends on the role. SOC Analyst and GRC Analyst run 6 to 9 months, Cloud Security around 10 months, IAM 10 to 12, DFIR and DevSecOps 12 to 14, and Penetration Tester 12 to 18.

How much does it cost?

For most paths the only unavoidable cost is CompTIA Security+ at around £350. Home labs, SIEM platforms, forensic tooling and DevSecOps tooling are free. Penetration testing is the outlier because of OSCP.

Do I need to have picked a role first?

Yes, this one assumes you know your target. If you do not, take the career path assessment first.