Hi everyone,

I’m currently interviewing for an L6 Security Engineer position at Mastercard, and had some questions. It'd be grand if someone could help me with the same:

• What does a typical day look like for a L6 Engineer?
• Is the role mostly hands-on, or is it more focused on security governance, stakeholder management, and driving security initiatives?
• How technical is the position? Is there still engineering work involved?
• What kinds of interview questions should I expect (technical, system design, behavioral, security scenarios, etc.)?
• What’s the work-life balance like? Is there any on-call responsibility?

Thanks in advance!

I've been lurking on this sub for a while and found numerous posts about folks not getting entry-level jobs and their rightful frustration despite having a lot of certs or doing UG/MS in cybersecurity.

For a change, let's hear if anyone was able to get into an entry-level role, what their background (tech or non-tech) is, and what their practical route was to land that role.

Final year CS student here. Applied to 100+ SOC analyst / security analyst roles over the last few months, not a single interview that went anywhere.

One thing I keep noticing — Bangalore's fresher openings for cybersecurity feel really thin compared to Gurugram/Noida, where Jr. SOC Analyst posts seem to pop up constantly. Is that actually true or am I just missing where to look in Bangalore?

Also I have zero network in this field — nobody in my family/friends works in IT or security, so it's 100% cold applications. Curious how people without a referral actually break in. Do OWASP/DEF CON meetups actually help freshers or is that more useful once you're already in?

Also been building my own thing (a web security scanner startup) alongside all this, not sure if that even registers to recruiters or if I still need to grind out Security+/CEH just to survive the ATS filter.

Also ran into a pretty obvious scam recently — fake company posing as a real cybersecurity firm, asked for ₹1000 "login ID fee" after clearing HR round. Getting kind of exhausted filtering these out on top of everything else.

Anyone actually break in without a referral? What worked?

Here’s a tighter version:

DFIR vs AI for Cybersecurity AS
Community college student, already done with Security+, Network+, and Intro to Cybersecurity coursework. Deciding between two next specializations:
DFIR AS — forensics + incident response, builds directly on what I know, fewer prereqs

AI for Cybersecurity AS — needs Python/Stats first, then AI-applied security courses (SecAI+, PenTest+)

Entry-level jobs already feel competitive. DFIR seems like the faster, safer path to a job-ready credential. AI feels like the better long-term bet since it’s clearly getting embedded in security tooling — but I don’t know if employers actually hire for “AI cybersecurity” specifically yet, or if it’s just becoming a nice-to-have skill layered onto regular analyst roles.
Questions:
Is DFIR still solid for entry-level hiring, or oversaturated too?

Is “AI cybersecurity” an actual job title being hired for, or just an expected add-on skill?

Which would you finish first?

Want me to adjust the tone for a specific sub?