A Pentester or a “Penetration Tester” CV is arguably one of the hardest CVs to create.

Why?

It requires sound knowledge of the working experiences, technical requirements and skillsets needed by the Pentester role.

But do not worry.

In this guide, we will go through 7 “Hacks” to create one of the best Pentester CVs and Resumes you will ever have.

By preparing your Pentester CV and Resume well, it shows recruiters and hiring managers you understand the duties of the Pentester position well.

Hence, increasing the likelihood of being invited to an interview and thereafter to be hired.

Before we dive into the nooks and crannies of a top Penetration Tester CV, what or who is a “Pentester”?

What or who is a Pentester?

According to Coursera, a “Pentester” performs simulated cyberattacks to test how well a system defend itself against malwares or outside intruders.

In short, the profession is a bit similar to the military unit of the IT industry.

Typically, the Pentester’s duties are to attack the client’s systems, to analyze and provide feedback to their weaknesses.

A Pentester role mainly belongs to the “Red Team” in the Red Team/Blue Team dichotomy.

In a Red Team, the cybersecurity professional will focus more on offensive operations to “attack” a system whereas in a Blue Team, the focus is more on defensive operations to “defend” a system.       

Since the Pentester performs simulated attacks on the system, his/her role is more closely aligned to the “Red Team”.

Before we dive into the steps of building your Pentester CV, let us first understand the importance and relevance of the Pentester role in today’s digital economy.

How important is the Pentester in today’s digital economy?

According to Vaadata, after conducting 200 penetration tests on digital systems, they noted that

• 29% of targets had at least one critical vulnerability,
• 44% had one or more important vulnerabilities,
• 47% had one or more medium vulnerabilities,
• 62% had medium, important or critical vulnerabilities.

These show that organisations today require Pentesters more than ever to help detect and evaluate the security of the systems.

Further, LinkedIn also observed a pattern of impressive cybersecurity job growth, 94% increase of job openings in the last 6 years.

Meaning your potential job as a Pentester is highly secure (no pun intended) and crucially needed.

Knowing the high demand from companies helps to generate clear motivation to build the best Pentester CV to get hired.

For more information related to other IT professions and career suggestions, check out UrbanCV Blog here.

Without further ado, these are 7 steps to create the best Pentester CV to be hired:

1. Plan the CV Structure and Choose a Format
   • Structure
   • Font
2. Profile
   • About Me
3. Skills
4. Education and Learning
5. Certifications and Credentials
6. Working Experiences and Achievements
7. How to quickly create the best Pentester CV and Resume?

1. Plan the CV Structure and Choose a Format

Before creating the best Pentester CV, you will need to plan and organise the structure of your Pentester CV.

Showing recruiters and hiring managers your ability to organise information will earn you some bonus cookie points.

Trying to read a difficult Pentester CV is similar to the experience of reading a badly-written novel.

(You can relate with this moment of getting into complicated but promising climax and disappointing ending of the novel)

That’s why you will not want your recruiters to lose interest in all stages of reading your Pentester CV.

Moving your prominent backgrounds of education, past employments and accomplishments to the top will attract the eye of recruiters quicker before their attention span ends.

Currently, recruiters spend the average duration of only 7 seconds to skim through your resume.

No recruiters will want to spend too much time looking at just one CV with other piles of documents to process at hand.

Writing a brief but clear Pentester CV will ease the burden of recruiters into looking at irrelevant information.

A concise and coherently structured CV with achievements and backgrounds listed near the top is the ideal CV format.

Formatting and design plays a significant role too in the recruiters’ Applicant Tracking System (“ATS”) scanning.

Structure

For the Pentester CV, we highly recommend using the “Reverse-Chronological” format.

For the uninitiated, the “Reverse-Chronological” format lists your work experience and educational achievements in reverse-chronological with the latest experience at the top.

Why?

The Pentester role is heavily dependent on technical skills.

The Pentester job’s requirements are ever-changing.

Thus, relevance of your latest work experiences or educational achievements is of utmost importance.

Font

Selecting the right font type for your Pentester CV will result in better reading and for a more pleasant evaluation experience for the recruiters and hiring managers.

Sticking into minimalist, eye-friendly fonts with proper spacings and headings will be the priority of your current CV composition.

Top fonts to choose for your Penetration Tester CV

• Arial
• Georgia
• Helvetica
• Cambria

Note: On UrbanCV, you can select many different font styles easily to customise your CV (see below image)

On UrbanCV, we have generated and imposed a consistent font style to show consistency in your CV to the hiring managers.

Once you choose a particular font style, the entire text, wording and alphabetical structure of your CV will change to be that particular font style.

For the font size, we recommend somewhere between 12 to 16.

2. Profile

Filling in your personal profile completely and providing all necessary information for your profile will increase the attractiveness of your CV.

Typically, your personal profile component on your Pentester CV will have these fields to be filled in:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Address
• Nationality
• Country
• City
• Contact Number, Email and Skype to allow the Recruiters to get in touch easily
• About Me

About Me

In this digital era, getting to know the applicant and vice versa no longer requires an actual face-to-face meeting.

The introduction of an ATS has re-modelled the hiring process.

Capterra in 2015 revealed a not-so-secretive fact – 75% CVs and resumes are now going into automatic scanning and 94% employers were satisfied with the candidates.

Hence, creating a strong Pentester CV require the right keywords to prevent you from getting rejected early (before even going for an interview).

Harvard Business School research result in 2021 mentioned 88% potential candidates did not get shortlisted due to missing or non-specific keywords and job description in their CV.

This goes the same for your Pentester CV.

In your CV, under the “About Me” or “Summary” part, you should have these keywords:

• Cybersecurity
• Helped numerous organisations
• Across multiple/diverse domains/industries such as (Telecommunication, Pharma, Banking and Finance)
• Pentester
• Penetration Testing Experience
• Diverse areas/industries/domain
• Keen interest in…

Recommendations for keywords relating to your About Me section

Examples:

“I have 6+ years of Penetration Testing experience across diverse areas such as Telecommunication, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Financial Services, and Government in securing their system and network infrastructure.”

“I am a Pentester with a keen interest in making the world digitally secured by hacking.”

Important things to take note about filling in your profile on your CV

• Always check for typos and spelling errors in your personal contact details. After all, how would the recruiters contact you if you have mis-spelled your email or inputted the wrong number for your contact number?
• Always make sure your email and contact number is current. Some applicants use their old mobile number and forgotten to replace it with their current mobile number
• Always make sure those contact details on your CV are available so that the recruiters can reach out to you easily and quickly. Some applicants might have several mobile numbers and they forgotten to input the most available one.

2. Put All Your Skills into Order Within The Pentester CV

Skills are the top priority when recruiters assess on potential Pentester candidates.

As most companies do not require degrees, they view technical skills as a key requirement for a Pentester.

Acquiring relevant technical skills will be useful before composing your CV.

After all, the cyber-defence responsibility is a dead-serious position.

Who will dare hiring a Pentester with zero or little relevant technical skills at hand?

Obtaining and writing all your related skills will boost your CV and Resume.

CyberDegrees in a 2021 article mentioned desirable skills in the pentesting industry are mostly tech-centered.

Key Technical Skills of a Pentester

There are several areas of expert knowledge for a Penetration Tester according to Spiceworks:

• Appropriate Knowledge of Computer Network and Protocols

A Pentester should demonstrate his ability in performing simulated attacks to the company’s network.

This activity will never succeed without sufficient knowledge and background education related to computer network.

Some network skills are Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) models and network architecture.

Besides, adequate understanding of protocol types and specifications will help specify your Pentester CV.

Knowledge and experience in link-layer, network-layer, transport layer and application layer protocols are the required skills you need to write in your CV.

• Knowledge and Experience of Working with Network Components

This key skill include several different aspects you can put into attention in your Pentester CV.

Network components itself consist of hardware and software that altogether brings about the wholeness of computer system.

Knowing how network switches and routers/gateways operates will serve the needs for attack simulations.

Otherwise, hands-on experiences working with cybersecurity components of a network, such as firewall, is essential.

In the end, understanding prominent cybersecurity companies’ products regarding network solutions can give you more idea of how best to assess the simulated attacks.

• Having More Knowledge in Security Vulnerability is More than Okay

“Thinking out of the box” might not just apply in difficult situations.

On the contrary, you need to use that during your Pentester role.

Stating skills that out of the ordinary software developer ones will exceed the expectations of recruiters.

Besides mentioning your computer and network knowledges, you can show your knowledge of security vulnerability.

Writing that you have the experiences of solving problems by knowing the exploited code will deliver you quick notices from recruiters.

Exploited code is the basic factor of combining assessment of new attacks into the operating system of a company.

Hence, your knowledge about this factor will be the decisive factor in your acceptance into the position.

• Significant Understanding of Web Communications and Coding

This key skill is the heart of all the other key skills mentioned above.

As a Pentester, coding knowledge and practices are the foundation of all Pentester skills.

Mentioning your expertise and job experiences related to specific programming languages will help recruiters understand your skills in coding.

Besides, web communication comprehension is also a necessary factor to work as a Pentester.

Understanding the design and security details of applications now becomes the most important skills to have in terms of network security.

Some specific coding skills to add are backend development skills, i.e., Python, Golang, C++, etc.

Top cybersecurity skills to put in your Penetration Tester CV

• Application Security
• Application Security Assessment: Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10
• Acunetix: End-to-end web security scanner that offers a 360 view of an organization’s security. 
• Burp Suite: To automate repetitive testing tasks
• Cloud Security Architecture Review and Assessment
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
• Incident Management
• Invicti: Invicti is a web application security platform that brings DAST, IAST and SCA together.
• IT Compliance
• Mobile Security Assessment (iOS and Android)
• Network architecture
• Network Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VA/PT)
• Nmap: A open-source and free tool network mapper for scanning vulnerabilities and network discovery.
• OWASP ZAP: An open-source web application security scanner.
• Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) models
• Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
• System Security (Offensive and Defensive)
• WebInspect: An automated dynamic testing solution that provides comprehensive vulnerability detection.

Top coding skills to put in your Penetration Tester CV

• C++
• C#
• Linux
• Bash Scripting
• Python
• PHP
• Javascript
• PHP

Most bachelor graduates can easily apply into the Pentester positions after obtaining the proper certifications, irregardless of skills obtained.

But, skills definitely still play an important part and will play an even more important part going forward.

3. Education and Learning

Having related degrees in computer science and cybersecurity is much recommended. 

Based on our analysis on CVs here at UrbanCV, most penetration testers have taken a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in these area:

• Computing
• Computer engineering
• Computer science
• Network engineering

Depending on your country and location, obtaining degree in these majors will prove helpful in proving you have the technical background and foundation for the Penetration Tester role.

That said.

Obtaining some cybersecurity certifications might further strengthen the value of your CV. 

3. Certifications and Credentials

Without proof of mastery of Penetration Testing skills, your application to the Pentester position won’t be successful.

Such proofs can come in the form of a certificate (see below).

Earning and writing some educational certifications will help your Pentester CV to attract more interest from recruiters.

As compared to a degree, these certifications are often not obtained from traditional universities or educational institutions.

Nonetheless, some employers value penetration testers who have obtained such certifications.

Top certifications to put in your Penetration Tester CV

• Certified Ethical Hackers (CEH)
• Certified Network Defender (CND)
• Certified Secure Computer User (C/SCU)
• CompTIA PenTest+
• EC-Council Certified Security Analyst Certification (ECSA)
• Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) Penetration Tester
• Information Assurance Certification Review Board (IACRB) Certified Penetration Tester (CPT)
• Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)
• Training Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

Credentials

There are also other platforms that you can build your penetration testing credentials, increase your skills and boost your CV’s attractiveness:

• Apple Web Server Security Hall of Fame: Apple publishes this quarterly to thank those who reported potential security issues in their web servers.
• Bugcrowd: A crowdsourced platform that connects security professionals with companies. Pentesters can take on tasks there and level up, earning achievements and rankings (see image below).
• Cyberarmy.id: A platform to connect security researchers (Bughunters) to companies/organizations. Also, they have an academy to train cybersecurity professionals.

4. Working Experiences and Achievements

Job title and description should be the most fitting describing who you are and what you are good at. 

There are several recommended keywords to have in this “Working Experience” section:

• Pentester
• Web/Mobile/IoT/Network Pentest
• Cybersecurity
• Security Audit
• Privacy Analysis
• Technical Audit
• Risk Management
• Security Policy
• Red/Blue Team
• Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT)

In writing your Pentester CV’s “Working Experience” section, (and similar to other professions’ CV), it is recommended to make it as quantitative as possible.

For example:

• Performed 30 Penetration tests over a 1 year period
• Supervised 20 junior Penetration Testers in my team

With quantitative numbers, the recruiter can make a more objective decision on the hiring decision and are usually more inclined to hire the Pentester applicant.

Rewording your CV from passive words into action ones will mirror the same impression to your potential managers.

Modifying the sentences inside your CV into dynamic ones will generate positive reactions from the recruiters.

Using action verbs and word cloud such as “tested”, “engineered”, “secured” will show the Penetration Testing knowledge a candidate needs to have during selection process.

Try to use strong verbs as much as possible and in past tense.

Top working experience sentences to put in your Penetration Tester CV

• Analysed system designs for newly created applications
• Analysed false positive for reported incidents
• Conducted Penetration Testing against the likelihood of exploitation
• Conducted vulnerability assessment and penetration testing for 100+ web, mobile applications and APIs.
• Created pentesting methodologies
• Created automation scripts using Python and Bash
• Discussed with system owners and vendors to identify vulnerabilities
• Found 3 security weakness points in assets
• Identified 5 vulnerabilities in the OWA of the firm
• Identified 20 security threats across the organisation
• Reported cyberattacks on one of the largest bank’s consumer portals
• Provided current process solutions and process improvement suggestions
• Provided recommendations for secured designs
• Performed internal and external penetration testing
• Performed incident handling between teams and departments
• Supported the team in any escalations in the issues faced
• Supervised 20 junior Penetration Testers
• Prepared detailed technical reports, management reports, and presentations
• Mentored and guided junior members on pentest executions
• Led and Defined the scope for threat model
• Reviewed Pentesting strategy to protect customer data on-premises and in a multi-cloud environment
• Automated secure SDLC process as part of DevOps, Agile Cloud CI/CD pipeline
• Provided technical guidance for juniors in the team
• Verified vulnerability by using manual assessment and automated testing tools
• Wrote security reports detailing the security vulnerabilities

Active voice inside your CV, specifically about penetration testing terms, means that a candidate is able to express their knowledge and mobile personality towards penetrating testing.

Describe your achievements by giving short descriptions of the activity (not forgetting action verbs, of course) is also highly-suggested to create a tough, pentesting-savvy CV.

Last but not the least, proofread and edit any typos and small mistakes.

How to quickly create the best Pentester CV and Resume?

If you do not have the necessary expertise or time to understand the above tips, the good news is we have created UrbanCV, the world’s most modern and fastest CV builder.

1. Register for an account at UrbanCV.
2. Create a CV

3. Type “Pentester” into the profession template.

UrbanCV contains many different templates that you can utilise for your Pentester CV and thankfully for you, we have the “Pentester” template ready.

4. Profile

In this section, write out your personal details carefully and ensure there are no errors and mis-spellings in your email and mobile number for contact purposes.

5. Working Experience

As per mentioned above, this part is one of, if not, the most important part in your Pentester CV.

Thankfully, UrbanCV makes it easy for you to input your working experience due to our easy-to-fill-in fields and templated working experiences from many top Pentester CVs.

In the “Function and Role”, you can input your formal working title with recommended titles such as:

• Pentester
• Web/Mobile/IoT/Network Pentester
• Cybersecurity Analyst
• Security Auditor
• Privacy and Security Analyst
• Technical Auditor
• Risk Management Analyst
• Security Policy Executive

After you click “Save & Next”, you can come to our template dictionary page for your “Working Experience”

6. Education

In this section, simply fill in your educational details such as

• School
• Degree
• Major
• Grade (This is optional)
• Start and End Date of your education
• Description. We recommend writing your co-curricular or school activities pertaining to cybersecurity or penetration testing.

7. Skills

As mentioned above, the “Skills” component is important for the Recruiters to have a quick snapshot on your capabilities.

UrbanCV contains a templated array of skillsets belonging to top Penetration Tester CVs.

Thus, you will find it easy to just select and choose those skills that are applicable to you easily.

That’s it for your basic Penetration Tester CV.

Bonus sections of UrbanCV (Premium CVs)

If you like to stand out from the sea of applicants, we highly recommend getting the premium CV templates on UrbanCV.

Each of these premium CVs is affordable and can boost your application success rate.

8. References

9. Languages

Most jobseekers mistook this part for coding language but a “Language” refers to a system of speaking and written modes of communication, i.e., English, Spanish, French, Chinese, etc.

Having these on your Pentester CV will allow the hiring managers to tailor the interview communicate language to one you are familiar with.

This is especially crucial if you are applying for an overseas Pentester role.

10. Interests

While this section arguably won’t be as crucial as the “Skills” or “Working Experience” section, it might be a small dealbreaker if all the other sections are on par with a fellow Pentester applicants.

11. Certifications

Certifications are an important component of the Pentester CV as it signals to recruiters that you have the mastery of the Pentester domain.

Using UrbanCV, you can easily add certifications to your Pentester CV.

12. Volunteer Experience

Volunteer Experience might be as crucial as the above components but it will give a nice warm feeling to the recruiter.

It might also be a tipping point to tilt the scale in your favour in relations to a fellow Pentester applicant if all the other components are more or less similar.

Conclusion

Creating the best CV for your Penetration Tester job application might seem daunting at the start but with the tips, tools and guidance shared in this article, it will end up being a breeze.

In summary

• Planning the structure of your Pentester CV is important at the start
• Then delve closely into the different components, such as Working Experiences, About Me, Skills, and Certifications
• Using UrbanCV will ease the process considerably

If you still have the time after drinking your coffee reading this article, then why don’t you hop over to our other curated and handmade articles at UrbanCV Blog

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