Edward Pang was not actively looking to change careers. He was scrolling on his phone when a CFCI advert appeared. “This looks interesting,” he thought, and signed up for the free seven-hour taster workshop. A few hours in, he had his answer.
“I realised I actually really enjoyed this, the skills you need for cybersecurity: critical thinking, thinking ahead, becoming sort of like an investigator, searching through logs and finding out what went wrong.”
That is a common starting point. Many people assume cybersecurity is closed off unless you studied computer science. It is not. The taster session exists precisely so you can find out whether the work suits you before committing to anything.
A way of learning that stuck
What kept Edward engaged through the programme was how it was taught. Rather than reading from pre-made slides, his trainers built the material live.
“Every trainer would create their own notes on the fly during class, with graphs, in motion. That helped us stay more engaged than relying on pre-prepared PowerPoint slides.”
This is deliberate. Cybersecurity is a thinking discipline before it is a memorising one, so the training is built around scenarios and live problem-solving rather than slides to copy down.
What the job actually looks like
Today Edward is a SOC analyst. On a twelve-hour shift, his team monitors not only their own organisation’s network but those of its contractors and customers too.
“A couple of days ago, the record was about 12,000 alerts. So immediately you triage, figure out which ones to focus on and which to look at later.”
The part he finds most interesting is that the work is not purely about traffic. “In a way, you’re also monitoring human behaviour.” His team uses Microsoft Sentinel and a query language called KQL to narrow down to the exact piece of information they need in the logs. That is where his training clicked into place.
“I thought, wait a minute, isn’t this similar to grep in Linux, narrowing data down? It was a different tool, but the same idea. This is what we learned.”
What career switchers can take from Edward’s story
Edward is honest that the switch took commitment, roughly eight to nine months of part-time study, and that the learning does not stop once you are hired. He still learns something new most days. His advice for anyone weighing it up is simple.
“Go for the taster session first. See if it is your cup of tea. My philosophy is, if you don’t try, you won’t know.”
If that resonates, the lowest-risk way to start is exactly where Edward did: a free info session followed by the free experiential workshop. From there, the flagship Career Kickstart programme takes you from first principles to job-ready, with career support through to your first role.
Edward is one example of a wider pattern. 80% of graduates who completed the full programme and career services secured cybersecurity employment (as of early 2026), and 75% of graduates who secured cyber roles had no prior IT background. If you want to picture the role itself, our guide to a day in the life of a SOC analyst walks through a typical shift. For a fuller look at what the career change involves — from first doubts to first day on the job — see our complete guide to switching into cybersecurity from a non-IT background.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you become a SOC analyst in Singapore without an IT background?
Yes. Most of the graduates who secured cyber roles started with no prior IT experience. A SOC analyst role rewards attention to detail, structured thinking and curiosity, which transfer from many earlier careers. The technical depth, the tools and the query languages, is what the training teaches you.
What does a SOC analyst actually do day to day?
A SOC analyst monitors an organisation's systems for signs of attack, triages the alerts that come in, separates real threats from noise, and escalates what matters. On a busy shift that can mean working through thousands of alerts and deciding what to investigate first.