The résumé a software engineer used to land a cybersecurity job at Microsoft
Prior to Microsoft, Masrani studied IT, got a Master's in computer science, and worked at AWS.
He said data experience and security knowledge are needed to transition to cybersecurity.
Breaking into the cybersecurity field can be a challenge for some — but 36-year-old Ankit Masrani stumbled into it.
The Seattle-based Microsoft employee told Business Insider that while he had plans to become a software engineer, he didn't expect to work in the security space. Now, he develops sovereignty controls for the tech giant's security platform, ensuring sensitive customer information remains within geographic boundaries.
After studying information technology in college and working in roles building software systems, Masrani came to the US to get a Master's degree in computer science. After completing a six-month co-op internship at AWS while he was in school, he converted to a full-time employee, where he focused on securing data and networks until he felt the need for a change.
"To be honest, it was very tiring," Masrani said about his six and a half years at AWS. "And I wanted a change in my job to try something different."
Masrani said his final project before joining Microsoft involved building a customer-managed key encryption feature, which required research into best practices for data security. He said he found the work "really interesting" and began exploring teams focused on data governance and security. He said working alongside engineers who were truly "passionate" about their work was a top priority for him.
Here's the résumé he used to get his job at Microsoft, where he started on Microsoft's Purview security team as a senior software engineer. Now, he's a principal software engineer working on Microsoft's Security Platform.
Masrani said he applied by going to the company site and didn't have any references. He said if he were to apply again today, he might not include such a lengthy education section because people would probably focus on his 10 years of experience. When he was a year or two out of school, though, he said he thinks it helped him get interviews.
Masrani came into the role with a background in IT, computer science, and data experience — all of which are recommended routes to enter the field, according to industry veterans.
Masrani's pivot wasn't drastic, but he said certain skill sets are needed to transition from general software engineering to the security side.
As a software engineer building cybersecurity services, Masrani said he handles large volumes of security logs, user activity data, and threat intelligence data. Masrani said he isn't "actively doing security threat hunting" but is building services for a platform that does.
Masrani said experience with big data technologies like Hadoop, an open source framework that processes large amounts of data for applications, is important for learning how to build data pipelines. He added that machine learning and anomaly detection is also useful for working on security product services.
Masrani also recommends experience with cloud services like AWS or Microsoft Azure to understand scalable data processing.
"Storage is very important since cloud services are leveraged everywhere from small to large software systems," Masrani said.
Masrani also said security knowledge is necessary to pivot to the cybersecurity sector. Masrani said safety protocols and data processing guidelines are often specific to regions.
He said domain knowledge around data governance and other security products is important, as well as familiarity with regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation. He said it's also important to know fundamentals around data encryption, network security, and application security.
"Any handling of customer data must be done in a safe and secure manner," Masrani said. "Having knowledge of best practices for handling data is very important.
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