Introduction
Security Blue Team (SBT) is a leading online education and training provider, specializing in cybersecurity courses and programs for over 100,000 students worldwide.
With a solid commitment to delivering an exceptional experience to each user, we have implemented a robust infrastructure to support our operations.
In this article, we will explore the new career emerging in the cybersecurity industry called “Content Engineer.”
This piece is authored by our esteemed Defensive Content Engineer, Malik Girondin. With his experience as a cybersecurity instructor for various organizations and as a YouTuber, he has established numerous labs to date and has built a reputation around content engineering.
What is Content Engineering?
This is a question many students have in mind. A great definition can be summarized in this sentence: Content Engineering is the application of organizing the structure of content. Wait, I am still confused, Malik. Ok, let us break down the etymology of the role. The word “Content” derives from the medieval Latin contentum (plural contenta ‘things contained’). The word “Engineer” in Middle English denotes a designer and constructor. All right, now let’s break this down so we can all understand!
So what exactly is Content Engineering? Content Engineering is somehow in between, it's an art with a mix of psychology to match the audience’s taste and make the learning enjoyable and engaging for the audience. We will talk more about this later.
Security Blue Team: The Global Defensive Cybersecurity Training Provider
At Security Blue Team, we specialize in creating cybersecurity courses for thousands of students worldwide. This is disrupting the traditional educational pathways of learning through the innovative use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). MOOCs are free to low-cost online courses available for any student to enroll in. These platforms provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, career advancement, and gain an affordable education and experience without emptying your pocket.
Security Blue Team elevates the experience of delivering engaging content and educational opportunities to our audience. Our platform, Blue Team Labs Online (BTLO), offers a subscription-based training course suitable for all skill levels. Whether you are a beginner, or intermediate seeking to upskill, or a seasoned cybersecurity practitioner determined to keep learning active, BTLO caters to your needs.
Our goal is to make the world cyber-safe by enabling even the smallest organizations to employ skilled analysts who can protect their assets. We aim to achieve this by offering a range of education and training platforms/courses that are free or low-cost compared to our competitors.
Content engineering connects the gaps between strategy and development. Transforming content “things” from a static state into a form that is gamified, and intelligent for learning and practicing. This is why content engineering is important! This is why we have a strong commitment to delivering high-quality content to each of our users.
Content Engineering vs Content Strategist
At Security Blue Team, we have our amazing Marketing Manager, Mel Boyle. She is a wonderful member who is typically responsible for setting the content strategy and driving engagement on a company’s social platforms. Many would liken her role to a Content Strategist which is quite synonymous. Mel and I work closely together but our roles are quite different and I will discuss it below.
A Content Strategist is responsible for working with a team of Content Engineers to come up with unique content ideas for publication across online or digital platforms. Their duties include conducting market research to learn about current trends and target audiences, participating in meetings with management and team members to identify business objectives and learn more about company products, and creating content to meet those objectives within a given time frame.
Content is king in today’s competitive marketing landscape. Content marketing is an essential marketing tool that businesses can use to increase brand awareness and conversion rates. Because of this huge growing demand, we need professionals who can develop and manage content.
Content strategists are in such high demand because they are the ones who connect with customers and generate leads by presenting relevant content through blog posts (the irony 😉), tweets, LinkedIn posts, YouTube Videos, and more!
As mentioned before, Content Engineers organize the structure of content “things” to target a specific audience (in this scenario, aspiring/current cybersecurity professionals). Together, the Content Engineer and the Content Strategist work to specify how audiences should receive content, how devices should display content (Our Web and Cloud team helps with this), and how content can be omni-purpose.
Content Engineering for Omnipurpose Content
Lastly, let's discuss the word omni-purpose and how it relates to Content Engineering. This word means the ability and capability to meet all purposes. As a well-known training institution founded in the UK, we strive to create content that students can use for various reasons. If a student is looking to hone in on one particular skill, dive into a new topic, see the output of a certain tool, etc. Many students are not aware of our global presence in the world and it all falls back to marketing and having a great Content Strategist, like Mel, for each Content Engineer. You can have the best institution in the world but if you have no visibility or SEO in this competitive market, it can bring down the business despite having a great product.
We are going to discuss the concept of organic and inorganic marketing. This first is a strategy that is much more authentic. Consumers trust organic marketing over paid advertisements. Even if it reaches fewer people, it tends to be more effective over time. Organic marketing campaigns keep the interest of current followers and build an online community.
Inorganic marketing strategies involve paid advertisements, like banner ads and sponsored posts. These advertisements typically micro-target a specific audience related to your brand. But if you want to boost traffic quickly and reach a wider audience, combining organic and inorganic posting is your best bet.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the workload like as a Content Engineer?
The work is pretty light, to be honest. I have been creating content for a year prior so it comes naturally. If you have a Team Lead with a reasonable release schedule then the load with be quite light since it gives you time to develop a scenario.
How do I become a Content Engineer?
These roles usually require 1 or 2 years of cybersecurity experience by default but you might find some roles that don’t care for that. I believe the most important part of landing a role like this is having a body of work (portfolio) showing evidence demonstrating your ability with content creation (videos, blog posts, CTF challenges, podcasts, etc). This will separate you from the rest of the applicants.
I don’t tend to promote this because it is such a niche and new field but I develop a Udemy course that helps students understand more about this role and what creative tools I use to develop my lab scenarios. A quick Google search will help you find it or you can click the link here.
How do you stay sharp as a Content Engineer?
Having a creative mindset alone will be beneficial, to be honest. I am. always pondering about things and cool scenarios. If you pair that with the technical abilities and knowledge of cybersecurity tools, you can always come up with something challenging and interesting. I think that is why most companies require cybersecurity experience for roles since you have to pull ideas and tools from real-world experience.
Another key point is to watch the news and see what kind of threats are emerging so you can spark that creativity for future labs. You will be surprised by what attack vectors hackers will use in this field to get what they want.
A great way to stay sharp is through continuous learning. I find myself enrolling in a certification program (or Udemy) course every couple of months. As educators, we must learn ourselves to produce quality and updated content. I tell my students this every time: you can’t pour out of an empty cup. You are the cup and the water is the knowledge. I am not an active player on BTLO, but I do enjoy doing challenges in the technical books I purchase as supplemental material in my studies.
What are some career progressions for Content Engineers?
This is a really good question. Again, this is a new role so I am not too sure where this will lead me in my career but other than titles like Senior Content Engineer, I can’t think of anything else. Becoming so good over time will give you the ability to lead a team of Junior Content Engineers so you can install the teachings you learned years ago will breed a constant supply of Content Engineers. I am more curious about what a team of Content Engineers can do as opposed to just one.
What does my day look like?
This is a really good question. I start my morning by checking my emails from multiple departments (e.g., Marketing, Design, and Cloud). All these roles depend on the Content Team (yes, this is a very critical role). I then check on my Juniors CEs, as I am providing mentorship currently, to make sure their work is of high quality and to answer any questions they have.
Now let’s go to the technical stuff: I try to plan my week every Monday. Now, I am in an interesting position with I do multiple things so let’s cover them below:
BTLO Replay: I task myself with replaying our old labs from our (187+ lab catalog). I then film myself playing the lab, editing the film, and passing it to our YouTube Team.
Discord: This is not a part of my job description, but I love checking up with members of our community and observing feedback.
Lab Creation: When I am in the mood, I come up with a cool lab for our BTLO platform. My labs tend to have compelling scenarios, interesting questions, and cool tools. I won’t get deep into lab creation, but I make sure to do much research before developing a lab. We are not pushing out low-quality content here!
Blogs: Just like this one, I make blogs for two our our platforms: CySeC and SBT. What is the difference? Well, the first is for non-technical blogs and the second is for technical blogs. I love sharing career advice and tips for juniors because I would have wanted it at that stage in my career.
Upskilling: We have been granted a budget and training hours at SBT to learn—while getting paid. So, if I am not doing any of the things above, I am studying!
In summary
Content assets become more valuable the more they are discovered by humans, and used as part of human process journeys. Content engineering is the process of designing omni-purpose content that can be used in multiple digital properties. Also, if you are looking for a video portion of my day as a Content Engineer, check out my YouTube video.
About SBT
Security Blue Team (SBT) is a leading online education and training provider, specializing in cybersecurity courses and programs for over 100,000 students worldwide. With a solid commitment to delivering an exceptional experience to each user, we have implemented a robust infrastructure to support our operations.