Pros
Critical Start is a small to medium sized business within the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) space. Because of its size and culture, it's able to leverage some truly unique benefits: * Great benefits: health care paid by company, unlimited (within reason) PTO, and multiple positions (including entry level analysts) have some work from home days. * Genuine Culture: Within the SOC specifically, there's a 3 month training program to bring incoming analysts up to speed. I can honestly say these people are passionate about learning in this field, and always curious. If you're looking for ego maniacs, you won't find them here. * Movement between departments: though positions aren't always available, there's multiple departments one can specialize in, and pivot to if work becomes tedious in a current role. * Clear Promotion Guidelines: for some levels of analysts within the SOC, there's clear-cut guidelines to meet for promotions. It helps bring a lot of clarity for a roadmap on where you want to go, and is a lot clearer than other relative positions. Though I only had experience in the SOC, I highly recommend anyone looking to enter into the cybersecurity field to apply here.
Cons
As the company is one of the few that hires entry level (and means it), pay is lower than comparative positions. This is supplemented by the benefits and training, but should be noted before entry.