We surveyed 721 security engineers to learn what personality traits and interests make them unique. Here are the results.


Holland Codes

Security engineers are investigative and enterprising

Security engineers tend to be predominantly investigative individuals, which means that they are quite inquisitive and curious people that often like to spend time alone with their thoughts. They also tend to be enterprising, which means that they are usually quite natural leaders who thrive at influencing and persuading others.

If you are one or both of these archetypes, you may be well suited to be a security engineer. However, if you are realistic, this is probably not a good career for you. Unsure of where you fit in? Take the career test now.

Here’s how the Holland codes of the average security engineer break down:


Big Five

The top personality traits of security engineers are conscientiousness and social responsibility

Security engineers score highly on conscientiousness, which means that they are methodical, reliable, and generally plan out things in advance. They also tend to be high on the measure of social responsibility, indicating that they desire fair outcomes and have a general concern for others.

Once again, let’s break down the components of the personality of an average security engineer: