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The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Cybersecurity, as an industry, is booming. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs as network systems and information security professionals are expected to grow by 53 percent through 2018. Yet, young people today aren't interested in getting jobs in cybersecurity. By all accounts it's a growing and potentially secure, lucrative job. But according to a new survey by the defense tech company Raytheon, only 24 percent of millennials have any interest in cybersecurity as a career."
From the Raytheon article key figures: "Young men (35 percent) are far more interested than young women (14 percent) in a career in cybersecurity." If that many people are interested in cybersecurity, I'd call that "an overwhelming proportion" of persons being interested in cybersecurity. By that count, that's an enormous population of paranoid technofreaks.
"The survey also found less than one-quarter of young adults aged 18 to 26 believed the career is interesting at all." And how much of the total population gets employed in computer security AS A WHOLE? Less than 0.1% easily. How many other types of jobs, areas of interest and careers are there WITHOUT EVEN leaving the IT world?
The study page even highlights that they didn't target IT graduates. This is from a general, untargeted smattering of 1,000 members of the population. That's not even a proper sample size.
Bad journalism. Bad study report. Bad.
-- "Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability." --Dijkstra
They don't want to spend the time and money on getting clearances.
First, the contracting companies that hire the people do not pay for the clearance. The fed pays a third party to do all the investigations. It is all about the time. It can take a year or more to get a clearance. The government will not put any one in for a clearance unless they are working on a contract that requires that the person has a clearance and most contract will not allow a person to work on the contract unless they already have a clearance. It is a catch-22.
What the civilian world calls cyber security, the military calls information assurance (IA) and information warfare (IW).
My personal story:
I was in the army's IA ranks. I had an active TS/SCI clearance, had published policy papers within my...inner specialty, was a welcome addition to Defcon - I have an Ivy League education, at the time had an incredible network of IA/IW contacts, and left the army as a JMO (Junior Military Officer).
When I left the army (at 28) I was considered a hot commodity in the cybersecurity world. I interviewed with both Raytheon and SAIC, and turned down head-hunters from several other companies. Both companies made me an offer; SAIC for $55,000 a year, and Raytheon for $42,000 a year. Both offers were less than I was already making, and both companies explained that everyone starts at the bottom and works their way up. I declined both and took a position outside cybersecurity for $79,000/yr.
At the time, cybersecurity wasn't willing to pay a clean-cut, clean-record military officer already in the field with requisite training, clearances, background screening and aptitude as much as I already made in the military, and the military isn't where high dollar jobs are.
No, that's not how it works now (recently).
Somebody pays for that clearance process and it boils down to the hiring company, granted they may reflect that in their rates and the difference between what they charge the customer and pay the employee (rolled up into their nebulous "overhead"). The process is typically a few months, rarely a year.
The way the catch-22 is resolved is you'll be hired as a short-term contractor (~6 mo) and given minor/lower level work while waiting for the clearance. If it doesn't come, the contract ends and you look for something else.
It is just less risk for them to hire somebody with one already - modern corporate America doesn't want the risk and prefers not to invest in their workforce unless they have to - such a person can start earlier.