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RAND Study: Looser Civil Service Rules Would Ease Cybersecurity Shortage
New submitter redr00k (3719103) writes with a link to the summary of a RAND Corporation study addressing "a general perception that there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals within the United States, and a particular shortage of these professionals within the federal government, working on national security as well as intelligence. Shortages of this nature complicate securing the nation's networks and may leave the United States ill-prepared to carry out conflict in cyberspace." One of the key findings: waive the Civil Service rules. (The NSA can already bypass those rules; RAND's authors say this should be extended to other agencies.)
Let me summarize: if you are a federal employee then you are a civil servant and paid according to the GS (General Service) scale. This is what people mean when they say someone is a GS-12 or GS-15. These scales are published by the US Office of Personnel Management and dictated by the President or by Congress. Unfortunately, these pay levels are below what a decent cybersecurity person expects to be paid, and do not compete with private industry. The result is that the cybersecurity people in federal positions are there either because of a sense of duty, or because they didn't cut it in the private sector. This is the classic image of a postal worker. In order to attract better candidates, they need to be paid better which means exempting them from the GS schedule. This is also why a lot of agencies use contractors for these positions because they can pay a contractor a lot more than an employee and thereby get better people in the job.
Yes, I know I have greatly simplified certain details, but that covers the basics of the problem.
I don't think that you're fully considering point 3).
Have you ever actually worked with any autodidacts?
Having worked with several hundred of them at this point in my career at various jobs, I've found them to be among the worst people to deal with.
They may have a surface-level knowledge of a particular topic, but they just don't have the depth or breadth that somebody with more formal training tends to have. But that's not even the worst part.
The worst part is that they often have absolutely no idea how much they don't know, thus they think that the little they do know is sufficient. At least people with even just some academic background will know that there's a whole helluva lot they don't know, even after years of study and experience.
If you've had to deal with Ruby or JavaScript programmers you'll probably know what I mean. They're often young, totally self-taught, and are often high school dropouts. They can create simplistic web apps, but that's pretty much where it ends. The moment it moves beyond that, they're either creating really big messes or they're moving on to their next "opportunity". If you confront them about the messes that they're creating due to a lack of knowledge and understanding, they'll just label you an "academic snob" and dismiss you without a second thought.
While somebody with college training isn't guaranteed to be better, in practice they usually are, or at least they understand their level of knowledge better. They're much better people to work with, and the work they produce tends to be a lot better. I think it's totally worth ignoring the one or two good autodidacts out there if it also means missing out on the thousands who are absolute crap.
So in other words you believe your perception, backed up by nothing, to be actual fact and you intend to conduct your professional life accordingly. I can tell you if I had to choose between you and almost anybody else who would get the interview.
Here's a hint to work on your thinking a bit: you know anything about government employees because it is possible to learn things about them. You know nothing about the fraud, waste, and abuse rampant in the private sector because their records are not open, their employees' records are not accessible, and their everyday decisions don't have to be made knowing some armchair quarterback will criticize your every move. So you move carefully.
Add to that the constant media drumbeat designed to reinforce your perceptions because government properly run is the ONLY effective countermeasure to corporate excess and you have, well, you.