The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested 289
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."
Lies, damn lies, and statistical illiteracy (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Lol, Tech. (Score:4, Informative)
Meh, grow up. Been doing tech work for over 40 years now. Haven't been replaced yet, but I also keep up on new tech and stay curious. If you get set in your ways and decide that your current skill set will keep you in Doritos and Mountain Dew forever, you _will_ be replaced.
And jeeze, get over the "Obamacare" rhetoric. It just makes you look like a spoiled child who's not getting their way.
[John]
Re:millenials (Score:2, Informative)
It's not even well defined. Here it means people who were born from 2000 to 2010, although of course it should be from 2001 to 2011. So those people would be between 3 and 13 now, a tad young to work in cybersecurity.
Re:hire me (Score:4, Informative)
With regard to avoiding training anybody, all American companies are like that. Training costs are an externality they unload onto their employees. It is not, however, difficult to recruit qualified people even under those circumstances. All you have to do is offer them 20% more than your competitor does, and candidates will line up outside your door.
Companies just whine instead are not serious about recruiting and/or want government support in the form of H1-Bs.
Re:hire me (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:hire me (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:I'm not surprised. (Score:4, Informative)
I am familiar with IA, I work with it almost all the time, but it isn't my primary function. I'm currently in the market for a job in the SE Pennsylvania region AND I have a clearance. I think you are spot on with what the tasks are.
In SE PA there are a lot of medical companies, and thus their IA concerns relate to keeping their trade secrets secret, and even more importantly, keeping medical records secret. Unfortunately for me, I'd love to work for some of these companies, but damned if it's easy to meet their requirements.
Engineering? Check
IT systems? Rusty on the hands on work, but I mainly work architecture level designs.
Experience with medical systems? Umm no, sorry that's pretty specialized.
It's kind of like the Cheap, Fast, Reliable and other 'tri-feature' You pick two options. I can give you two, but that experience in medical systems always gets me. Unfortunately for a lot of these companies, a lot of the IA experience they ask for comes from the Defense industry, but rarely do we work with medical stuff.
Re:hire me (Score:5, Informative)
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.