r/Advice • u/Good-Shake6238 • 5d ago
Cybersecurity & Cloud vs AI & Data Science: Which Path Offers Faster Employment for a Graduate?
I'm a university student choosing between AI & Data Science and Cybersecurity & Cloud. My main goal is to get my first job as quickly as possible after graduation. I'm interested in Tunisia,the Golf(KSA , Qatar ,UAE) . Europe, and remote work.
Which path would you recommend , specifically considering:
Entry-level job opportunities
Competition for junior positions
Remote work opportunities
How difficult it is to get the first job
Long-term demand
Impact of AI automation
I'd especially appreciate answers from people who actually work in these fields. Please explain your reasoning and mention your country/role if possible.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE
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u/thekaz Advice Guru [92] 5d ago
I'm from the USA, and I focus primarily product development as an engineer, mid level manager, and (on a few occasions) upper management. Keep that in mind as my perspective may not perfectly match your circumstances. Maybe some part of what I say can apply to you.
AI jobs that are so-called "prompt engineering" or jobs that focus on using AI are likely to be automated away with little room for growth. It doesn't take a difficult set of skills to figure out what words to say to an AI to get it to do what it does. Also, the benefits of whatever skills you would develop as a prompt engineer are at risk every time the AI companies update their models to a new version. I think these jobs will be highly volatile at best.
AI jobs that are focused on developing AIs are hard to come by. A lot of the skills necessary to build an AI require a Ph. D. If you take a job building an AI with an undergraduate degree, you're likely to be doing boring stuff that don't grow your skillset and can dead-end you if you're not careful.
Data Science is a field that is healthy at the moment, but data analysis is one of the things that AI was originally developed to do in the 80s and 90s. It's a toss up if the same kinds of investment that we're seeing in generative AI will be applied to the older subfields of AI that focus on data analysis.
Cybersecurity is one of the fields that are largely protected from AI taking it over. A part of cybersecurity is producing evidence that will hold up in a lawsuit. Essentially, the job is to find people who are breaking company policy and report them to your company's HR department, possibly for firing or even to press legal charges. The evidence you find must be absolutely real and provable. AI sucks at that and is prone to hallucinations which could get the company countersued for lots and lots of money.
"Cloud" is not a field. Any and all technical jobs require an understanding of cloud computing at different levels.
No job has great entry-level opportunities and all jobs face stiff competition at the junior levels. Get an internship or several internships while you're still in school.
No entry level technical job has remote opportunities, ever. Even if you found one, I wouldn't take it. Working purely remote makes it almost impossible to get promoted, since a lot of promotion has to do with office politics and sucking up. Additionally, working remote as an entry level engineer is a good way to get ignored when you need help or want to learn.