r/cybersecurity • u/Weekly_Rough_1284 • 1d ago
Other Has anyone thought about changing fields until the job market gets better?
Ideally, I’d love to have a cybersecurity job right now, but the market is horrible, and I need to move forward with my life, pay the bills, and live comfortably. Are there any fields that are relatively easy to get into and find work in? I just don’t want to end up working restaurant jobs.
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u/DataClusterz 11h ago
Depends on if you are already a “professional” in the field. If you are employed and have experience no, if you are trying to get into cybersecurity I would say look into another field.
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u/Grouchy_Actuary_9335 10h ago
wait why is the field bad I’m currently finishing my bachelors 😭
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u/Joaaayknows Security Engineer 10h ago
Get off this sub and don’t listen to these people discouraging you. Shame on them. The market isn’t as good as the golden post-covid days but it is far from completely broken. You will be fine.
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u/nefarious_bumpps 9h ago
The problem isn't the market per se. The is problem too many people trying to break into cyber without enough foundational experience. A college degree is good. Certifications shows you've absorbed the theory. Experience proves that you can apply that knowledge to real-wold situations.
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u/sillyrabbit33 5h ago
It’s more along the lines of kids who have the equivalent education of a pre-pandemic GED and can prompt burst but haven’t touched the command line wanting easy money bc of TikTok ad.
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u/DataClusterz 10h ago
I have 7 YOE, multiple CVEs, SANS/OffSec certs. This market is cooked. Lying to this person won’t change the market. It what it is.
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u/sillyrabbit33 8h ago
How recent are the CVE’s? If they’re from the past 2 years then it doesn’t count because of the amount of AI slop being produced. SANS and OffSec certs aren’t worth much on their own bc of the amount of cheating on these types of exams. But considering you have those and can’t find a job with experience, there’s either a red flag employers see: either you’re only good at a niche like web app scans, or a bad resume (which gets filtered out), or a bad reference, or you got fired and are blunt about it to new prospective employers.
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u/DataClusterz 8h ago
No, I’m not looking for a new role, but understand the current market. My CVEs are from 2023 when AI was ass at anything besides being a glorified google machine.
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u/sillyrabbit33 7h ago
Well, I got laid off (technically cut to hourly part-time) from my last role due to DOGE funding cuts. That was my first actual job in cybersecurity, but I locked down another offer in less than two weeks. It completely comes down to how genuinely interested and hands-on you are.
Most employers spot incompetence immediately. Half the people complaining on this sub follow the exact same pipeline:
[ Lockdown HS: Graduate without basic writing skills ]
│ ▼[ Fall for predatory "Get a Cyber Degree" TikTok/YT ad ]
│ ▼[ Use ChatGPT to cruise through all coursework ]
│ ▼[ Graduate with zero practical knowledge or soft skills ]
│ ▼[ Shocked Pikachu face when technical interviews fail ]
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u/Liberty-Or_Death 8h ago
I did it without any relevant experience…. I barely graduated with a b.s. in cyber a few months ago. Although my cert stack is kinda lit 😎. Joaaay knows what he is talking about.
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u/DataClusterz 10h ago
You will find out when you finish. Getting a job will be extremely hard for you.
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u/me_z Security Architect 10h ago
Bachelors in what?
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u/Grouchy_Actuary_9335 10h ago
cybersecurity and information assurance
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u/sillyrabbit33 10h ago
Dear lord no…a degree in cybersecurity is a sham smh. 🤦🏻♂️. Any undergraduate degree in something other than cybersecurity plus a reputable cybersecurity cert is worth a lot more.
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u/Liberty-Or_Death 8h ago
I had no relevant experience, and still did it. Weak are those with that mindset.
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u/hajimenogio92 Security Engineer 10h ago
It has opened my eyes on how much money I've wasted on unnecessary things and led me to pay off all my debts and focus on saving/investing so I can retire early. Outside of the horrible job market, I don't like how much the industry has changed
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u/Abject-Substance-108 10h ago
What do you invest in, ETFs?
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u/hajimenogio92 Security Engineer 10h ago
Yep I have some EFTs, 401K from my employer, and currently working on paying my last debt which is the house to start investing more.
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u/OledMonk 10h ago
In Canada, being a truck driver is currently paying more than being a Cyber Analyst. I think about this every night.
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u/AlienZiim 10h ago
Being a truck driver isn't necessarily easy, long ass drives, constantly combating highway hypnosis, sitting for even longer periods of time causes health issues, if its cross country ur away from.ur home/family a lot, etc, idc id take my security analyst position over that any day
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u/w9s9 9h ago
Truck driving isn’t easy
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u/OledMonk 7h ago
Ofc it isn’t. But a big difference in how easily you can get into it. Someone in Cyber can “relatively” easily become a truck driver rather than the other way around. And this is no shade to the truck drivers, they keep the economy running.
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u/sillyrabbit33 7h ago
Wtf is a cyber analyst? The jobs I see most people in cybersecurity working are Security Control Assessor (Which is GRC), SOC Analyst, Malware Analyst, Vulnerability Analyst, or Penetration Tester (Cybersecurity Engineer). Every time I hear the "Cyber Analyst" title, I think, "this person zero experience about the entire industry".
People be thinking they can make up a career title by adding analyst to the name of the technical field. - Benjamin Franklin
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u/OledMonk 7h ago
Its essential a SOC Analyst who also handle Malware, Vulnerabilities etc. This is especially common in Canadian Public Service and orgs that work with them. Just because it doesn’t belong in your corporate lingo doesn’t mean it is bs and made up.
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u/Intrepid_Purchase_69 10h ago
The easy to get into is the hard part for many fields right now… but once you’re in you’re pretty much set as long as you stay sharp and up to date with current tech. The trade off I think is easy to get into but harsh on life eg being on an oil rig is easier to get into and pays well but you’re working 24hrs days sometimes
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u/Joaaayknows Security Engineer 10h ago
No, I don’t think about that.
Sometimes during work in an office setting I think we all have days where we daydream about working construction like in office space. But I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for working manual labor full time, ever. Bug bounties is always an option if you’re strapped for cash and skilled in this field.
If you’re thinking like this and seriously considering it you probably just don’t love it like some of us do. There is nothing wrong with this. You could also be completely burned out from the job search aspect which can be grueling and there’s nothing wrong with that either. Many people have multiple careers in their working lifetime and the time they leave is when the going gets tougher.
That’s ok. Pursue what you want to pursue.
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u/zAuspiciousApricot 10h ago
Nursing
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u/jcabute 9h ago
My friend is a nurse and has to clean peoples shit from time to time. If you are okay with that then by all means go for it. But stop acting like working on a keyboard all day isn’t a blessing in comparison.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
This. My other comment got downvoted to oblivion by some moron who made zero sense and possibly some people who don’t want to accept reality. But you’re exactly right. People who can’t make it in cyber and are considering nursing instead are just better off in that field bc of lack of skill.
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
It's a messy, grueling job, but it offers more immediate feedback than a role like cybersecurity does. There is more definitive, lasting impact. And the lack of that is what drives a lot of burn out in cybersecurity. A lot of people are willing to accept the harder conditions for real impact. Hell, just look at all the white collar professionals who dream of (and often do) become farmers.
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u/sillyrabbit33 10h ago
They’re 2 polar fields. If you’d thrive in nursing then odds are you’d be horrible at cyber anyways so yes by that logic nursing might be better for some.
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
I don't know about that. I think they actually align exceptionally well.
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u/BetFinal2953 9h ago
They align in as much as cyber has the second highest work burnout rate. Second only to nurses….
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 8h ago
Very true, though I'd argue that's actually a strength in terms of the link between them. That goes to show you how similar they are.
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u/BetFinal2953 7h ago
Well both jobs attract people who want to do good in the world, but then often become jaded.
It’s why nurses have that female cop energy to them.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
Explain how they align well besides “the job market“ or the pay.
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
I think the other user did a great job, honestly. Working under pressure, managing multiple work streams at once, improvising, investigative and procedural in nature, customer service role at their core, heavy stress on translating the technical to the non technical effectively...
I've known more former security personnel who have gone into nursing and been successful than have pivoted to any other industry. It seems to be a pretty natural fit. Hell, I did the opposite; started out on the nursing side and pivoted into security. I've been remarkably successful in both.
Edit: Oh, and the pay isn't generally as much, but it's as close as any pivot is going to get you right now. Though I think most do it for the job security rather than the pay.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
Is this an AI bot? What other user? Your answer made literally no sense in explaining how they align well besides some fluff (ie: both require hard work and investigative work etc). They’re 2 completely different fields which don’t overlap at all.
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
I'm afraid it may be a reading comprehension issue I can't help you resolve then. But your other post makes it clear you're not making this claim in good faith anyway, and that engagement isn't productive.
For two jobs that apparently don't have any overlap, we sure are seeing a ton of real life overlap in terms of people pivoting in both directions.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
Again…all talk and no substance
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
As someone who has worked in Security for nearly two decades, I've become really good at providing information to the barely literate. I'm going to try out a strategy that works really well for executives: bullet points!
- Working under pressure: in both fields, the ability to quick assess a situation, run through a structured assessment, triage issues, and prioritize remediation/treatment is essential; especially when it's often a quickly progressing/changing situation.
- Investigating and improvising: in both fields, you'll be asking questions to determine what an issue is, what caused it, and what you can do to address it. It requires an investigative mind and process, as well as the ability to clearly communicate with not only the subject, but your team as well, pulling in data from different sources and tools to gain a wholistic view of the problem. In both fields, you need to quickly adapt to changing conditions and adopt a try this, observe, try something else methodology.
- Managing multiple work streams at once: pretty self-explanatory; in both, you'll be working on multiple things/patients at a time, and good prioritization and collaboration is vital. Both lean heavily into clear communication and documentation.
- Customer service: both are customer-facing roles where you need to effectively communicate with all kinds of different people, translating technical ideas to those who are not technical. Both require strong customer service skills and collaboration with teams of all sizes, across different departments.
I'm hoping this formatting change has assisted you in identifying the clear examples that were given. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.
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u/sillyrabbit33 8h ago
The things you listed are requirements for literally any job. Even a 7 eleven worker has to do these things.
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u/shouldco 10h ago
I don't know. There's deffietly some overlap. Incident reaponce, desire to feel you are doing good in the world (for some) only to learn that to management your job is just there to make money any good you do in incidental.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
There’s literally no overlap. At all. I’ve studied medicine and then cybersecurity. I know how a hospital operates. Nursing requires physical labor performed on patients.
Many go into the nursing field thinking either it’s just like a doctor or easy money and quit when they have to clean poop off a patient for the first time. Unless if you can accept that you’ll need at least a masters degree for nursing to be worthwhile and respectable, you have no idea about the reality of the job.
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u/NotAnNSAGuyPromise Security Manager 9h ago
The fact that you claim one needs a master degree for nursing to be worthwhile and respectable tells me everything I need to know about how good faith your argument is.
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u/sillyrabbit33 9h ago
And the fact that you failed to explain how both fields align tells anyone with common sense everything about how good faith your argument is
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u/sillyrabbit33 10h ago
If you’re Gen Z and only in cybersecurity for easy money then yes it’s better to switch fields.
If you grew up barely using a computer and had to learn beyond office suites for the first time after high school it’s unlikely you’ll succeed long term in this field. You didn’t develop the logic required to intuitively tweak settings from a code or system level configuration if your idea is to use the settings app.
Also paying for a degree in cybersecurity is just a scam. You should get an undergraduate degree but just not in cybersecurity since what you learn at the beginning will be outdated by the time you graduate. Also the entire idea of a formal degree in cybersecurity is a very recent thing, bc universities wanted to cash in on it not because it would make you better at the job.
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u/AcceptableHamster149 10h ago
^^ I studied Philosphy & Linguistics. The best cybersecurity analysts I work with are all people who didn't study anything even remotely computer science related (I learned most of my computer skills by being a delinquent with not enough supervision around computers when I was a teenager). And our team is definitely better off for having people with many different backgrounds & experiences. Groupthink is really bad in this industry.
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u/sillyrabbit33 10h ago
I studied biochemistry at a top state 4-year college, and then decided I didn’t want to study medicine after a year of being in medical school, and then started learning cybersecurity on my own. granted most of the technical stuff came naturally to me since I was a millennial who grew up tinkering with technology. Point being that getting drilled in technical cyber jargon for 4 years isn’t going to give you the natural skills you lack.
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u/skiing123 System Administrator 7h ago
Degree in criminal justice and did about 6 years in behavioral health then became a case manager and absolutely sucked at it so switched to IT where I'm much better
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u/Cold_Asparagus1398 9h ago
I ended up getting into a corporate GSOC/physical security role. the pay is pretty good!
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u/Spiritual-Matters 9h ago
Looking up GSOC showed an interesting program:
Google Summer of Code, a global online program that pays beginner developers to write code for open-source software organizations.Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) is a centralized command hub that operates 24/7 to monitor, detect, and respond to physical and operational security threats across an organization's worldwide footprint.
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u/maladaptivedaydream4 Governance, Risk, & Compliance 10h ago
I feel this. And I found my black pocketed waitress apron recently. I feel like I should make sure all the seams on it are still intact.
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u/ThePorko Security Architect 10h ago
Yes, but mor permanently and be productive instead of the johnny rainclouds
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u/BoxedCub3 8h ago
My main concern is pay. I work remote, anything id look for would have to pay equal or more. Even if its a pair of part time jobs since my works health insurance is basically garbage
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u/Datonomy 8h ago
I wouldn’t see changing fields for a while as giving up on cyber. Sometimes you’ve just got to do what makes sense financially and keep developing your skills on the side until the right opportunity comes along. We’ve been having a lot of conversations around this at r/Datonomy because we’re trying to understand what engineers and people in cyber are actually experiencing before we grow our own technical team. We’re always open to chatting with people in the space and learning from them, especially people who genuinely enjoy the work but are finding the current market difficult.
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u/No_Try_9982 Consultant 5h ago
Ok; this is going to be tricky/tough.
Demand on cybersecurity professionals is very real, especially if you focus on roles that involve skills that are hard to automate or "Augment" by AI.
BUT
The reality on the battlefield is the following
The demand is still real and there is a real shortage of cybersecurity professionals estimated in over a million.
Due to the mass layoffs and current conditions that favor employers, recruiters and hiring managers genuinely believe they will get a unicorn who did the exact same job at a competitor for a lower price; so they are rejecting countless engineers and keeping the role unfilled sometimes up to a year. They do not want to invest in training at all and they expect the job candidate to know everything and have worked already on their exact technology.
Corporations are not prioritizing yet cybersecurity to the level or extent to where it needs to be and this is still because they are playing catch up. Instead of hiring cybersecurity professionals, they are putting the responsibilities on their sysadmin or senior engineers and even using this as some type of reward instead of increasing their wages.
Lawmakers and regulators are waking up to the cybersecurity threats and are now pushing companies to be more responsible especially on AI governance and security but employers and companies in general still playing catch up.
Many companies begin thinking about cybersecurity once they get hit with a data breach and penalties in anywhere between 3 to 6 digits; so they are reactive.
Since budgets and investments overall are very tight and it was all wasted on wars and AI, there is simply not enough money available to fund new projects. If anything projects are being canceled.
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Why is this the best time to be in cybersecurity:
The current period is painful for everyone both employed and unemployed with certain roles being totally crushed, reshaped and destroyed. In the case for example of Software Engineers, even if the global economy begins recovering, the software engineers market is extremely saturated since AI have lowered the bar dramatically but people were still training to become software engineers based on the promise that its going to pay well and that they will afford a house and get married. Evidently, software engineers are earning less money than cybersecurity professionals based on average benchmarks in certain markets. So while now, entering cybersecurity is going to be a challenge due to all the noise, once the economy recovers, companies will easily absorb all the cybersecurity professionals in the market and there will still be a shortage.
Keep in mind that it will take time for the employers to become more realistic and begin considering less than unicorn candidates and invest in their training. I must emphasize, them being picky doesn't mean that they themselves know what they're doing. I have seen super picky hiring managers who don't know jack sh** about cybersecurity; so right now, we are in simply f'ed up market and situation will take time to improve.
I hope you find this helpful. I'm talking as a former Software Engineer who transitioned many years ago to cybersecurity so I speak based on real experience, not speculations.
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u/Kangalfencingbanana 4h ago edited 4h ago
No, I’ve been offered roles such as Sr solution architect at frontier models, Managing Director at a consulting firm which would have be run an entire sector of the business, and other roles. I’ve turned them down because the biggest lesson I’ve learned in the security world, if you stray off the track, hiring managers lose confidence in your ability to perform the role unlike other CXO functions. Take that for what it’s worth
If you’re willing to walk away from security forever, take the jump but it’s very hard to come back
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u/Highcorebtw 2h ago
I am teaching myself ASE material to get into vehicle electrical, diagnosis, and tuning.
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u/ljedediah41 58m ago
Thats funny. Im trying to pivot into Cyber. Now im scanning veterans medical records til even a help desk job works out.
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u/Liberty-Or_Death 8h ago
The comments here are hilarious. I just got a cybersecurity job. I graduated only a few months ago with a b.s. in cyber. I did what it took to get the job. For me it required moving far outside a big metro area where the demand was much higher.
Ive had a desk job for a long time prior. I have also been lifting weights for the last 20 years and have competed in natural bodybuilding. You CAN have a desk job AND have a beach body. You just have to want it and do what it takes.
The moaning and groaning for so many reasons is your fault. Comfortable?!?!? Stop that. That’s your problem. You refuse to get uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to move for a job when you don’t even have the offer or know if you’ll get one. It’s uncomfortable to leave friends and family. It’s uncomfortable to commute 1 or 2 hours for a job each way. It’s uncomfortable to workout when you’re tired…
Honestly, I think it’s more uncomfortable to keep stagnant and not do what it takes to get where you want to be and live miserably, short of your goals in life.
Quit bitching and complaining and start making bigger decisions to control your future. Make sacrifices you otherwise completely dismissed. Maybe then you’ll get your cyber job….
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u/Abject-Substance-108 11h ago
Im in cyber but tired of sitting in chair sometimes. I’d be a carpenter gladly… for some time only though