As most of us know, the job market of today is probably one
of the most challenging and daunting ones ever.
I have to be honest, although I do freelance technical writing, I too am
looking for a job as well. I have been
looking solid for two months now, and while I have had interviews, nothing much
has come to fruition has of yet.
While the job reports that come out every month may still be
strong, one has to look at the areas in which they are occurring, and it is
mostly on the services side.
At this point, one may ask is how did we get here? Well, it all comes down to one thing: Inflation, and the Federal Reserve being late
to the game to fix it. You see, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, tons of money was created in order to get us through those
awful times.
\I was always fearful that we would have to pay a price for
that down the road, and now we are.
The enormous injections of money is what really caused the inflation
that we are having right now. Back then,
the tech companies had a lot more money in which to hire people, but now that
it is no longer there, they had to let go of them, which in turn led to the huge
number of layoffs. But there is always
hope, and my own optimistic belief is
that this cannot last forever either.
But now the interesting thing is that there still continues to
be a huge worker shortage in the Cyber industry. Many people are now left scratching their heads with so many people
that are available now for the workforce,
why is this still happening?
Well, it comes down to one thing: Hiring managers are simply too fussy in what they want to select in terms of candidates. They simply don’t want to take a chance to
hire someone that may not have all of the skillsets, but have the ambition and
drive to learn.
In turn, this has left job seekers in a huge state of
confusion about what to do to get a career in Cyber. Believe it or not, the industry has actually
done something to help people out. In much the same way that frameworks and standards
have been created to reduce risk and security breaches, so too they have also been
created to help out job seekers.
The following are some of newer “Cyber Career Frameworks” which
have evolved thus far:
1)
The National Initiative for
Cybersecurity Education (also known as “NICE”):
This framework provides detail in
33 Cyber related job tasks, and 52 different job titles. True, this can seem to be rather confusing,
because there is a lot of overlap here.
This framework places a very strong importance on the Tasks, Knowledge,
and Skillsets that are required. To help
Cyber job seekers guide through this maze, a tool called the “Cyber Career
Pathways” was created. The “NICE” and
toolset can be found at the following links:
https://www.nist.gov/itl/applied-cybersecurity/nice
https://niccs.cisa.gov/workforce-development/cyber-career-pathways-tool
2)
The Cyber Career Framework:
This is a framework that has been
created and implemented for job seekers in the UK, and when in comparison, it is
much easier to navigate through. For
example, it only covers 16 Cyber job specialties, and also covers the following
topics:
Working Life
Job Responsibilities
Salary
Knowledge
*Skills
*Tips on how to climb the
proverbial corporate ladder.
What is unique about is that Cyber
job seekers can even create a visual map of where they are right now, and where they want to be, based
upon the qualifications the possess at this point in time. They too are
offering a toolset that can be used with this, which is known as the Cyber Security Profession Chartered Standards (“CSPCS”). The goal of this is to offer the job
candidate cost effective tools to get the
Cyber certs that they aspire to.
The framework and the toolset can be
seem at the following links:
https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/careers-and-learning/cyber-career-framework/
https://www.ukcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk/professional-standards/
3)
European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (also
known as the “ECSF”):
This is a much broader Cyber job framework,
developed and implemented by the EU as one collective. Other organizations from around the world
have also contributed to this effort, most notably the (ISC)2 and ISACA. It focuses primarily on just 12 Cyber related
job roles. A manual is also provided, to
help the job seeker navigate through this portal. The framework and manual can be downloaded at
the following links:
https://www.enisa.europa.eu/topics/education/european-cybersecurity-skills-framework
https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/european-cybersecurity-skills-framework-ecsf
My Thoughts On This:
It is expected that these job frameworks will help all
involved in the job creation and recruiting process, which include:
*Hiring Managers
*The Job Candidate
*Recruiting Agencies
*High Schools, Colleges, Junior Colleges, and Universities.
But in the end, if you really want a job in Cyber, show to
the prospective employer both your analytical and qualitative skills. You really don’t need to have a degree in
Cyber, these skills can literally be
picked up from any job or degree. But in my view, the most crucial strengths that
I would look for if I were a hiring manager is:
1)
How well can the candidate communicate, both
verbally and written?
2)
Can they work well in a team environment?
In Cyber, that’s all it comes down to.
Hard skills are trainable, but not
the ones just listed.
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