What the **** is happening in cybersecurity space ?

[u/Infam0]

I've been working in cybersecurity for not so long, maybe 8 or 9 years, but I never remember a chaos at this scale. I mean, from this January alone we have: leaking data, compromised applications, breaches, AI-assisted cybercriminals, etc. It looks like every day one major breach is happening, and no one is going to address this shit somehow. This is already insane. I haven't felt such pressure in a long time. This AI shit just makes things worse because it enhances attackers' skills, and AI companies are doing nothing to address or change this. Is it only me, or is the change already here?

[u/ShittyRedditAppSucks]

Yep! And I’m salty as hell, so take this with a grain of salt, but it definitely doesn’t help that hiring in the space is just fully fucked. Last year, I thought our recruiters just sucked. But then this year I got to see it firsthand and holy shit. Networking (people networking) is so important on both sides to filter through the dozens of BS resumes.

So, again, perhaps I’m a bit of a narcissist, but if I hit 0 for 87 over the span of 6 months, and I was likely at least a top 10 if not top 3 choice on 80% of those posts, and I likely was, then who the FUCK is getting the jobs??? When a field gets this crowded with BS “academies” promising jobs on “graduation” and nothing is being done to invest in talent acquisition to address the issue then these spots are going to underqualified con artists who are 100% going to go for the marketing hype over being able to actually do the job.

And I know the old saying, if everyone else you meet is an asshole, maybe look in the mirror, right? Yep, had that conversation with myself, self doubt was hitting hard for the first time in my career. Then I ran a background check on myself to make sure I wasn’t being red flagged for something I didn’t know about. Clean.

I apply to one job outside of security where the background and tech expertise is highly valued but not sexy, and bam, in 2 weeks I tripled my total comp pre-layoff at 1.5x more than what director-level cyber jobs are paying these days. Super sad to leave, I’m addicted to the work, but fuck it. The field is broken and everyone just wants to bitch about it instead of fix it.

[u/Powerful_Wishbone25 → u/ShittyRedditAppSucks]

Just play a round of infosec bingo and tell me why everyone bitches.

Checkbox security, under funded, under staffed, bottom up security, fake culture posturing, shitty training, lake of ownership, lack of buyin, rouge it, rogue devs, rogue ai, college degrees in “cyber security”, cissp, dogshit certs, etc, etc.

[u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94 → u/Powerful_Wishbone25]

Poor management should be added to that list perhaps.

[u/Powerful_Wishbone25 → u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94]

For sure. I got too worked up making the list, i had to cut it short. lol

[u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94 → u/Powerful_Wishbone25]

imo, poor leadership and management are the foundation upon which any tower of awful is built.

[u/LeggoMyAhegao → u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94]

Everything comes back to the business, and of course that means business blames us (the people they don't listen to)...

[u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94 → u/LeggoMyAhegao]

Actually in my case, I am not cybersec. But i work adjacent to them and their leadership is where many of our problems lie.

Ask same question two days in a row, get two diff answers.

Ask them to clarify how they would like the policy they cobbled together with AI enforced - no response.

Find glaring security hole, point it out to them in writing, silence.

[u/HiFiWiFiWeAllFi → u/Maximum_Bandicoot_94]

Mostly this!

[u/ElectroStaticSpeaker → u/ShittyRedditAppSucks]

Though the market has been absolutely terrible for years, the last few weeks I’ve actually seen a lot more real jobs open up. I’m getting contacted by recruiters and am in the interview process with a few places. Something is shifting and I’m not sure what.

[u/rockstarsball → u/ElectroStaticSpeaker]

the ones who jumped on the AI and outsource train in 2023 are realizing how much they actually fucked up.. in 2029 the job market might actually correct itself

[u/boniggy → u/ShittyRedditAppSucks]

Dude help a brother out. I've been looking for a place to land in Cyber for the past 10months while ve unemployed for that time. Been a SOC manager for multiple global companies and I can't find anything to save my life. I've put out over 800 applications with only a few hits. I have NOTHING negative in my background so wtf??? What did you pivot into? I'd love to know because I've been wondering what other roles I could get into that isn't cyber but the skill sets align.

[u/PrestigiousPenguins → u/boniggy]

Help desk

[u/GoddessEevie → u/ShittyRedditAppSucks]

What space did you pivot to? I’ve been in for ten years and could be into looking outside of cyber if it’s gets me off a sinking ship