Has anyone else noticed the lack of junior security analyst positions? I moved across the country and am looking for a new job but am seeing mostly senior, management and information security cyber roles available, which I am not qualified for.
I’ve applied to dozens of local and remote entry level analyst security roles but am not getting any interviews even with 2 years of SOC experience and 9 years of IT support under my belt. The job descriptions call for 3+ years security experience.
I’m trying to get the security+ cert to boost my chances, as I only have the AZ-900 cert right now. It seems that AI and the poor economy are wiping out the entry level SOC jobs? Now I’m thinking about working a non-cyber IT job for the time being. Is anyone else in the same boat? Should I just keep applying to cyber jobs? I’ve been jobless for two months now!
AI is a bit of a scape goat here. Yes, companies are leveraging AI for tasks that a junior/entry level person might do: leading to a staggering 50% drop in entry level roles. That’s because companies don’t want to train people any more, and they expect new hires to come in with advanced skill sets. In addition, those new hires are expected to leverage AI for greater output at no or minimal additional cost. There are still entry level roles, just fewer than in the past.
Where AI is doing real damage (IMO) is in the hiring process. AI is used by employers to screen candidates and by job seekers to curve fit resumes, write cover letters, and in many cases try to subvert the hiring AIs. Some HR managers are now filtering out “AI generated” resumes because they pour through the filtering system and make it much harder to distinguish a great candidate from an OK candidate with a highly tweaked resume. Frankly, I have no sympathy for HR because they made this mess.
The best thing, and frankly the only thing you can do is persevere. Most people lose hope and give up. If you don’t then you can beat the odds. You may have to get a “joe job” for a while to pay the bills; and don’t think those are easy to get either. You may need to stick with IT support. You may need to explore contracting.
I wish I had some magic advice to offer. At 60 years old I myself had to take a support role for a substantial cut in pay. It’s a tough pill to swallow. However, this is not the first time in my life I had to “step back” in order to “move forward”.
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Thank you! Very good advice.