More Opportunities for Cybersecurity Employment Than You Might Think

Findings from a recent study presented by CompTIA to a panel organized by congressman Bill Foster of Illinois suggest that the furor over insufficient cybersecurity readiness at businesses won't die down anytime soon. In particular, CompTIA cites mistakes by employees as being the biggest single stumbling block to most businesses' IT defense posture. Cybercriminals looking for a way in are applying increasing pressure to the weakest point in most defense networks: personnel.

First and foremost, the large number of open cybersecurity positions at U.S. and international firms demonstrates that jobs in the field continue to go begging for qualified professionals to fill them. In turn, this means it's important to develop a pipeline for producing such professionals, and then to get that pipeline filled so as to provide the workplace with a sufficient supply of qualified workers to occupy those open positions.

Second, and perhaps of equal interest to IT professional already in the workforce, this means there are significant opportunities for those interested in designing, developing and delivering training materials in this field. This situation, too, has its own double-whammy: In addition to the pressing marketplace need for trained cybersecurity professionals that is already a source of substantial employment potential in its own right, there's a much bigger demand for individuals or oganizations to design, develop, and deliver training materials for the general workforce.

It's in everyone's best interest to establish and maintain at every business entity a good sense of cybersecurity awareness and understanding. We need all employees everywhere to know best principles and practices, and then put that knowledge into practice on the job.

This definitely explains why cybersecurity certifications like those I've identified in my Best IT Certifications for 2015 listing at Tom's IT Pro — especially those in my rosters of Best Information Security Certifications and Best Computer Forensics Certifications — are in such high demand. In particular, cybersecurity certs related to more senior job roles and responsibilities are a premium. Those are the ones that offer the highest probability of interesting jobs plus great compensation and benefits to match.

The Best IT Trainer Certifications listing also gets a profound boost from these marketplace phenomena, because of the need to train up cybersecurity professionals in particular, and the remaining workforce in general. (Don't overlook the other 25 categories of "bests," either; many, if not most of them, include security coverage amidst their other concerns.)

At least one moral of this story is: "If you're an IT pro of any kind, and aren't factoring security into your career development plans already, now's the time to start." An intriguing corollary — at least for those interested in cybersecurity training and/or content development for cybersecurity training (at all levels) — is, "Consider some of kind of cybersecurity training role, perhaps in design and/or development of training materials, perhaps in their delivery, as a possible future direction for your IT career." Apparently, there's lots of opportunity in this part of the IT realm that looks likely to continue for the foreseeable future!