Job Outlook (Opinion & thoughts)

Its tough ya'll, it really is. Many people who have their jobs are holding tight and providing quality, however depending which company you are at *cough Microsoft* there will be layoffs. As mentioned before Masters students are not immune to the lay offs, so its important to remain consistent with technical skills.

Additionally, people are saying AI will take our jobs or AI will help enhance our jobs. Let me be real, AI will definitely shift the paradigm of our Help Desk / Tier 1's SOCs as we know it. I've already seen first hand that a few companies are cutting their SOC services due to them incorporating a internal AI to deal with low tickets. If that doesn't scream 'dey tirk er jerbs' i don't what does. So what does that mean for current T1's? It means you need to start blending in a bit of engineering projects or learning into your arsenal. With the 'elimination or shift' of the current state of T1's there will either be a rise of fall-off for them. Same thing for T2's they will now need to manage and conduct thorough investigations using the AI tool. So they'd technically be the new "T1's".

Cold Applying through Linkedin, Indeed, Glassdoor

Very very VERY slim chances. If you know me, my first job as a T1 started off with talking to some dude off of discord. Very shady AOL chatroom vibes lol, but it worked out. The guy was/is legit and the company is also legit lol. However, it wasn't a first time getting into the job. Initially I was denied first due to the lack of skills and certifications. I came back a year later with Sec+ in my hand and a few labs from RangeForce, TryHackMe, Blue team Online, and Cyber Defenders.

Anyways, Cold applying through job platforms is very slim pickings. There will be those rare occasions you'll get a recruiter call back but then again it may take months until someone sees your resume.

What you should do is attend your local cybersecurity groups, bsides, and discord channels to make new connections into this space. You never know who you come across and the people they know as well.

HR takes time

I want to give benefit of the doubt to HR peeps. They go through hundreds if not thousands of applicants. I've personally gotten a rejection notice 9 months later from the initial job posting. There are also stories / "conspiracies" of companies posting "ghost" jobs to be seen that they are hiring, but in actuality they're not. Ya know how unemployment works? Where you have to show the government that you've been laid off and have been applying to companies in order to get unemployment benefits, yeah it kind of works on the company side too. Companies may show that they are actively hiring, but in reality they either might not be or the process has been frozen on their end.

Conclusion

Job outlook is very difficult to navigate. It took me about a year on-and-off to find a new job. The upcoming Agentic AI solutions that companies will try to save money upon, the shifts of HR and seeing what the company needs, and the overall economy and external factors play into this as well.