Even cybersecurity is a business. Even with eternal demand companies have their ups and downs.
If cybersecurity is the new “plastics” for surefire jobs and career advancement, federal cyber people looking to make the jump to industry should think twice.
Two developments in the past week:
These companies aren’t being evil. They’re trying to be good stewards of their stockholders’ investments, their customers’ faith and their balance sheets. I point out these developments merely to say that even cybersecurity is a business. Every week, it seems, another survey comes out showing the vast, unfulfilled demand for people trained in cybersecurity. The surveys and the dutiful headlines they spark might be largely true.
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Cybersecurity, though, is not a fixed, unchanging thing. Services that were new and technically advanced become better understood and turn to commodities, or companies engineer them so that one person can do what used to take several. Products gain imitators, flattening out the fast growth that might characterize them when they’re new. And, companies merge, creating redundancies.
Organizations’ need for cybersecurity will never go away. Yet even go-go industries have ups and downs, business cycles, mergers and acquisitions — all of which can mean layoffs or reductions in force. Running on the lush green grass always feels good until you step into a hidden hole.
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Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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