MADISON, Wis. — The cybersecurity industry is in desperate need of workers, but there seems to be no short-term fix to an issue that could affect every home in the United States.
The number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs grew by 350% from 2013 to 2021, jumping from 1 million to 3.5 million, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.
And if you’re asking Jacob Persinger and Kevin Cisler why there is a shortage of cybersecurity workers, they’d say the answer isn’t that simple.
“It is sort of a chicken and egg thing where it is like, well, you need to get experience to get the job but you need the job to get the experience,” said Cisler.
Persinger and Cisler both work for Firm Guardian, a small cybersecurity company based out of Madison. They said they never planned to work in the cybersecurity industry.
Even if they had wanted to work in the industry, they said they would’ve had no idea how to get there.
“Like I said, there are separate security degrees now. Like you said with UW-Madison has a hub, where they are trying to push people into the industry more,” said Cisler. “That will eventually come around to elevate things but that will take time.”
While many universities across the U.S. now offer cybersecurity majors, Persinger and Cisler said that was not the case when they were starting out in the field.
“I started in IT and found it interesting,” said Persinger.
Cisler said he started out as a developer and ended up as a verification engineer.
Another issue that is preventing the industry from filling its empty positions is the requirements. Most cybersecurity companies require some form of experience before they hire workers and with no direct path, Cisler said these companies are not hiring anyone.
“A lot of places require certain certifications. Basically, this is a third party certification. Usually they don’t pay for it. If you don’t have it… HR won’t even look at your resume,” he said.
But Firm Guardian is unlike most cybersecurity companies, as they understand the troubles that the industry is facing and are willing to hire workers with less experience than would be required at most companies. Because of that, they’re not seeing a shortage of workers.
The true birth of the cybersecurity industry was in the 1970s and, with the industry being so new, job positions are still being created. However, without the workers to fill these positions, people are being overworked.
“You are putting in a lot of extra hours because you are doing the job of two or three people. You are not being given the tools to create the software you need to create like a SIM,” said Persinger.
Both Persinger and Cisler said they believe that the future looks brighter for the cybersecurity industry, but they don’t think the changes needed will come soon.
They said if companies want to fill their open positions sooner than later, they will have to hire people with more diverse resumes and treat their employees better.