I'm thinking of changing career to IT taking benefit of commonwealth supported discounted Graduate Certificate in Cyber/IT-related courses. What are job prospects? Please share your thoughts. Thanks.
Career Transition to IT
Bab on 06/02/2021 - 18:17
Comments
Thanks. I'm 50 and thinking of getting into cyber security.
Can you code with Substrate, Rust, Solidity or willing to learn?
For a role in cyber security? Really?
Narrow it down first.
Saying "IT" is about as broad as saying a "creative" field or "art". There are hundreds of sub-disciplines and specializations in IT now but they can be grouped into about 4 main categories:
- Hardware
- Software
- Support
- Sales/Marketing
(Also ranked in order of respectability, imo)
The most difficult and currently most sought after would be the software discipline, specifically programmers in high-level languages. After that would be mobile app development and web development (though web development is getting the point of being automated out of existence). Software testing is fairly cushy and easy to enter but takes a while to progress to the point of earning a good income. I'm not going to use the nauseating word "DevOps" as that's just a marketing buzzword for programmers who are forced to more than just programming, but that is also a new role that every software developer loves to slap all over their websites and marketing material these days. Likewise anything you read including the words "automation", "A.I", "machine learning", "big data" and "algorithms" is just modern-day marketing psychobabble for programming with a hardware orientation and some soft skills/social engineering.
I don't know what your particular aptitude or exposure to IT is, but generally speaking unless you've had a lifelong passion for programming from a fairly young age, you should not enter software development half-heartedly and just expect to fake your way through it until you've had enough on-the-job training and experience to be competent. Any consideration of a career in software (especially programming) should be taken very seriously along the lines of a career in theoretical physics or nuclear energy.
The other categories of IT roles you honestly don't need a university degree to enter and you can become fairly competent in with about 2 years of study in online courses and accreditation with a few IT certs under your belt (though it really helps to have a lot of hardware handy at home or access to some, to be able to tinker on your own time).
IT support personnel are a dime-a-dozen these days and the low barriers to entry along with the very low recruiting scrutiny from MSPs (Managed Services Providers; i.e. Outsourced IT Departments/Helpdesks) who love to burn-and-churn support stuff like they're expendable clones makes it the most "bang-for-your-buck" category of IT work as you'll learn plenty on the job, be exposed to all kinds of IT environments from the corner store deli to +1,000 user multinational enterprises with on-prem datacentres, but consequently you will be burned out in no time flat and desperately want to leave. These roles are best for people who really need a solid base of experience with a varied array of IT hardware, software, processes and businesses, but shouldn't be seen as lifelong careers unless you want to be the bitter greybeard "IT guy" of Bastard Operator from Hell fame. Classic SysAdmin positions where you're the sole internal IT employee or part of a small internal IT team for an SME can be quite good in terms of compensation, workload and satisfaction but can dead-end your career progression and make it hard to switch jobs.
Hardware, especially anything to do with networking, architecture solutions or hardware engineering, pay very well but have perhaps the smallest pool of available jobs in Australia, given we don't have our own Silicon Valley, don't manufacture many high-tech products and have a services-oriented economy. These roles probably have the best balance of workload/compensation, the most respect afforded to them and I would say everyone I know in them is more content in their jobs than anyone in software, support or sales/marketing.
Sales and marketing roles you don't even need to actually know anything about IT to work in and the amount of BDMs, account managers and sales execs I've met who couldn't tell you what their product/software/"next big thing" actually did beyond their cold-calling script is a testament to that. I would stay clear of these jobs simply for the fact that they're not really IT roles and they have very little useful, transferable skillets for other IT career paths and the fact that you're essentially a pimped-out telemarketer for the most part.
God damn you were bang on about all of that, kudos.
Great advice.
My only comment is don't rule out Sales/Marketing roles. I've worked for 25 years with them and the people in those roles who do have IT expertise can have great careers and be excellently remunerated. And I have seen some ex-techs do very well if they have the people skills.
Sounds like you've had some bad experiences with MSPs. I work for one that operates nationwide and our staff turnover is very very low. There's also heaps of perks. That's the case with all companies though.
We certainly need more people with SQL knowledge though.
Thanks. I'm 50 and thinking of getting into cyber security.
I wouldn't go into Cyber Security as a total IT greenhorn at the age of 50 unless you've had at least 10 years of experience in other IT fields.
What was your previous career? Are there any transferable skills and have you been around IT environments/personnel much and osmosed some knowledge here and there?
Seconded, would probably not be worthwhile to have a career change at that age, and better to try to pivot the experience and skills you do have.
Furthermore, you would be competing against recent university graduates in a similar field, which would not particularly put you at an advantage.
Gnostikos is spot on. If you don't have transferable skills you'd be starting at the bottom (in which case I don't think changing at 50 would be worthwhile).
There are lots of roles in the cyber field though: Analysts, Developers, Engineering Dept, Intel Analysts, Risk Assessors, Compliance roles and people managers. So the transferable skill doesn't necessarily have to be technical.
Best of luck.
If you have figured out how to hack something in the past and got away with it then may bee otherwise NO go. Even then hacking and IT security are worlds apart in the real world, but you need to think of how a hacker will/could/may get in.
Better off thinking of getting into testing IMHO as you may be able to use your knowledge of various things to ask questions that matter in regards to is this tested enough and do I think this is good enough to be released etc.
job prospects?
Not good…am recently qualified cybersecurity professional and studied with the best!
Any 'IT person' can in reality do cybersecurity, and all of the 'juicy' positions are already 'spoken for'…just dont go in expecting big things
Cyber security leaders seek solutions for 'dire' skills shortage — AM Programme, ABC Radio, 20/9/2019
Having looking into moving to CyberSec myself, I found that everyone complains there is a shortage of skilled workers, but no one wants to know a mature age worker without a minimum of CISSP. These CyberSec Grad Certs are useless for job hunting. The lucky ones might be offered internships.
The main issue in the cyber security industry is that everyone wants experienced hires and/or very specific niche skillsets, there aren't a lot of jobs at the entry level. Usually, only consultancies will take on entry/grad level people and then they have to be trained/work their way up from there.
Unless you're indulging a personal fancy and don't particularly need the money, I can't see this late career change paying off. How old will you be when you graduate? How will you compete against 20 year old graduates for jobs, let alone promotions or upskilling? If you intend to retire by 65, how much track is left for any upward mobility? You'll get bumped down to an entry level job with entry level pay for the rest of your life.
Shouldn’t go chasing fad jobs, by the time you are qualified, you’ll be competing with lots of others like yourself, and at 50, IMHO unless you can transfer your current skills into a CS role, I reckon it’ll be an uphill battle.
I'm in your age group and work for a software company. I know some cyber security people.
I think you would experience extremely rampant age discrimination entering this field, to the point you would be virtually unemployable as a new grad of a grad cert, even if you were the number one ranked graduate. Sorry.If, and it is a big if, you currently worked for a government agency or something trying to prove their inclusivity with a program for older workers, and you had past experience that slotted in, then maybe? Or if you are currently a risk management consultant, and wanted to branch into covering cyber risks or something?
You're not wrong about the age discrimination. A lot of banks like ANZ for example have programs to get cyber security graduates onboard and there's a real good chance of being employed. Hard to see that happening in the older age brackets.
There is and will always be a demand for IT cyber security (or whatever the terminology is), especially with regards to "cloud" security or whatever they try to sell next (that's the job of the sales / marketing people really, FUD).
If you are keen to learn, there are a lot of free courses available from the various cloud service providers (AWS, Google, MS) who are trying to make themselves the dominant player, and these are good places to start to see if this is something of interest to you.
From personal experience, it is a field saturated with people who hold a lot of certifications (e.g. CISSP, CISM, CISA etc.), but can't really do the job because of a lack of operational experience
Honestly, I don't think there is much of a future here, as more and more of these jobs will be outsourced to cheaper countries. Resistance against off-shoring is gradually being eroded, and the remaining resistance will eventually be eliminatd in favour of cost …
I'm curious what aspects of cyber security you're interested in or would like to work in? There's so many different areas.
check Microsoft Traineeship Program,
https://www.tafensw.edu.au/microsoft-traineeship
https://www.seek.com.au/microsoft-traineeship-jobs :As a Microsoft Trainee, you'll gain:
A Certificate IV in Information Technology delivered by TAFE NSW
Paid on-the-job experience within the Microsoft Australia network
In-demand, industry recognised knowledge and experience
Personalised mentoring support throughout your training, and
The skills, knowledge and industry experience to build an amazing future careerrelated whirpool topiscs :
Cert 4 or Degree for Cyber security/Games Dev- https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/37xnv7w9
Microsoft Internship 20/21 -
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9p8njkz9Thanks
Thanks. Ineligible for MS program as I’ve higher qualifications than Certificate IV.
Chances of getting a job as a 50 year old doing a grad cert in cyber security:
- If you are a talented amateur hacker and just need official qualifications to get a job: maybe
- If you are a seasoned IT professional and want to change fields: decent chance
- If you have the ins with someone in a company and they want to hire you as a personal favour but need you to have a qualification so they can justify the hire to their boss: decent chance
- Existing qualifications are not in IT and don't have professional IT experience: incredibly unlikely
You might have a shot at a grad program if you do well in the course and there isn't much competition but the pay won't be great and you might not even get a rotation in cyber security anyway
Thanks
What is your age range,and work experience/history like?
What area of IT are you thinking of?