IT Security career
According to industry report, one of the “Hottest jobs” today is Information Technology (IT) Security specialists. There is a critical shortage of people with these skills as most companies are having difficult to lure these workers away from their current employers. The report stated that recent incidents in security all over the world has pushed demand for IT Security specialists to all time high. Salaries of Security workers also got a significant raise over 12% each year in the past three years because the high demand.
Currently the supply is low because only few universities can teach this skill. The report predicts that the shortage will continue for at least ten more years until the supply and meet demand. A Wall Street analyst wrote: “If you study IT, you should specialize in Security because it is the most stable job in this fast changing world. The average salary for an IT Security professional globally is “$112,000 but salaries in the U.S. are much higher with many are making over $150,000 annually. This is the most stable job as no company want to lose security workers. To keep them, they must continue to raise salary to stay competitive.” That may explain why 83% of global security workers had no job change in the past five years; only 11 percent of them reported leaving a job for another company in the past 12 months. A manager said: “It is very difficult to find skilled security workers so we have to keep them at all cost.”
In the world full of hackers, cyber-attacks, the job market for IT security is getting “Hotter” and demand is getting “Higher”. Most executives said they are willing to pay more for skilled security skilled workers. There are three major categories of IT security in the job market: Security analysts, Security engineering (Planning and design security systems) and Security auditor. All of them require an advanced degree such as Master‘s degree in Computing Security.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
