On the heels of last month’s White House reorganization plan, the state of cybersecurity careers within the government is changing. In part, this plan aims to address several pressing issues in the job category within the context of government employment and to attract top talent to otherwise staling roles.

Over the past few years, government agencies have struggled to attract and retain top cybersecurity talent. There are many factors contributing to this struggle, both within these agencies and from outside them. But with an aging workforce among the government’s IT specialists — there are nearly five employees aged 60 and above for each employee under 30 — those challenges are reaching a breaking point, and the reorganization plan aims to fix that.

Salary Differences

One major factor influencing the ability of the government to find and entice top talent is salary. Although on average, government jobs offer higher salaries than the private sector does; government cybersecurity jobs tend to earn less than those in the private sector. Without that financial incentive, top-performing potential employees are not as enticed to work for government agencies as they otherwise would be.

To combat this, the government restructuring plan has set in motion the creation of a new compensation system with potential employees receiving salary offers based on their expertise in the field. Ideally, once put in place, this new offer system will allow for competitive offers to prospective employees and convince even the best in the field to consider government work.

Limited Upward Mobility

A struggle facing many cybersecurity employees working for government agencies is uncertainty about career advancement. Especially with the fragmentation among departments, there has not been a clear career path for employees within the job category. Complicating this further, there are abundant cybersecurity jobs available nationwide at private-sector companies (Read more...)