New Graduates in the Class of 2021, Welcome to the Real World!
Class of 2021
If you are a recent college graduate in the US, hopefully you are enjoying the unofficial start of summer with a new job.
You will have some important financial decisions to make this year. Thankfully, there is an app for that!
Julie Jargon, Family & Tech columnist for The Wall Street, provided an excellent tip sheet on adulting and the tools available to graduates via apps. The Realworld App offers a starter pack with help on finances, health, and life. While the website is free, Realworld offers a short Realworld Ready course for a nominal fee that covers a variety of basics.
Career Options
Jargon’s article got me thinking about college grads who are looking for career options.
One graduate I know is considering a career in law enforcement. When she reached out to me for advice, I thought that her skill set would transfer seamlessly to the cybersecurity field. Am I biased toward cybersecurity. You bet I am! We need some of our great minds to help us fight the bad guys!
She is skeptical because she majored in sociology, not computer science. We have discussed the importance of understanding what makes us humans tick, the role of law enforcement, and cyber threats to people, businesses, and the nation. Her decision is forthcoming.
Why Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is multi-faceted and evolving as quickly as the evolution of cyberattacks.
What we need is a collaboration between the public and private sector and between all levels of employees within an organization, agency, or institution.
What we need is cybersecurity awareness training that helps each individual understand the cyber risks they face and how to avoid being lured into releasing login credentials or sensitive personal information.
What we need is more people working in this sector to defend against the onslaught of ever-increasing cyber threats.
This is not merely an information technology (IT) issue. That was yesterday’s news.
If we look at recent history, cybercriminals are winning. If we proactively seek to prevent cyber incidents, why do we fail? The literature and social media are full of thoughts and ideas about how we have tried and failed to stop hackers from breaking into our networks and stealing our data — or even worse our identity. It is worth repeating — very often we do not think before we click — on a link in an email or text message. When we click, we release malware into our phone, computer, or network. The hackers are in and they win.
We had our guard down in the recent ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline that led the company to shut down its entire pipeline for nearly seven days. This cyber event left large swaths of the East Coast with fuel shortages, forcing consumers to wait in long lines for limited gasoline supplies at high prices (a full investigation is ongoing).
“The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving and we must adapt to address new and emerging threats,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. The US is looking to strengthen its cybersecurity defenses.
Cybersecurity jobs are plentiful and remain unfilled. A stunning statistic is reverberating in cybersecurity, namely an estimated 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs will be available but unfilled by 2021, as predicted by Cybersecurity Ventures and other experts.
Call to Action (CTA)
Right now, we need more talent in the cybersecurity field. Students of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), business, law, education, risk management, insurance, and any other field of study, have contributions to make and unique perspectives to share. You need not be a computer science major to contribute to this expanding, evolving industry sector.
Those without a college degree are not out of the equation either. You may have contributions to make as well. We are seeing all sorts of vocational programs, such as coding schools, for education and re-education of adults.
Those of us who mentor people need to step up to help increase the cybersecurity pipeline and talent pool. We have an opportunity to join the effort to get the Class of 2021 on board! This is truly a collaborative effort.
Featured image (top) by Dawn Kristy
