U.S. has almost 500,000 job openings in cybersecurity
There are about 465,000 open positions in cybersecurity nationwide as of May 2021, according to Cyber Seek — a tech job-tracking database from the U.S. Commerce Department — and the trade group CompTIA.
The need for more web watchmen spans from private businesses to government agencies, experts say, and most of the job openings are in California, Florida, Texas and Virginia. That means for anyone looking to switch careers and considering a job in cybersecurity, there's no greater time than now to find work, the job trackers said.
"You don't have to be a graduate of MIT to work in cybersecurity," said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research at CompTIA. "It just requires someone who has the proper training, proper certification and is certainly committed to the work."
Switching careers to cybersecurity could be as easy as grabbing a Network+ or Security+ certification, said Michelle Moore, who teaches cybersecurity operations at the University of San Diego. An eight-week online course could help someone land an entry-level job as a "pen tester," a network security engineer or an incident response analyst, Moore said. Those jobs pay between $60,000 to $90,000 a year, she added.
