Cybersecurity Is His Jam

GMU student is relying on certification to help him prepare for a government cybersecruity career

- Calvin Harper

Irony is interesting because it’s unexpected. In my case, I still don’t have an IT certification (I promise I haven’t stopped working on my Desktop Pro), yet I am frequently asked to speak to students about careers in the tech industry.

When young people hear that I write for Certification Magazine, the first question they invariably ask is about the pros and cons of certification. I typically respond by listing the four big advantages of earning a cert:

• They contain current information.

• They are quicker to complete than a college degree.

• They are less expensive to complete than a college degree.

• They measure and verify directly applicable, job-ready knowledge and skills.

That gets kids are excited for me to answer their next question: Which cert will best help them land a high-paying job? Without fail, my answer is, “Cybersecurity, all the way.” To buttress my humble opinion, I pop out a few verifiable statistics.

For example, within the next two years, worldwide spending on cybersecurity will exceed $140 billion annually. Or there’s this: Only five percent of companies feel confident that they are sufficiently protected from a cyber-attack. That sort of thing.

The truth is that when it comes to in-demand IT jobs, nothing compares to cybersecurity. You just can’t go wrong with a security certification. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the past seven years the demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals has grown at an average of 37 percent annually.