We Require 3-5 Years of Experience to Qualify for the Cyber Skills Shortage

Are cybersecurity influencers exploiting the cyber skills shortage as a means to sell a range of “get a cyber career quick”-type courses? While some areas in cybersecurity struggle to fill roles, the reality is that this demand isn’t for entry-level positions. How do we start filling those badly needed skills without selling cybersecurity career snake oil?

This week’s episode is co-hosted

David Spark

, the producer of CISO Series, and

Mike Johnson

, CISO,
Rivian
. Joining them is

Anne Marie Zettlemoyer

, former vp of security, Activision Blizzard. Huge thanks to our sponsor,
ThreatLocker
.

Security operations centers are struggling with a fundamental design flaw that creates unsustainable workloads for analysts. Modern SOC environments continue to overwhelm security teams with alerts that require extensive manual investigation and context gathering from multiple systems, noted

Anton Chuvakin

of the Google Cloud Security Podcast. The most effective approach involves implementing automation that delivers enriched, contextualized information directly to analysts rather than forcing them to piece together fragments from disparate tools. Success requires establishing feedback mechanisms that capture decision-making patterns and outcomes to improve automated processes continually. Organizations should prioritize solutions that provide comprehensive investigation results directly to analysts within their primary workspace, eliminating the need for manual data correlation across multiple platforms.

The cybersecurity job market presents a complex picture where genuine skill shortages exist in specialized areas such as operational technology forensics and malware reverse engineering. At the same time, entry-level positions face different challenges entirely. Junior roles increasingly require a combination of technical experience, formal education, certifications, and demonstrated community involvement, rather than standalone qualifications, as illustrated by

Lesley Carhart

of
Dragos, Inc.
on LinkedIn. The most effective pathway for newcomers involves starting with managed security service providers, which offer structured training environments and documented processes that build essential decision-making skills. Success in SOC roles depends more on developing persistence, analytical judgment, and soft skills than purely technical capabilities, requiring organizations to create proper mentorship and feedback systems for new analysts.

The cybersecurity industry’s approach to incident response can focus on assigning individual blame rather than addressing systemic issues and learning opportunities. Security professionals frequently experience personal guilt following breaches, despite incidents typically resulting from multiple factors rather than single points of failure, as highlighted in a recent cybersecurity subreddit discussion. Effective incident management requires implementing structured shift rotations during extended responses to prevent team burnout and maintain decision-making quality throughout the crisis. Leadership must coach team members on managing the adrenaline and intensity of incident response while establishing clear protocols for when to bring in additional resources versus allowing individuals to contribute meaningfully to resolution efforts.

Assessing vendor viability requires examining leadership backgrounds, market understanding, and demonstrated ability to deliver on commitments rather than relying solely on product demonstrations or funding announcements. Vendor viability should be on your radar, argued

Christopher O’Malley

, CEO at
Exabeam
. Successful vendor relationships involve starting with limited engagements to test responsiveness, technical capability, and willingness to collaborate on solution development. Organizations should evaluate how vendors handle direct questions about their security practices, business continuity plans, and worst-case scenarios, watching for evasive responses or deflection tactics. Risk management principles apply equally to vendor selection, requiring contingency planning for potential vendor failures, acquisitions, or product discontinuations, regardless of company size or market position.

Listen to the full episode on our blog or your favorite podcast app, where you can read the entire transcript. If you haven’t subscribed to the CISO Series Podcast via your favorite podcast app, please do so now. Listen to the full episode here.

Thanks to

Dr. Dustin Sachs DCS, CISSP, CCISO

of
CyberRisk Collaborative
for contributing this week’s “What’s Worse?!” scenario.  

Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, RSS, or just type “CISO Series Podcast” into your favorite podcast app.

“Besides rethinking your life decisions, I want CISOs to really welcome the role of being an executive, and that means that you have to learn how the business makes money, how it loses money, how it protects money. So, you’ve got to learn how to speak in terms of dollars and downtime, brand impact, competitive advantage. Boards don’t buy EDR. They don’t buy the tech. They invest in resilience. So, while you are expected to be technical, it’s your strategic ability that’s going to set you apart from other CISOs.“ –

Anne Marie Zettlemoyer

, former vp of security, Activision Blizzard

Listen to the full episode of “We Require 3-5 Years of Experience to Qualify for the Cyber Skills Shortage”

“We absolutely didn’t start with a yes. We started with a hard no, started with blocking everything that we could. We started making life as hard as we can because we didn’t know anything else, and we were IT guys trying to do their best job.” –

Hanan Szwarcbord

, vp, CSO and head of infrastructure,
Micron Technology

Listen to the full episode of “Don’t Ask “Can” We Secure It, But “How” Can We Secure It”

CISO Series Newsletter – Twice every week

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Think your company’s cybersecurity ends at the office?

David Spark

spoke with Dr.

Chris Pierson

, founder and CEO at
BLACKCLOAK
, and explored how attackers are increasingly targeting executives through their personal lives, families, and home networks to breach corporate defenses.

This emerging threat landscape is exactly what
BLACKCLOAK
addresses through its comprehensive executive protection platform. As cyber criminals and nation-state actors increasingly recognize that the path of least resistance often runs through executives’ personal lives, the traditional boundaries between personal and professional cybersecurity have completely dissolved.

Read the full blog post here.

We have no live shows this Friday, but join us on Friday, July 11, 2025, for Super Cyber Friday: “Hacking the Resilience Mindset.”

It all kicks off at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT, when

David Spark

will be joined by

Liz Morton

, field CISO,
Axonius
, and

Nick Vigier

, CISO,
Oscar Health
, for an hour of insightful conversation and engaging games. And at 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT, stick around for our always-popular meetup. This time, it will be hosted right inside the event platform.

Register now on LinkedIn

Remember to add it to your calendar via LinkedIn or on Airmeet link in the invite.

We love all kinds of support: listening, watching, contributions, What’s Worse?! scenarios, telling your friends, sharing in social media, and most of all we love our sponsors!

Everything is available at cisoseries.com.

Interested in sponsorship, contact me, David Spark.