Dive Brief:
- Upskilling young cybersecurity professionals is a small price to pay for employee retention and institutional longevity, a June 2022 report suggests. (ISC)², a cybersecurity professional organization, published study findings in its Cybersecurity Hiring Managers report.
- Nearly 30% of survey respondents said it takes less than $1,000 to get junior-level practitioners (workers with one to three years of experience) up to speed enough to work independently. Likewise, 42% said the same for entry-level practitioners — including those with less than a year of cybersecurity experience.
- And employers, take heart: 37% of respondents said entry-level hires take six months or less to be capable in their job, with about half of (ISC)² respondents saying the catch-up process took a year.
Dive Insight:
These findings bode well for Gen Z in particular, as they seem hungry for L&D: LinkedIn’s 2022 Workforce Confidence Index indicated that learning opportunities are a top factor in Gen Z’s job hunt. Up-and-coming professionals continue to benefit from real-world learning opportunities, whether through informal or formal mentorship programs.
When it comes to upskilling, (ISC)², 20% of hiring managers said in-house training is an effective form of L&D, 19% said conferences, 13% said external training and 11% said mentoring.
Across the board, HR personnel at cybersecurity companies make time to nurture new workers: 91% of hiring managers told (ISC)² said they carve out career development time for entry- and junior-level hires. Not only is L&D commonplace in this industry; it may also be imperative.
An October 2021 report from TalentLMS revealed that 72% of tech employees surveyed said they were thinking of quitting their job over the next 12 months, and among that cohort, 32% said a dearth of learning and development opportunities prompted thoughts of quitting.
In turn, 91% of tech employees explicitly told TalentLMS they want more training opportunities from employers. This is noteworthy because not only is this a part of the solution for plateaued career progression, but TalentLMS’s data suggested that investment in training is a direct investment in retention.
More recently, in Blind’s March 2022 report, 80% of tech employees said they were considering quitting their job. Notably, the vast majority of respondents at PayPal, T-Mobile, Dell, American Express, Goldman Sachs, and IBM, among others, hinted that they already had one foot out the door at their companies. As the Great Resignation leaves no industry unscathed, cybersecurity hiring managers may want to tap into the staying power of L&D to attract and retain employees.
