Where do you want to see yourself in 5 years?

A few weeks ago I announced our collaboration with Florida International University– Computer Science to bridge the gap between academia and industry for young talents. Today I met 7 young talented computer science graduates from FIU, talking about the secret authentication project we will be working on together, and one of the questions I asked them was “Where do you want to see yourself in 5 years?”.

Some expected, and some unexpected answers and I wanted to share two of them with you:

* A female cybersecurity senior told me she wants to work for big companies in 5 years (a common theme), but surprisingly she said she believes she has to work in a hotel or restaurant until she can get a real cybersecurity job.

Why is it surprising to me? As all of us in the infosec community know there’s so much demand for cybersecurity teams, yet she’s struggling to find jobs, is it because the cybersecurity industry is male-dominated? Or there’s a larger gap between academia and industry in the security space? My CISO friends, any comments?

The second one was a student who said he’s going to support his family and loved ones, as they made so much sacrifice for him to reach this stage, leaving their country 5 years ago, in a hard journey and now he needs to give back. Respect!