Gamers are Strong Candidates for Cybersecurity Jobs

DooKey

DooKey

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Gamers may be good candidates for cybersecurity jobs according to a new report from McAfee. McAfee surveyed hundreds of cybersecurity professionals and managers at major corporations and most of the respondents said the current generation of gamers are strong candidates for cybersecurity jobs. Furthermore, the surveys showed that the skills a gamer displays are great when it comes to cybersecurity threat hunting. Go forth and get into cybersecurity young [H] gamers!

Three-quarters of senior managers say they would consider hiring a gamer even if that person had no specific cybersecurity training or experience. 72 percent of respondents say hiring experienced video gamers into the IT department seems like a good way to plug the cybersecurity skills gap.
 
I think this is more of a case where a lack of skilled workers in Cybersecurity areas has caused employers to look at people who are in IT fields or have computer skills in general as trainable options for the field. PC gamers have an obvious interest in the platform and often possess the right mentality for problem solving and analysis required for such jobs.

When you need bodies to fill positions, you first look at what's out there for candidates. If you lack options for experienced personnel, you then look at candidates who have baseline skills that you can expand and personality traits in common with experienced people in that field as trainable. If you can't get someone who already knows what they are doing, you create an employee who does. If you can't find it or buy it, you build it. It's as simple as that.
 
I think the underlying issue is that being a black hat is more lucrative than being a white/grey hat. Granted most legit jobs now-a-days are less lucrative than their less than lawful counterparts. The draw is a bit less inciting with lots of blaming from higher ups about something that was missed or overlooked even if it was brought up in previous meetings. (pretty sure that's what happened with the Equifax debacle.)
 
SomeoneElse said:
I think the underlying issue is that being a black hat is more lucrative than being a white/grey hat. Granted most legit jobs now-a-days are less lucrative than their less than lawful counterparts. The draw is a bit less inciting with lots of blaming from higher ups about something that was missed or overlooked even if it was brought up in previous meetings. (pretty sure that's what happened with the Equifax debacle.)
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I think that's one of the many reasons why there is a vacuum in the industry that needs to be filled. There are other problems in the IT industry as a whole. Everything has turned into contract work with no stability at all. This was fine and is fine under certain conditions but one major problem is that employers no longer want to pay for training. They don't invest in people and training in areas like Cybersecurity is expensive. Most contractors can't afford to pay for that shit and take the necessary time to do this on their own. This has led to a lack of people who are trained and certified in certain areas.
 
I mean it doesn't surprise me...most of the people (myself included) in my generation that got into IT was partly because of gaming and or PC building. At the end of the day you still need a degree and or some relevant certs to be considered for any kind of entry level cyber position, and there's not really any place on my resume where I want to add the part about how I love playing video games. ;)
 
There are very few gamers, I know, that I would consider for a cybersecurity position. Many of them have the worst security I have ever seen on their own systems. They think they are secure,....and that is the worrisome part.

It does not suprise me companies would do this. Most HR departments are woefully inadequate at hiring anyone for any type of IT related position.
 
SomeoneElse said:
I think the underlying issue is that being a black hat is more lucrative than being a white/grey hat. Granted most legit jobs now-a-days are less lucrative than their less than lawful counterparts. The draw is a bit less inciting with lots of blaming from higher ups about something that was missed or overlooked even if it was brought up in previous meetings. (pretty sure that's what happened with the Equifax debacle.)
Click to expand...

This is the main reason I really do not want to go into cyber security. If the higher-ups refuse to do what is needed/recommended then instead of them getting hosed, they just use IT as the fall-guy and all that ends up happening is IT is fired and can't find a job anywhere because of it.
 
This is the kind of discrimination that is terrible for tech. We need to be more open minded and hire some music majors to be security experts and CIOs. What could go wrong with a little diversity?

susan-mauldin-600x600.jpg
 
Dan_D said:
I think that's one of the many reasons why there is a vacuum in the industry that needs to be filled. There are other problems in the IT industry as a whole. Everything has turned into contract work with no stability at all. This was fine and is fine under certain conditions but one major problem is that employers no longer want to pay for training. They don't invest in people and training in areas like Cybersecurity is expensive. Most contractors can't afford to pay for that shit and take the necessary time to do this on their own. This has led to a lack of people who are trained and certified in certain areas.
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Luckily, contracting work for DoD is different. They'll provide funds to pay for education, but they'll usually require you to stay with the company for a year or more. That way they get their money's worth. They also pay for IT certifications, if you pass. They don't pay for study material to get those certifications though.
 
krotch said:
Luckily, contracting work for DoD is different. They'll provide funds to pay for education, but they'll usually require you to stay with the company for a year or more. That way they get their money's worth. They also pay for IT certifications, if you pass. They don't pay for study material to get those certifications though.
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That used to be the standard arrangement at most places upwards of 10 years ago or so. In the time since then, places that do this are getting harder to come by.
 
McAfee != (Reliable security information)
There is a definite need for people studying cyber security and the bar for what is needed to fulfill the needs of the field is quickly outstripping the skill base that many in the field possess.
 
Dan_D said:
I think this is more of a case where a lack of skilled workers in Cybersecurity areas has caused employers to look at people who are in IT fields or have computer skills in general as trainable options for the field. PC gamers have an obvious interest in the platform and often possess the right mentality for problem solving and analysis required for such jobs.

When you need bodies to fill positions, you first look at what's out there for candidates. If you lack options for experienced personnel, you then look at candidates who have baseline skills that you can expand and personality traits in common with experienced people in that field as trainable. If you can't get someone who already knows what they are doing, you create an employee who does. If you can't find it or buy it, you build it. It's as simple as that.
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Right ..... if you wana catch cheaters, hire people who know how to cheat (y)
 
Any "news" that has the "McAfee" brand associated with it should tell you everything you need to know. Ignore it and move on.
 
Seventyfive said:
This is the kind of discrimination that is terrible for tech. We need to be more open minded and hire some music majors to be security experts and CIOs. What could go wrong with a little diversity?

View attachment 64588
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Not that this woman is the poster child for competence, but it's less weird than you might think for musicians to go into tech fields. Her degrees were in composition. Composers that work on electro-acoustic music often have to have programming skills at the least and often branch out from there. It happens with physicists too, by the way.
 
MarkVI said:
Not that this woman is the poster child for competence, but it's less weird than you might think for musicians to go into tech fields. Her degrees were in composition. Composers that work on electro-acoustic music often have to have programming skills at the least and often branch out from there. It happens with physicists too, by the way.
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You may laugh but music and math have been widely regarded as two of the best majors (outside of CS) to pull software developers out of. Teaching a music major a programming language and data structures is a lot easier than reteaching most CS majors what they half understand about algorithms. As a matter of fact IBM used to prefer music majors and would actively recruit out of the department.
 
Wait, I thought Gamer's were the scum of the earth and pirates ?

O... that's McAfee who is recommending gamer's..
now i understand
 
SomeoneElse said:
I think the underlying issue is that being a black hat is more lucrative than being a white/grey hat. Granted most legit jobs now-a-days are less lucrative than their less than lawful counterparts. The draw is a bit less inciting with lots of blaming from higher ups about something that was missed or overlooked even if it was brought up in previous meetings. (pretty sure that's what happened with the Equifax debacle.)
Click to expand...
Proof the current model of corporatism is severely lacking in common sense. And, the execs are a bunch of idiots who should never have been hired to begin with. Then again, these asshats are only concerned with their own bonuses and short-term profits, they'll set fire to the crowded cafeteria if it meant a bigger bonus for them.

EVERY company should bring its most valuable people along from the bottom up, and make it damn near impossible for them to viably leave. Japanese companies do this as a matter of course, and even make sure that the aging employees still can contribute to the entire organization as they head toward retirement.
 
Dan_D said:
I think that's one of the many reasons why there is a vacuum in the industry that needs to be filled. There are other problems in the IT industry as a whole. Everything has turned into contract work with no stability at all. This was fine and is fine under certain conditions but one major problem is that employers no longer want to pay for training. They don't invest in people and training in areas like Cybersecurity is expensive. Most contractors can't afford to pay for that shit and take the necessary time to do this on their own. This has led to a lack of people who are trained and certified in certain areas.
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Exactly. Modern American management considers any employees below the exec levels a complete waste of money.
 
delita said:
I mean it doesn't surprise me...most of the people (myself included) in my generation that got into IT was partly because of gaming and or PC building. At the end of the day you still need a degree and or some relevant certs to be considered for any kind of entry level cyber position, and there's not really any place on my resume where I want to add the part about how I love playing video games. ;)
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You put that under "Personal skills". Under mine, I have computer building, gaming, repairing and building cars, and oil painting. ;)
 
BSmith said:
It does not suprise me companies would do this. Most HR departments are woefully inadequate at hiring anyone for any type of IT related position.
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"HR" should be retitled "CR", or "Corporate Resources", because their REAL jobs aren't providing benefit for the workers, but rather protecting the company from the employees, including lower and middle management.
 
Dan_D said:
I think that's one of the many reasons why there is a vacuum in the industry that needs to be filled. There are other problems in the IT industry as a whole. Everything has turned into contract work with no stability at all. This was fine and is fine under certain conditions but one major problem is that employers no longer want to pay for training. They don't invest in people and training in areas like Cybersecurity is expensive. Most contractors can't afford to pay for that shit and take the necessary time to do this on their own. This has led to a lack of people who are trained and certified in certain areas.
Click to expand...

As someone in the pharma industry, I can tell you what you're seeing is not unique to the IT industry. I am observing the exact same trends at my company. They place no value on experience except at the director level or above, and have no interest in employee retention. I see work that used to be done by people with a minimum of bachelor's degrees getting taken over by high school diploma contract workers, and lots of lying and coverups to hide screwups from the FDA. Which is ironic because the FDA is really cracking down on traceable paper trails and electronic records.
 
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