Do Computer Information Security studies have demand in Europe, USA or Far east asia?
With an Engineering degree from Sri Lanka, now Im working in software field in my country. Im starting my Masters in Computer science coming year, & plan to specialize in Computer Information Security. Im keen to know, how much this effort will get its demand in abroad like USA or UK once I complete the studies.
I am a network architect, and have several certification in Security, including being a certified ethical hacker, from the EC-Counsil. (Electronic Commerce). This has given me a large increase in contracts and in pay, so definitely a demand for security analysts, however…
You have two things that go against you, it is rare for places to hire just a secuirty analyst, they would rather hire someone that can be a jack of all trades, and if you do get hired for security, you will need a LOT of knowledge under your belt.
Which brings me to the next thing, the IT market is flooded, tons of people have moved to IT in the hopes of making triple digit incomes and the promise of a career. This got fueled even more by companies looking to profit off certifications, such as the MCSE, where they teach you how to answer the test, not really understand it.
Now, we have a lot of out of work IT people, and as soon as a job is posted, it is flooded with resumes. I was looking for a junior engineer a few weeks ago and got over 100 resumes in a day, all were MCSE’s, which had no bearing ont he work we are doing since it is all routing and switching, but during interviews, no one really knew what they were doing, gave me that look of what is a vlan? Layer what switching? Oh yeah, I can set-up a Cisco 2651 router, I did my Linkys at home..
Ok, sorry for the long answer, but hopes it helps you understand. The key her is experience and really knowing what you are doing. And really, In US, it isn’t such a glorious thing to have a degree for IT, having good certifications (CCIE, EC-Council Ethical Hacker cert, etc) basically certs that make you prove your knowledge rather than pass a quick computer test, and have real world experience are the things that will get you a job.
Experience, Experience, Experience, it will get a high school drop-put with real world experience a job in IT over a recent college graduate. (Well, for network, and network secuity at least, programming and management is a whole different game).