There is an interesting argument in a recent article titled Too Experienced to Hire, Too Young to Retire: The Cybersecurity Career Trap for Gen X.
And honestly, it describes a career problem we don't discuss enough.
Cybersecurity constantly talks about talent shortages. Companies say they need people who understand risk, can communicate with management, make difficult decisions and know how technology actually fails.
Then someone with 20 or 25 years of experience applies.
Suddenly they're "overqualified."
Too senior for an operational role. Too expensive for middle management. Maybe not the profile the company imagined for a "dynamic" team.
But they're also nowhere near retirement.
That's the strange career gap the article explores.
What makes the argument interesting is that experience in cybersecurity doesn't work like knowledge of an old software version. Tools change, but many of the problems don't. Identity still gets compromised. Systems are still misconfigured. People still make bad decisions. Controls still fail.
Someone who has lived through several generations of technology has something certifications can't easily reproduce: pattern recognition.
They've seen what happens after the architecture diagram looks perfect.
The article also makes an important point about hiring. Recruitment systems are increasingly good at matching keywords, platforms and certifications. They are not necessarily good at recognising judgement.
Of course, experienced professionals have responsibility too.
A 25 year career can't simply become a 12 page CV explaining everything someone has ever done. Senior professionals still need to understand AI, cloud and emerging technology. More importantly, they need to explain how decades of experience help solve today's problems.
Perhaps that's where cybersecurity careers need to change.
Not every experienced professional needs another CISO title. Some may be far more valuable as architects, advisors, specialists, mentors, consultants or fractional leaders.
Companies may need to rethink what senior talent looks like.
And Gen X may need to rethink what the final 10 or 15 years of a cybersecurity career should look like.
The original article is worth reading because its argument isn't really about older versus younger professionals.
It's about something much simpler:
If cybersecurity desperately needs judgement, perhaps it shouldn't make experience a reason not to hire someone.
Read the original: Too Experienced to Hire, Too Young to Retire: The Cybersecurity Career Trap for Gen X
