At nearly every cybersecurity conference I attended in 2025 – RSAC, Black Hat, BSidesSF, BSidesLV, HOU.SEC.CON (now CYBR.SEC.CON), and many smaller community events – I heard a lot of the same stories from talented, experienced people looking for their next opportunity.
They are stuck – in many cases resigned – and consumed with the kind of anxiety that causes paralysis of mind, body and spirit.
George V. Hulme
People openly wonder whether anyone ever sees the applications they submit, or whether AI-driven filters eliminate them before a human ever reads a word about their experience. Many describe a hiring process that feels cold, impersonal, and disconnected from the very talent it claims to be seeking.
At the same time, I hear from people on the other side of the equation—leaders and teams who genuinely want to hire well but feel trapped inside systems that prioritize efficiency over connection; systems set up with good intentions that now struggle to surface the right candidates, foster trust, or reflect the human realities of cybersecurity work.
Why We’re Saying This Now
At CYBR.SEC.Community, one of our core responsibilities is to listen -- to patterns, pressure points and to what people are saying when they don’t think anyone is taking notes. Right now, the message is clear: something in the way cybersecurity hiring works is fundamentally broken, sucking the life out of cybersecurity professionals.
There are many good individuals, nonprofits, and organizations trying to address this problem in meaningful ways. But too often, those efforts exist in isolation—fragmented, under-resourced, or invisible to the broader community. That disconnect only deepens the sense that people are on their own, navigating a system that doesn’t seem built for them.
We want to be explicit about this: we see you. We hear the frustration, fatigue,and uncertainty. We believe that community only works when those realities are acknowledged, not glossed over.
What Comes Next
There is no solution in a box that will fix hiring in cybersecurity. But we are working on ways to better support people navigating job searches, and to help organizations recruit more thoughtfully and humanely in a difficult environment.
For now, consider this a signal: We’re listening, working on ways to use our community as a sledgehammer that can crush the hamster wheel – or at least give it a nice dent.
— Bill Brenner
VP and Editor-in-Chief, CYBR.SEC.Media
