White House Prioritizes Skill-Based Hiring for Cybersecurity and Tech Jobs

The White House Office of the National Cyber Director (OCND) announced a sweeping federal hiring overhaul. U.S. federal hiring practices will shift to focus on skills over degrees for its cyber and tech jobs. The announcement will apply for IT workers in every U.S. federal agency and a majority of its federal IT workforce, approximately 100,000.

The change is driven by the need to address the cyber job gap and create a more inclusive workforce.

The skill-based pivot to hiring will also apply to federal contractors who support federal employees working in cyber and tech roles, beginning with the Department of Energy.

The framework announced in front of dozens of private and public sector organizations on April 29 will go into effect next summer.

A possible solution to the cybersecurity job gap?

In recent years, the media and research institutions have proclaimed that cybersecurity has an overwhelming number of jobs that need to be filled. Yet, getting hired for cybersecurity – especially in entry level positions – remains very difficult.

A Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report and the White House press release both proclaim over 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the United States. Other reports such as from the International Information System Security Certificate Consortium (ISC2) claims over 4 million cyber job openings.

No number is useful if candidates are routinely rejected, especially seeking entry-level opportunities. It could also be the federal government and private sector can’t afford the right kind of cyber talent it needs.

In response to these challenges, the White House’s executive order requires a fundamental shift to new skill-based hiring and implementing training programs. The training programs will help existing employees develop the skills they need to succeed in cyber jobs.

The hiring overhaul also aims to close the wage gap for women, who are often paid significantly less than men in the same roles, and people of color.

Attracting Public Sector versus Private Sector cybersecurity career talent

The announcement from the White House is a disruption to the status-quo for the cybersecurity field hiring challenges, but its impact will have many variables in play.

Cyber professionals looking to work within the U.S. federal space is even more challenging versus private sector. Typically, public sector roles – regardless of specialization – requires extensive background checks, security clearances, lower pay versus a competing private sector equivalent role, and drug screening.

If the role requires a polygraph test based on lifestyle or counterintelligence, then the qualified applicant talent pool diminishes even further. Not because of skill, but from potentially disqualifying lifestyle or personal conditions.

But there are some highlights to working in the U.S. federal government and public sector: numerous paid federal holidays, a better work/life balance compared to private sector tech companies, and federal service can count towards student loan forgiveness. Certain positions or agencies may even pay for your entire advanced degree.

That all counts as tangible benefits and can be worth the trade-off between a super high private sector salary with no work/life balance or another large student loan.