10 years in tech, making final interview rounds in cybersecurity but still no offers after a year. What am I missing?
I know the cybersecurity market is hyper-competitive and every entry-level or mid-level job gets 1,000+ applicants. But I’m hitting a wall and honestly losing my mind.
I’ve been actively applying for almost a year now with zero offers. The worst part? I actually make it to the 2nd, 3rd, and final rounds of interviews, only to get the same soul-crushing boilerplate response: "Sorry, you don’t meet the requirements" or "We moved on with other candidates."
To keep myself sharp, I’m doing bug bounty hunting, but that's a whole different beast compared to labs and courses (finding real-world bugs is way harder than CTFs, haha).
Out of desperation, I've started applying to non-cybersecurity roles, heavily stripping down and modifying my resume, and I'm still getting rejected or ghosted everywhere. I'm intentionally steering clear of IT Ops (helpdesk, sysadmin, etc.). After spending years levelling up into security, going back to where I started isn't an option for me, I want to keep moving forward. I'm also heavily involved in the local cybersecurity communities which is great because I meet a lot of like minded individuals.
Flame me, troll me, or give me hard advice, what else can I possibly do at this point?