People in cyber academia: advice for next steps??
TLDR: i work in GRC at a lab with an untraditional org structure. To guarantee pay bumps it usually requires additional education. Unsure where to go from here when already having an MS in cyber with GRC related education.
Hello! 23F, I finished up my MS in cybersecurity this last May and have been working in a lab. This work is very R&D and untraditional for what I was used to in my previous cybersecurity/IT jobs but I fell in love with it. Im really young compared to everyone I work with but Ive been trying to set myself up to climb/succeed in this area since most people stick around for decades here and this place treats me amazingly well, I get up extremely proud and excited to go to work everyday which Im fully aware is a unicorn situation.
Due to the academic based culture the main way people move up is through education, causing them to be more valuable to the organization so they deserve to be paid more. Our leadership within the engineering area is just people with our same job title and similar responsibilities that volunteer for a pay bump to do the extra administrative stuff-so we dont have traditional managers, supervisors, ect. They do not do loyalty promotions or even really job title changes, they just restructure your pay depending on what new assets you bring, our bonuses are where we are compensated for standout work.
I am a little confused on where to go from here in the future to grow. They obviously fully support employees getting more education, but Im a little unsure where to start for my next endeavor given I already have a cyber MS from a well respected program. My job right now is partly GRC related so I feel extremely stuck on that aspect-I dont know what additional degree/cert would help me out more with those skills. I am one of the only GRC focused people I know so my mentors Ive asked had zero idea, thats mostly why I was hired so young because I had an irregular amount of experience in it while working for a small team in the military. I dont know much about cybersecurity academia or what is really even out there to do beyond a PHD-was hoping someone could give some input! Thanks!!