How to find a job in the one tech market that is not seeing layoffs: Cybersecurity
Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn | Istock | Getty Images
Strong demand for cybersecurity workers is continuing even as big technology companies lay off thousands of employees.
That’s not a big surprise, as cybersecurity is seen as one of the more resilient areas for tech investment in a more cautious economic environment — though even it is not immune from the tech sector slowdown. But it is an area for young professionals, college students, and workers looking to make career transitions to focus on as the tech sector’s labor force contracts significantly for the first time in a decade, from the largest companies to the venture-backed startup community.
There were 755,743 online job postings in cybersecurity as of December, according to new research from cybersecurity workforce analytics site CyberSeek, created through a partnership of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, CompTIA, and labor market research firm Lightcast. That did represent a year over year decline in postings, from 769,736 in the 12-month period ending December 2021. But with a supply-demand ratio currently at 68 workers per 100 job openings, the nearly 530,000 more cybersecurity workers need in the U.S. went up year over year.
The researchers say the data reinforces a trend that has existed for years now and will persist: the shortage of cyber talent. If all those positions are filled, that’s a labor force positioned for huge growth. The total number of employed cybersecurity workers was estimated at 1.1 million, steady year over year.
Here are the top things to know about pursuing a career in cybersecurity.
How to ‘major’ in cybersecurity during college
When looking for a job, you’re guaranteed to be asked what major you studied in college. While cybersecurity is not a common major for colleges to offer, there are a large range of related majors that can make you a potential candidate for a job in this field. The most obvious comps are computer science, information technology, software development, and even business management.
“The more that you can find either courses or other educational opportunities while you’re in school, to learn both the fundamentals of IT and the fundamentals of cybersecurity, as well as some of the specific high-value, high growth skills that employers are increasingly demanding, that’s going to best set you up for success when you enter the job market,” said Will Markow, vice president of applied research at Lightcast.
However, it’s not as much about a specific major studied as the skills which employers are attempting to identify.
The question that candidates need to be prepared to answer isn’t what they majored in, but, “What have you learned during your degree that prepares you for a career in cybersecurity?” Markow said.
Obtaining technical skills after college
Technical skills in information security theories, network administration, and IT is some of the primary knowledge that candidates need, while strong soft skills like communication and collaboration are additionally important. But whether you are a college student or graduate already in the job market, there are plenty of other opportunities to gain the skills you need to enter this field, primarily through certifications.
Non-profit trade association CompTIA’s Security+ is the most in-demand entry level credential for cybersecurity professionals, according to Markow. By receiving the Security+ certification, CompTIA states that professionals will acquire the skills to assess an environment’s security, monitor hybrid environments, respond to security events and more. Other commonly requested certifications are EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker training and GIAC’s Security Essentials (GSEC) training.
“Cybersecurity is a heavily sophisticated field, and employers place a lot of weight on certain credentials,” Markow said.
How to get started in job search
Some of the most common entry-level positions include cybersecurity analysts, cybersecurity technician specialists, and cybercrime analysts. These positions focus more on what is defined as reactive work, for example, learning about the types of threats that organizations are facing, and identifying when threats need to be investigated and remediated.
As professionals progress in a cybersecurity career, the goal is to gradually take on more proactive work helping organizations design secure digital infrastructure.
There are many opportunities for existing tech professionals to make the move into this field, with common launch pads including other IT roles such as network administration, software development, systems engineering and even IT support; and by targeting the lower-level cyber positions.
“Since those roles often have lower barriers to entry than some of the more advanced positions in the field, and if you are able to target one of the certifications and obtain one of those entry level certifications from CompTIA, or other providers, then you will have the greatest chance of finding an opportunity in one of those roles,” Markow said.
The approach of first entering through the broader IT job market can work for new labor force entrants as well. “If you’re starting from complete scratch, it’s often useful to target some of those positions that can serve as launching pads into the core cybersecurity roles,” Markow said.
Jobs will often pay over $100,000
Cybersecurity jobs pay well, too.
The average salary ranges between $100,000-$120,000.
There are going to be differences in pay based on experience level, as well as the specific role.
“You probably won’t start at $110,000,” Markow said. “You might start somewhere in the $70,000-$90,000 range, depending on what part of the country you’re in. But as you gain experience in and advance within cybersecurity, the salaries become progressively larger and more appealing.”
Where the jobs are concentrated also varies region to region, and by sector. The new research found public sector cybersecurity job demand growing by 25% to 45,708 postings in 2022, a faster growth rate than in the private sector, but still far fewer jobs overall compared to the private sector’s 710,035 listings. Lightcast says that public sector job demand trend isn’t a one-year phenomenon, growing by 58% over the past three years in all. Related to that, the Washington, D.C. metro area accounted for 19% of all public sector domestic cybersecurity job listings.
Navan, the business travel, payments, and expense management startup, filed on Friday afternoon to go public.
Its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that the company plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “NAVN.”
Navan reported trailing 12-month revenue of $613 million (up 32%) across over 10,000 customers, and gross bookings of $7.6 billion (up 34%), according to the S-1 filing.
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup will act as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering.
Navan ranked No. 39 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, and also made the 2024 list.
The IPO market has bounced back this year, with deal activity up 56% across 156 deals (roughly 200 IPO filings in all) and $30 billion in proceeds, up over 23% year over year, according to IPO tracker Renaissance Capital. It has been the best year for IPOs since 2021, though still far below the Covid offering boom years, when over $142 billion (2021) and $78 billion (2020) was raised by IPOs.
This year’s deal flow has been highlighted by hot AI names like Coreweave, as well as some of the startup world’s most highly valued firms from the past decade, such as fintech Klarna and design firm Figma, crypto companies Circle, Bullish and Gemini, and some long-awaited IPO candidates finally hitting the market, such as Stubhub this week, though its shares have slumped since the first day of trading. Top Amazon reseller Pattern went public on Friday.
Other startups are expected to pursue deals given the increased investor appetite.
The Renaissance IPO ETF is up 20% this year.
Launched by CEO Ariel Cohen and co-founder Ilan Twig in 2015, Navan set out to disrupt a business travel sector where incumbents relied on clunky legacy tools and fragmented workflows.
The Palo Alto-based company, formerly called TripActions, refers to itself as an “all-in-one super app” for corporate travel and expenses.
Customers include Unilever, Adobe, Christie’s, Blue Origin and Geico.
It has also been pushing further into AI, with a virtual assistant named Ava handling approximately 50% of user interactions during the six months ended July 31, according to the filing, and a proprietary AI framework called Navan Cognition supporting its platform, as well as proprietary cloud infrastructure.
“We built Navan for the road warriors, for CEOs and CFOs who understand travel’s critical importance to their strategy, the finance teams who demand precision and control, the executive assistants juggling itineraries, and the program admins ensuring seamless events,” the co-founders wrote in an IPO filing letter.
“We saw firsthand the frustration of clunky, outdated systems. Travelers were forced to cobble together solutions, wait for hours on hold to book or change travel, and negotiate with travel agents. They struggled to adhere to company policies, with little visibility into those policies, and after all that, they spent even more time on tedious expense reports after a trip. We felt the pain of finance teams struggling to gain visibility into fragmented travel spending and to enforce policies, and the frustration of suppliers unable to connect directly with the high-value business travelers they sought to serve,” they wrote in the filing.
Revenue grew 33% year-over-year from $402 million in fiscal 2024 to $537 million in fiscal 2025, according to the S-1 filing. The company reported a net loss that decreased 45% year-over-year from $332 million in fiscal 2024 to $181 million in fiscal 2025. Gross margin improved from 60% in fiscal 2024 to 68% in fiscal 2025.
The business travel and expense space is crowded, with fellow Disruptors Ramp and Brex, and TravelPerk, as well as incumbents like SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel.
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A gamer plays soccer title Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 on an Xbox console.
Sezgin Pancar | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Microsoft said on Friday that it will increase the recommended retail price of several Xbox consoles in the U.S. starting in October because of “changes in the macroeconomic environment.”
The company said it would not increase prices for accessories such as controllers and headsets, and that prices in other countries would stay the same.
While Microsoft didn’t explicitly attribute the increase to the Trump administration’s tariffs, many consumer companies have been warning for months that higher prices are on the way. President Donald Trump has issued tariffs this year on multiple countries with a stated goal to bring more manufacturing to the U.S.
“We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration,” Microsoft said on its website.
It’s the second time Microsoft has raised prices on its consoles in the U.S. this year. Rivals Sony and Nintendo have also raised console prices in the U.S. as Trump’s tariffs went into effect.
Here are the changes, according to a PDF posted on Microsoft’s website:
- Xbox Series S will start at $399, up from $379 previously. A version with 1TB of storage costs $449.
- Xbox Series X Digital console now costs $599, a $50 increase. The Xbox Series X with a disc drive also got a $50 increase to $649.
- The most expensive version, with 2TB of storage, costs $799, up from $729.
WATCH: Fed governor doesn’t see material inflation from tariffs
Ticket reseller StubHub signage on display at the New York Stock Exchange for the company’s IPO on Sept. 17, 2025.
NYSE
After a long wait to get public, StubHub has had a rough start to life on the New York Stock Exchange.
Shares of the online ticket vendor dropped 10% on Friday, falling for a third straight day since debuting on Wednesday. At $18.46, the stock is now down 21% from its IPO price of $23.50.
StubHub, trading under ticker symbol “STUB,” has lagged behind fellow market newcomers like online lender Klarna, design software company Figma and stablecoin issuer Circle, which delivered early returns for investors following their recent IPOs. Shares of cybersecurity firm Netskope also rose 10% on Friday in their second trading day, after an initial pop on Thursday.
StubHub had been trying to go public for the past several years, but delayed its debut twice. The most recent stall came in April after President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs roiled markets. The company filed an updated prospectus in August, effectively restarting the process to go public, and has since seen its market cap slip to about $6.8 billion from $8.6 billion at its IPO.
Founded in 2000, StubHub primarily generates revenue from connecting buyers with ticket resellers. In the first quarter, revenue rose 10% from a year earlier to $397.6 million. The company’s net loss widened to $35.9 million from $29.7 million a year ago.
StubHub CEO Eric Baker told CNBC on Wednesday that the company expects recently introduced federal regulations around transparent ticket pricing to cause a “one-time” hit to its financial results.
Regulators are zeroing in on online ticket sellers over their pricing mechanisms and whether the companies are doing enough to keep automated purchasing bots in check. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued StubHub rival Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, accusing it of illegal resale tactics.
While StubHub has failed to excite Wall Street, its struggles haven’t seeped into other deals as the tech IPO market continues to show signs of a resurgence after an extended dry spell. Amazon reseller Pattern Group saw its stock rise 12% on Friday, though shares initially slipped 6%.
WATCH: StubHub CEO on company’s IPO
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