8 years split between SOC, IR, security engineering, $150k salary, 3 weeks vacation. Hybrid. I’m probably underpaid, but I don’t find my current job demanding, it’s safe from layoffs, and I have free time to have a life outside of work so I’m not complaining. Edit: Guess I should add more context. Based out of California but company has global work. Don't work for government, but government adjacent. I also have a MS in Computer Science, GCIH, OSCP, CISSP. Have presented at a few small conferences and done some open source contributions for detection engineering. Used to bust my ass doing IR work and had on-call rotations. Mostly do a mix of CTI and some consulting now. More on reddit.com

OT/ICS will be harder to break into as a fresh grads. You'd need some experience in OT or ICS systems before securing. How can you secure something you dont know? My path in cyber physical was i started as a service engineer in industrial control systems. Moved to embedded software now do security and resilience testing. Without the background in control systems and embedded i wouldn't have been able to do the work I do know or I would have struggled at the least. In short, most niche cyber fields have a barrier to entry which usually is doing the normal work first. Learn control systems, how plants and stuff operate then learn security side as you go. More on reddit.com

https://www.robertmlee.org/a-collection-of-resources-for-getting-started-in-icsscada-cybersecurity/ More on reddit.com

My question is what type of questions would you ask someone to want them to take a meeting Having spent 30+yrs in IT/cyber on both the sales and customer side this isn't something you can do these days. Saying that gets treated like blasphemy in sales subs but it's really the truth. People are busy and have been hammered to death with cold calls and emails. Add to that the fact that in 2025 almost everyone in this field is going to do the research on their own and will contact your company if they feel there's a reason to do so. I personally have no office phone at all anymore and my inbox is so heavily filtered I haven't seen a cold sales email in years. I don't give out my personal cell number and even that is screened with the AI assistant to the point I don't ever get any sales or telemarketer calls. The best you can hope for is that if you do get someone to answer a call or email that they just happen to be working on something where your orgs solutions are a fit. Many people also work through VARs, but as an SDR that's probably not going to something your involved in. More on reddit.com