The Skills Gap is Everywhere: In Networking & Security Too

In one of my recent episodes of the Epik Mellon podcast, once again with Jeremy Brown from Trinity Cyber (can you believe it’s been a year already?), we chatted about many things, but I specifically asked him about the widening skills gap in our industry. It’s a challenge that’s becoming increasingly apparent across almost every industry but is particularly acute in networking and cybersecurity. As seasoned professionals approach retirement, there’s a significant void in the middle. While there’s an influx of new talent, eager and educated, these individuals often lack the hands-on experience that only years in the field can provide. This disparity poses a critical question: How can we design tools that cater to both ends of the expertise spectrum while facilitating the rapid upskilling of newcomers?

Realize the networking and security skills gap is about people and culture

The skills gap is a chasm between theoretical knowledge and practical expertise. New entrants into the field come armed with fresh ideas and theoretical frameworks, yet they often grapple with the real-world applications of these concepts. Seasoned experts possess invaluable experience, but knowledge transfer and adaptability are hard to achieve.

We’ve experienced this first-hand when working with our customers at QA Cafe for CDRouter, CloudShark, and PassPort. Often, with CDRouter, our champions who really understand the importance of test strategy can’t pass that on to fresh faces. When they leave, that story has to be retold to people who may not understand it completely (or don't have the time to invest!)

With CloudShark, the skills gap effect has been even more apparent because the need and desire to do packet capture analysis itself often leaves when an expert leaves. Looking at packets is necessary but not easy, and one of CloudShark’s goals has been to make it so that those unfamiliar with Wireshark and pcaps, in general, have a much easier time. But when the very concept of why humans need to look at pcaps isn’t passed down, the gap’s effects get even worse.

Design tools for humans

We always consider this when designing the user experience of our tools at QA Cafe. Tools need to be powerful and flexible but accessible enough that anyone of any skill level can use them, and the way that information is presented to users must have the context necessary to give them exactly what they are looking for in the way they are looking for it.

Understanding the user journey at every stage of their career is key. For beginners, tools must be intuitive, providing guided experiences that help them connect theory with practice without feeling overwhelmed. For the seasoned expert, these tools must offer depth and flexibility, enabling them to leverage their experience to tackle complex problems efficiently.

When we decided to build Packet Viewer, this was precisely what we had in mind for packet captures in cloud-managed networks and cybersecurity platforms. Any extra step along the way that users have to do to do or see what they want makes it even more likely that they won’t do it or will seek (often insecure, inefficient, or unstandardized) alternatives.

Will training be enough?

If you’ve made it this far, I wanted to share an anecdote. I’ve been thinking about writing this article since a very unsuccessful trip to Hawaii for the Q4 Broadband Forum meeting in 2022. Lincoln Lavoie (of UNH InterOperability Lab ) and I tried three times to get there, and United’s flight cancellations and delays made it so that it wasn’t even worth it to go and come back based on what we’d have to do. While we were sitting in the airport deciding what to do (we eventually just took the bus back to New Hampshire and joined the meeting remotely for the week), we were having a conversation with one of the staff. He mentioned that the lack of pilots was so acute because so many of the experienced pilots were retiring, and there just weren’t enough people to fill in. There were definitely new pilots in training, but it took so long to do so that the pilot shortage would be here to stay for a while.

As I talked with Jeremy, there are indeed plenty of newcomers in cybersecurity at least, but the training issue is still very real. Nothing beats experience, but maybe we can design our tools to help make that transition a little less painful. What else can we do to mitigate it? Leave me your thoughts in the comments.

Jason is the Director of Technical Marketing at QA Cafe and host of the Epik Mellon podcast. A protocol geek at heart, he has more than 20 years of computer networking experience, helping to develop internet and communications technology and translate it into value opportunities for organizations and the industry. Catch him at any event, and he’ll happily talk all things about networking and philosophy over a beer.