Transition from Web Developer to Security

[jwdcfdeveloper]

I am considering moving from web application development to security. I am thinking about network and application security. Although these are different aspects of the same field, I was wondering whether I needed to specialize in one or the other. I have 6+ years of experience in web/database development, and I want to move to security. Most of the security jobs I see advertised want someone with experience. It seem some of the few ways a person can get into security, is by being in the right place at the right time (e.g. your job starts to include security-related aspects to it), working for free, or start your own business, and hustle. Is this pretty much it, or am I missing other options?

Thanks,

JW

 

[kHz]

Even though you continue to see articles stating that security spending will increase 30% or $5 billion dollars over the next 5 years, there still are few options in the field for employment.

Most of the IT security jobs are as consultants or with large corporations that can afford to have IT security staff. Most businesses are small and medium in size and cannot afford to have staff (payroll) dedicated to security. In these companies, security is part of the network admin or system administrators job.

To find employment doing strictly security, unless you are working for BNSF Railroad, or some other Fortune company, or want to freelance, your options will be limited, in my opinion.

 

[buddafish]

and here is where a cert may be benificial... so many discussions on the + / - of certifications but, you have working knowledge of computers,networks, ect - yes. maybe security + as a general primer to vendor non-specific security concerns. there are a lot of facets to securing a network.

scottie