Interview transcript:

Terry Gerton Recent DOD news revealed that the military says it’s short 20,000 cyber professionals, and we’ve heard a number probably bigger than that by an order of magnitude for the commercial sector. What are the biggest obstacles that you think are hindering building this cyber workforce?

Ryan Dunford I think some of the biggest obstacles to building that workforce come from the idea that the cyber industry is extremely complicated or that it requires some sort of superior intellect for somebody to get into, that it’s not accessible. I think another part is that the education feels out of reach for some, like they don’t have the ability to get the certifications or the schooling required in order to break into the industry.

Terry Gerton So you’re making the point that the veteran population would be a great target for building the cyber workforce if we could recruit more veterans into these kinds of positions. Tell me more about the connections that you draw between military experience and cyber work.

Ryan Dunford Well, from my own experience, when I was recruited into the Marine Corps, I took the ASVAB. They gave me a choice of jobs and to be honest, at 19 years old, I just picked the one that sounded the coolest and I had no IT background or anything like that. But what it allowed me to do was get myself the IT training, the experience, the on-the-job training, everything that would then serve me later on in my career when I got out into the private sector.

Terry Gerton And for veterans who may be leaving the military without military IT experience, how did they even begin to think about connecting to a cyber opportunity?

Ryan Dunford For somebody who’s been in the military, but not in military IT, the transition is not as hard as you would think. There is schooling out there, there is education out there for you, and the skills that you learned as an active-duty military member can serve you across the cyber industry in so many different ways. The inherent leadership training that we get as active-duty military members, the attention to detail that is stressed so much, operational excellence, all the great things that make you good at being a soldier, sailor, Marine will make you good at your job in the private sector as well. The only thing you need to bridge the gap is to just reach out and get the training.

Terry Gerton We talk a lot, in terms of veteran employment and transition, about those soft skills, those leadership skills, that flexibility and initiative. But cyber really does have some technical skill requirements. Where should folks be thinking about looking for the right kind of training? Are they just credentials? Are they degree programs? Is it all of the above? If someone’s interested in this, where should they start?

Ryan Dunford Without formal experience, there’s a few different places you can start. There are industry certifications from some of the big names like CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, AWS. Those certifications are going to serve you extremely well. They are highly visible to employers on a resume and can help establish that you have put in the work and have the technical knowledge required to make it in the industry.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Ryan Dunford. He’s a former Marine and lead infrastructure engineer at Bit-Wizards. Let’s change the focus a little bit. We’ve been talking about veterans so far. But for folks who are still on active duty and maybe separating soon, what programs should they be looking at it? Are you engaged with the SkillBridge program or other sorts of GI Bill-funded certifications that folks might engage with to help prepare them for cyber opportunities?

Ryan Dunford First and foremost, listen to the transition assistance folks. That was a big part of transitioning out of the military. It’s easy, at the end there, to kind of blow it off and just get super impatient to get out. But the transition assistance program for the military is excellent and helps a lot. I would say to those people: Start looking around for colleges. There are a couple colleges out there that offer IT industry certifications to go along with your degree, and that just makes you even stronger in the workforce. There are programs out there that will allow you to leverage your GI Bill in order to break into the cyber field, whether it be in IT administration or cybersecurity or anything like that. All of those opportunities you have in front of you, take your time, find the one that you want, and pursue it with the same determination you do any other mission.

Terry Gerton You started by saying people are sometimes intimidated by the complexity or the technology in a cyber job. Why don’t you take just a minute and tell us what you think it means to work in cyber? What would people be doing day to day when they come into the office?

Ryan Dunford It’s a very diverse field. There’s a lot of choices out there as far as what you want your career to be and the path that you could take. I personally, as a lead infrastructure engineer, work a client-facing job where every day I’m taking calls from different clients with different types of IT problems. The biggest benefit to that is that I get a diverse challenge every day. But I have to maintain those customer service skills. I have maintain a sense of duty to the client. A lot of those things that I learned in the military. And then among the small team that I work with, having the adaptability and the leadership skills that I’ve learned in the military has also benefited me. If you want to specialize, you absolutely can. There are places you can go where you could, if you wanted to be a cybersecurity professional and just work in that security sector, you absolutely could do that. If you want to just work in the background and work in programming or software development or something like that — that’s all available to you. Just because you feel like the part of it that you’ve seen might be a little bit intimidating or that you don’t quite understand it, I’d still encourage every veteran to look into IT as a possible career because there could be something out there for you. There’s a little something for everybody; some of it more on the customer service and soft-skill side, some of the more on the highly technical side. But it’s all there for you.

Terry Gerton So should someone just go to Indeed, for example, and search “cyber jobs” and start reading about what they require? Is that a good way to get a feel for it?

Ryan Dunford A lot of the skills, like I mentioned before, are already there. A lot active duty military members have a lot of skills necessary to make it in the IT world. But that’s definitely something that can help. Go out to the job boards, start looking at the job postings that are out there. One of the challenges that veterans run into when they transfer into the private sector is the language barrier. The military has its own language, the acronyms and the different terminology that gets used for different things doesn’t always translate directly into the private sector. So it can be extremely valuable to read those job postings. Find out what terminology is being used in the private sector — what one thing means and how to associate that with the corresponding military term. Those sort of things will serve you really well when you’re out there looking for those jobs.

The post The Pentagon’s short more than 20,000 cyber pros. Veterans could help fill the gap. first appeared on Federal News Network.

Federal employees who are looking to join the Senior Executive Service may soon see changes from the Trump administration, as it looks to reform the training programs that are meant to prepare feds for SES positions.

New proposed regulations from the Office of Personnel Management outline the agency’s plans for changing the requirements, timeframe and content of SES “candidate development programs.”

If implemented, federal employees interested in joining the SES would see a shorter timeline for completing the development program, more rigorous requirements to fulfill, and more consistency in the training content — regardless of which agency they work for.

Overall, OPM stated the agency is looking to drive a “shift in the culture of the SES” through the proposed changes, while also emphasizing the role of SES members in executing the Trump administration’s policy agenda.

“By increasing program standards and training requirements, an SES [candidate development program] will better equip program participants to excel in senior leadership roles and effectively implement the president’s agenda,” the Dec. 18 proposed rule noted.

Candidate development programs generally help prepare career federal employees for roles in the SES. But currently, the programs are inconsistent across government, according to OPM. Different agencies set different training requirements for potential SES members. Some agencies simply don’t have an SES candidate development program to begin with.

“Inconsistencies … have yielded mixed results across participating agencies,” OPM officials wrote. “That variability has resulted in different training and development experiences … and leads to some programs that are more effective than others in preparing their leaders.”

Specifically, OPM is proposing to create a standardized and governmentwide version of the SES candidate development program. By using a consistent training template, OPM said the program will be more streamlined and lead to consistent metrics that can be compared across agencies and over time.

On top of standardizing and revising the content of SES candidate development programs, OPM also proposed shortening the timeline for participants to complete the program. The plan is to bring the timeframe down to 9-12 months in most cases, rather than the 1-2 years candidates currently get to complete the program.

“This length of time involves considerable expense and resources to ostensibly turn ‘almost ready’ talent into ‘ready now’ talent,” OPM wrote. “Decreasing the program cohort duration allows for a more expedited timeline of identifying near ready talent and preparing them fully to fill SES vacancies.”

Along with shortening the timeframe, OPM is also looking to increase the required training hours in the development program, from 80 hours up to 100 hours. Candidates would also have to complete at least 10 hours of “coaching and mentoring,” as well as at least one “developmental assignment” lasting about four months.

OPM said the added requirements would “enhance and broaden the candidate’s experience, increase his or her knowledge, and maximize his or her understanding of the overall functioning of the agency, so the candidate is prepared for a range of agency positions at the SES level.”

Jenny Mattingley, vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, said she generally sees OPM’s increased focus on the SES candidate development programs as a positive change. Although there have been discussions for more than a decade on possible reforms to the programs, she said over time, not many changes have moved forward.

“Anything that starts thinking about how to make the programs more consistent, more robust, and how to ensure you’re getting qualified folks into the Senior Executive Service — that’s a good focus,” Mattingley said in an interview with Federal News Network. “But it will still take a while just see that play out. Agencies are going to have to re-evaluate their programs make them fit with OPM’s standards — and then actually send people through it.”

Currently, SES candidate development programs are largely inconsistent, both within and across agencies, Mattingley said. Some employees who join the SES have completed a development program, but many simply apply for a senior-level position without any further training. At the same time, some employees who complete a candidate development program may not end up joining the SES.

Mattingley said it will be important to track how much agencies ultimately invest in their training and development programs. That includes investments in developing entry-level employees at the start of the leadership pipeline, she added.

“This is not a new idea,” Mattingley said. “People have been trying to reform the SES for many years, but agencies didn’t implement it in the way or at the scale that I think people hoped that would happen.”

In its new proposal, OPM said development programs are a “crucial” tool for agencies, as they assemble succession management in their workforces and prepare “high-potential” employees for the SES.

“These programs aim to cultivate leaders equipped with a governmentwide perspective and the competencies necessary to tackle complex challenges,” OPM wrote. “Through the introduction of more stringent … certification requirements, OPM aims to enhance training and development for aspiring SES and accelerate the placement of well-prepared leaders to ensure leadership continuity.”

OPM’s new regulations build on initial guidance from May, which told agencies to begin changing how they hire and develop SES candidates. That same guidance also directed agencies to update their SES candidate development programs to align with “new administration priorities.”

Many of the changes for the SES also come in response to an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office, calling for restored “accountability” in the SES.

The proposed regulations are open to public comments until Feb. 17. OPM is looking for feedback in particular on additional research it should consider, if there should prescribe time requirements for specific topic areas, the benefits of expanding assessments in the development program, and where there have been similar “promising practices” in the private sector.

Marcus Hill, president of the Senior Executives Association, expressed support for efforts to improve consistency and rigor in the training standards, but cautioned that SES candidate development programs should remain non-partisan and be able to transcend presidential administrations.

“SES candidate development programs play a vital role in preparing leaders who can serve any administration with professionalism, integrity and readiness,” Hill said. “We encourage OPM to implement these changes in a way that preserves agency flexibility, avoids unnecessary administrative burden and ensures that high-quality leadership development is accessible across the federal government, including at smaller and resource-constrained agencies.”

The post OPM proposes overhaul of SES candidate development programs first appeared on Federal News Network.