I am curious…how pervasive is discrimination in the cybersecurity field?
That’s a pretty broad question. Discrimination against who? Women? Dual citizens? People who hold liberal arts degrees? People under 5’10"?
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I’m under 5’10" and have a liberal arts degree and never had any problems in cyber. He must mean flat earth deniers or Trekkies who also like Battlestar Galactica.
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I’ve been working in IT for over 30 years, the most recent half or so of that in various flavors of cybersecurity, INFOSEC, information assurance, whatever the buzzword of the month is, and I’ve never seen any discrimination. Lots of commentary about ID10T or PEBCAK errors, or problems caused by a loose nut on the keyboard, but those are all about user (and sometimes those users were “behind the curtain” - admins do stupid stuff too) knowledge or cluelessness, but nothing related to skin color, ethnicity, gender, whatever the oppressed characteristic of the month is. Most of the groups with whom I worked - the admins, developers, help desk - were a mix of men and women, Black, White, Asian, short, tall, fit, fat. The one defining characteristic? They knew their stuff and they could make it happen. Nothing else really mattered.
If you’re at a small company you’ll be able to tell right away. It can be prevalent, but I find it less so in fed/gov contracting where you’re directly embedded with the client.
0%. Individual work environments may vary however.
Theoretically, if it’s suitability they don’t usually have a way to appeal and therefore they don’t have to keep you on. If you were actually denied (sounds like that’s hat a DOE AR letter is), there would have been a review process at your employer, but they don’t have to keep you while you appeal. Some will, if the reason is not something that causes issues with the employer themselves, keep you on until you exhaust appeals or get granted. That is on them for not checking sooner and discussing it with you though. I do see what you’re saying though, you weren’t fully denied just yet.
I’m sure why you would file an age discrimination lawsuit when you were terminated for a reason that makes sense. It may even be in your offer letter that you retain the position based on your ability to obtain/retain a clearance.
Do you know if this was public trust or a clearance?
Just trying to understand here.
Ahh I see what you’re saying. At my employer, if I get an SOR there’s a good chance I’ll be fired. I’m over 40 as well, but there would have to be another reason indicative of it being about my age. Most places will hire a backfill before they fire a person, especially if it’s mission critical work.
Could simply be this was a poorly worded/executed termination by HR. I won’t pretend to know the goings on in that company, but FWIW, getting let go for lengthy or failed adjudication is a pretty common occurrence.
What I’m saying without reading the rest of that was that the hearing was the “we intend to deny”. That is the point they can freely fire you.
The other stuff is scummy, and you deserved better anyway.
Discrimination against disabilities. I’m deaf.
I’m HoH. My last company sucked at accommodating me. My current one is fantastic. It really depends where you go.
But it’s not “supposed” to. ADA and EOE are supposed to be applied uniformly. They are federal laws.
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Totally agree, but trying to convince a small private company to comply with the law can be an exercise in futility. And not really good for mental health, either.