Factors and experiences that prepare students for a cyber career: a gender-based study

Abstract

There are more than 700,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions across the U.S. According to various studies and reports; women comprise a small percentage of the cybersecurity workforce. As academia works to prepare qualified professionals to fill these positions, it is important to examine what kind of preparations are effective in helping students succeed and to examine any possible gender difference in these activities and the drivers in selecting this field of study. This paper investigates the factors associated with choosing this field and the preparatory activities the students found helpful, with gender being a significant focus in the evaluation strategy. Two focus groups were conducted for data collection at two different universities, and participants were asked to discuss their experiences in preparing for the Cyber Security field. An interpretive thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the data. Our results suggest various themes for selecting the field, and three themes emerged when looking at gender differences.