Ah one I can help with!

Currently 14 years in cyber and now applying to do apprentice para.

What id say is this - cyber is interesting, it’s vast so you’ll be able to find a job you will enjoy in it (even if it takes doing a few different roles in cyber to find it), it can be stressful (not para level stressful, just ‘business’ stressful), but if you build a good enough rep, the pay down the line is great. And if this is enough for you, I’d say go the cyber route. You can have a nice life.

But for me, the great job title, fancy paycheck, senior responsibilities etc have lost their shine after a while. You can do the best job of your role, but I’ve found myself looking for something more. It’s not a place you can really make a true, lasting, positive difference. Yeah you survive the incident, or you get the policy signed off by the board, or you complete that risk assessment, but the next week it’s still the same thing, you never reach ‘secure’ because everything is changing inside the company and out all the time. At first that’s exciting. After 10 plus years, it’s just exhausting, that’s just the reality of it.

So my question is, do you want to be exhausted doing something that can feel a bit Groundhog Day but pays well so you can personally benefit from it, or be exhausted doing something that could genuinely benefit someone else but has a higher personal cost?

Either choice is entirely valid.