A long time ago, it wouldn’t be uncommon to have the same job at the same company for ten or twenty years. People loved their seniority, they loved their company, they loved everything staying the same. Stability was the name of the game. Why learn something new when you can retire in a few years?
Well, a long time ago, was a long time ago. Things are quite a bit different now. If you’ve been doing the same thing at the same company for more than five years, there’s probably something wrong. Of course there are always exceptions to every rule, but I bet more than 80% of the people in their jobs for more than five years aren’t exceptions. It’s easy to get too comfortable, it’s also dangerous.
Rather than spending too much time expanding on this idea, I’m going to take it and move into the security universe as that’s where I spend all my time. It’s a silly place, but it’s all I know, so it’s home. While all of IT moves fast, the last few years have been out of control for security. Most of the rules from even two years ago are different now. Things are moving at such a fast pace I’m comfortable claiming that every five years is a lifetime in the security universe.
I’m not saying you can’t work for the same company this whole time. I’m saying that if you’re doing the same thing for five years, you’re not growing. And if you’re not growing, what’s the point?
Now here’s the thing about security. If we think about the people we would consider the “leaders” (using the term loosely, there aren’t even many of those types) we will notice something about the whole “five years” I mentioned. How many of them have done anything on a level that got them where they are today in the last five years? Not many.
Again, there are exceptions. I’ll point to Mudge and the CITL work. That’s great stuff. But for every Mudge I can think of more than ten that just aren’t doing interesting things. There’s nothing wrong with this, I’m not pointing it out to diminish any past contributions to the world. I point it out because sometimes we spend more time looking at the past than we do looking even where we are today, much less where we’re heading in the future.