It's a tough time to break in to cybersecurity.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carrino.

At the same time, AI is amplifying cybersecurity risks, it's also changing what a career path in the industry looks like.

For entry-level job seekers like Megan Osteen, who's wanted to work in tech pretty much forever.

My dad, he was a software engineer, and I just remember, like, a lot of my childhood, I would sit

in his office with him and he would explain to me what he was doing, like, how it worked.

Life sort of got in the way of her plans.

She left college when she became a mom and grabbed the work she could, most recently

as a behavioral therapist for kids with autism.

When her dad died a few years ago, she decided it was time to make a career. most recently as a behavioral therapist for kids with autism.

When her dad died a few years ago, she decided it was time to make a career leap,

and she kept hearing cybersecurity was the way to go.

Because of the projected job growth and the demand within the field, it seemed promising.

She took online courses and in February earned her first cybersecurity certification.

She's been looking for jobs, but not finding many opportunities.

I'm trying to find ways to keep pushing forward and not get stuck in the mud, but it has been truly very difficult. I just feel like it was false advertisement.

Cyber security jobs have been the focus of a decades-long workforce development push,

learned to code, but with the urgency of a national security imperative. It spawned a cottage industry of federal and state programs,

for-profit boot camps, certifications, and online career coaches like Evan Lutz.

The thing that initially gave me rise on social media is that I can speak very quickly with concise ideas.

He's not joking.

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