My resume has a step backward in it. Senior Engineer, then Manager, then Senior Engineer again. Most people…

Daniel O. — Senior Cybersecurity Consulting Engineer | EDR/XDR · Zero Trust · Architecture & Engineering | CISSP · CCSP · GIAC

2026-10-26

My resume has a step backward in it. Senior Engineer, then Manager, then Senior Engineer again. Most people would parse that as a step down. It's also how I found out what I actually want to do all day.

Years ago, the manager of the engineering and security team I was on moved to a different division, and I was offered the job. I took it. I'd been a senior engineer for a while, and management is the next rung up, right?

I gave it an honest try. A bit short of two years in, I knew it wasn't for me. I missed the hands-on work. That was the big one. What replaced it was a calendar full of meetings and more politics than I'd signed up for, and none of that was my idea of fun.

So I went back to engineering. The money was the same. I did have to change companies, but that move was overdue anyway. I believed the standard progression story, and trying it was the only way I was going to find out that not every path looks the same. I've stayed out of management since.

That's the point I'd make to anyone starting out. You don't need a permanent or perfect answer. You need a direction to move in so you're not standing in one spot going nowhere, and permission to change it when you learn more.

A few things that help:

- Figure out early what you don't enjoy, and whether it's central to the path you picked or just the un-fun part of a fun job.

- You can't learn everything early on. If a topic seems unlikely to matter for where you're headed and you don't enjoy it, put it aside for now and spend that time on something you can use. You can come back when the work gives you a reason to.

- Don't apply that rule blindly, though. Unless you're headed toward cryptography, you can probably leave the math behind modern encryption alone. Networking is harder to dodge. Even if it bores you, learn enough to understand where traffic is going and why. If you can't tell what can wait, ask someone doing the job before you skip it.

- If you're not enjoying the specialty you picked, pivot early. It's a lot easier now than years in, when every change looks like a step backward.

Not every step backward is a step in the wrong direction. I've made a couple and don't regret them.

This one started as an answer to a simple question, how do I get into cybersecurity? The answer got away from me and became the article linked below. I'll be pulling more pieces out of it over the next several weeks.

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