Working in the public sector versus the private sector

We spent some time earlier talking about working for the government, specifically, we went into the federal government in depth because of all the cybersecurity requirements outlined there through FISMA and other initiatives.

It's important to call out here working in the public sector, which would be the government, versus working in the private sector, which would be with private businesses and vendors. Some of the interesting things from a cybersecurity professional perspective is when you work in the public sector, you typically get lower salaries, and you are not authorized to accept gifts from vendors (such as tickets to shows, meals, travel to vendor conferences, golf outings, and so on). Also, you may find yourself pigeonholed in your job with certain roles and responsibilities, not being able to get exposure to other areas of the field.

Public sector jobs are more stable. The government occasionally does furlough...