Linux

I'm losing my mind with this job market. 6 months of searching and I'm getting absolutely nowhere. My background: 1 year as sysadmin (Linux, Windows Server, monitoring, automation), 2 years teaching cybersecurity at university level, currently freelancing doing ISMS implementations and ISO 27001 consulting. Master's in Cybersecurity. I can script, I know my way around networks, I've deployed everything from ELK stacks to Kubernetes clusters. But apparently none of that matters because: "We need someone with 5+ years experience" - Dude, I have 4+ years in IT, just not all in the same role. Why does teaching cybersecurity to students not count as experience? Why does implementing security frameworks for actual paying clients not count? "You don't have experience with Palo Alto/Fortinet/SonicWall" - IT'S A FUCKING FIREWALL. Yes, each vendor has their own special snowflake syntax and GUI, but the concepts are the same. Port 443 is port 443 whether it's pfSense or a $50k Palo Alto. Give me a week with the documentation and I'll be configuring rules like I've been doing it for years. "We need someone who knows our exact stack" - Cool, so you want a unicorn who has experience with your specific combination of ancient VMware, that one obscure monitoring tool you bought in 2015, and whatever cloud mess you've accumulated over the years. The worst part? Half these jobs get reposted every month because surprise - that perfect candidate doesn't exist or doesn't want to work for your lowball salary. And another thing - why the fuck don't internships count as "real experience"? I spent 3 years doing actual work during internships. Not fetching coffee or making copies - I was troubleshooting servers, implementing security policies, managing infrastructure. But apparently that's "just internship experience" and doesn't count toward their magical 5-year requirement. Meanwhile, every goddamn article and report keeps screaming about the "cybersecurity skills shortage" and "millions of unfilled IT positions." You know what would solve that? HIRING THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE EAGER TO LEARN AND PROVE THEMSELVES. Instead, companies want to poach already-established professionals from other companies, creating this stupid musical chairs game where everyone just shuffles around for higher salaries while entry-level candidates get locked out entirely. Then they act shocked when there's a "talent shortage." I've had interviews where I walk them through actual projects I've completed, demonstrate my problem-solving skills, show them my homelab setup, and then get rejected because I haven't used their specific brand of the same damn technology I've been working with for years. And don't get me started on cybersecurity roles. "Entry level position, 5 years experience required." The math doesn't fucking math. How am I supposed to get experience if no one will hire me to get experience? I know some of you have been in similar situations. How did you break through this stupid cycle? I'm starting to think I should just lie on my resume about having used every vendor's gear and hope they don't quiz me on CLI commands during the interview. /rant TL;DR: Job market is stupid, vendors need to stop making the same technology with different commands, and HR departments need to learn the difference between "nice to have" and "absolutely required."