Back and forth career move?

FluxCapacitor

Hello,
I was hoping to get some career advice from fellow network engineers/security engineers. To give some background, I'm currently working as an information security engineer and I've been quite happy with this role ever since I started almost exactly a year ago. Before that I worked in network engineering for a small service provider/consulting business for about 3 years. I've recently started working on a masters degree in information assurance to continue my education. (Work pays for most of it)

I've been quite happy working with firewalls, IPS/IDS, web proxies, SIEM, etc. My job has been a technical focused role, but I can see lots of rather boring policy type work as I progress further toward a security specific career. That being said, my employer has noticed my background in networking and has offered me a promotion if I move into a new team and work as a network engineer.

So here is my question, do you think that it would be a mistake from a resume/HR perspective to go from a network focused role to a security focused role and then back again to networking? I worry that this may hurt my career in the future if I ever want to go back into infosec.

Any reply would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

docrice

I personally would loath going from a network security-centric to pure networking role. That said, it also really depends on the job duties as well since titles and responsibilities can vary significantly from one organization to the next. As a fellow network security engineer, I'm embedded into the pure technical aspect of things, although I have influence on policy if need be.

I hear you about the dryness of policy and governance work, but I suspect there are intriguing challenges in those areas as well. Some people prefer that over the technical.

The downside of a general networking role in my perception is that the mindset between networking and security groups tend to be a bit different with different aims. The former is concerned about availability, performance, and redundancy while the latter focuses on threats, mitigation, deviation from policy, compliance, etc.. Both are challenging responsibilities and ultimately depends what you cater to.

networker050184

I don't think it will hurt you much to move between the roles. Obviously staying in a security position is the best bet if that is your end goal, but you can spread yourself a bit over both.