infoscrub wrote: » I'll try to keep the backstory short and sweet, I finished with a liberal arts degree while in the national guard. I did a mix of helpdesk, compliance and patching with the guard during the summer/once a month. I do tech related things as a hobby. I got a job with my base after I graduated and have a nice "cybersecurity" title but I mostly do paperwork, act as a middleman and provide guidance in the form of searching through NIST, DoD and vendor documents to spit out relevant information to the hands on side of the house. I get to do some work with active directory and PKI but I'm limited. I've been doing self study for CISSP because it is a job requirement but I feel like I am drifting farther and farther away from what I want to do- create, fix, learn, design and implement. I feel like I keep adding to the list of things I know of but don't know how to do. When I first graduated I had the odd experience where helpdesk/junior IT roles wouldn't respond to my applications but I had a fairly steady stream of jobs with security in the title calling me back- even ones I was woefully under experienced for. This hasn't seemed to change and I am worried because I can see a clear career path where I never get to the tech side of the house. I am considering my options for getting out of the management/policy role and getting the knowledge and experience to get the type of work I want. I am considering going back to school for CS to do software dev, transferring guard units(would lose my job) and retraining to "cyberwarfare" or even sequestering myself for a year of self study and looking for a job when I have some certs and a great lab. Every option feels like I'd be starting over and its very conceivable I'd need to take a pay cut after accomplishing these. Any advice or suggestions?