I wanted to share my experience with you. Hopefully this helps.

I went to a public college in my area and graduated with an information systems degree. We touched on cyber, but not deeply. During my senior year I interned at a help desk. During this time I was interested in infosec but didn’t ‘really’ commit myself, I figured any job in IT to get me started is good enough.

I sucked it up and applied for the infosec analyst role my company was hiring for at the time. The target hire date was for around the time I was graduating. I did my best preparing. Though I didnt have ANY practical cyber experience or certs, I got the job and worked in the role for some years. I now do vulnerability management for an great employer and love my job.

First thing I will say: do not give up. Its easy to get discouraged: applying for every job posting you can find, interviewing for several rounds and not getting the gig, the list goes on. You applied yourself to a very challenging degree and two certificates that are honestly quite difficult.

Second, you have to understand that the field is in dire need of young, eager security analysts. The threat landscape is increasing as IoT evolves. The field is growing rapidly. With more growth means more available jobs.

The recruiter is right in that it IS extremely difficult to find work if you dont have on the job experience, and THATS OKAY. Be patient, but persist. Apply for anything and everything out there, even if the title seems to high (with reason of course). But once you get through this and get your first gig, everything after that is easy picking. You may have to get that help desk role and thats okay. Many in the field consider it a right of passage. You learn a ton, make alot of friends, and as painful as the job can be, its can be alot of fun.

Quick tips: -make sure some key words/phrases in your resume matches some words in job postings (automatic filtering) -during interviews, always talk about your personal experiences (even if they arent related to cyber) and concisely communicate how those experiences prepared you for a role like “xyz analyst”

Hope this helped, good luck out there.