I signed. Cyber Security Engineer at Textron Systems.

A few weeks ago I published a post called “200 applications, 6 interviews, 0 offers.” It was an honest accounting of what the entry-level cyber job search actually looked like for me. Roughly 195 applications. An 8.5% interview rate against the applications that actually came back with an answer. And a referral pattern so lopsided that five of my six interviews came from a warm intro or an inbound recruiter instead of a cold portal submission. I ended that post with a promise. I said I’d write a follow-up when I signed somewhere, probably with the same numbers and the same candor.

This is that post.

I signed. In a couple of weeks I’m joining Textron Systems as a Cyber Security Engineer I. I’m relocating from Tampa to the Baltimore / DC area to do it. And after everything the last year put me through, I can say this without hedging. The wait was worth it, because this is exactly the job I was looking for.

The long ride

I don’t want to gloss over how long this took. The gloss is the lie that makes everyone else feel like they’re failing.

Here’s the honest version. I spent the back half of my senior year sending applications into a market that had quietly changed the rules on me. The federal hiring slowdown didn’t lift the way people hoped it would. Defense primes that used to absorb entry-level cyber talent in volume had gotten genuinely competitive at the bottom rung, partly because mid-career people pivoting out of tech layoffs were applying down into roles that used to go to new grads. Commercial SOCs had automated or offshored a chunk of the tier-one work that historically gave people their first break. None of that was a me problem. All of it was still my problem to navigate.

So I navigated it the way the data told me to. I stopped treating the career portal like a slot machine and started treating relationships like the front door. I leaned on referrals. I replied to recruiters like a human being instead of a form letter. I asked veterans in my network for warm intros to their security teams. And the part I’m proudest of: I kept building things while I waited, because every single recruiter who got to the technical stage asked about the projects on my GitHub. Every one. The certs got me past the resume filter. The homelab and the tooling got me past the technical interview. I needed both, and I would not have made it to a final round without both.

If you read the last post and you’re still in the slog, hear me on this. It does end. It just doesn’t end on the timeline anybody promises you.

Why this one is the right one

I had chances to take something earlier. Around application 130 I almost took a role that paid a lot less than the work was worth, out of the specific kind of desperation that sets in when the silence has gone on long enough. I’m glad I didn’t.

Textron Systems is a defense systems integrator. The unmanned systems and platforms world. The engineering role I’m stepping into sits right at the intersection I’ve been aiming myself at for three years. It’s hands-on security engineering on real systems, in an environment where RMF, NIST 800-53, and STIG hardening aren’t buzzwords on a resume but the actual daily texture of the work. It’s the kind of role where my enterprise blue-team background, my homelab habits, and my Guard commission all pull in the same direction instead of fighting for space on a page.

It also pays like the work matters. After a year of “DOE” postings and lowball offers, being taken seriously feels like a novelty.

I didn’t want a job. I wanted this kind of job. That distinction cost me months. It was the right call and I’d make it again.

Moving to a new city

The move is its own small adventure. I’m trading Tampa for the Baltimore / DC corridor, which is not by accident one of the densest concentrations of cyber and defense work in the country. I won’t pretend the logistics aren’t a little daunting. Finding housing in a market I don’t know, coordinating a move across the better part of a thousand miles, learning a new city from scratch. But the upside is enormous. I’m moving toward the industry instead of commuting to the edge of it, and that corridor is exactly where someone early in a defense-cyber career wants to be standing.

New apartment, new commute, new everything. I’m treating it as a feature, not a cost.

What’s next

I’m not walking in thinking I’ve made it. A “Cyber Security Engineer I” is the bottom of a ladder, not the top of one, and that’s the appeal. I want to grow into the systems-security and RMF side of this work. I want to keep building on my own infrastructure after hours. I want to pull the military and civilian halves of my career closer together as the Guard side develops. I’m also starting a master’s in computer engineering with a security focus this fall, and the plan is for the day job and the degree to feed each other instead of competing for my evenings.

The job search is over. The actual work is about to start. Honestly, I’m more excited about the second thing than I am relieved about the first.

To anyone still in the slog

If you read the last post and you’re sitting where I was six months ago, with the silent applications and the auto-rejections and the creeping suspicion that the problem is you, here’s the short version of what I learned now that I’m on the other side of it.

Build something. Get a referral. Ask for the salary. Don’t take the role that underpays you out of fear. And don’t let anyone convince you that a long search is a verdict on your ability. The market was hard. You’re probably not the reason.

It ends. It ended for me. On to Maryland.

I’ll write again once I’ve got a few months at the new job under my belt, and I’ll try to keep it as honest as the search posts were.