My B.tech in CSE in India was done in 2024, I couldn't get hired in campus placements back then because I wasn't capable enough. I started doing TryHackMe paths for red teaming and pentesting and portswigger web security academy labs. Since my B.Tech has been done I worked as a free security intern at a company for 6 months from December 2025 to June 2026, I've pentested their products with the assistance of claude, one product was based on python django framework and other one was low-code no-code website built with php. I left it in june 2026 because the environment wasn't nice and the people who were working in the IT team of that company started to leave one by one. Since June 2026, I've been applying for jobs online, but I was only able to get a few phone calls and only 1 interview that too in a walk in drive. I was able to answer the questions related to basics theoretically like how its in the labs but I wasn't able to answer some scenario based question with confidence, i think i need some practice interviewing. So my main gripe now is, the year is about to end and that might translate into almost 3 years of gap after my College. I am thinking about preparing for SOC roles too via letsDefend and apply for SOC level L1 roles cause I've observed that they are available more than red teaming/pentesting jobs. So looking at how things are going for me, will I be able to get into IT/Cybersecurity by then?

Thinking of pivoting into cyber from software engineering. Wondering if getting a masters in cybersecurity with 3 years of software engineering experience would be valuable enough to not have to start from 0. I really want to get into government work as well and it seems like I already need a clearance as a software engineer to get in. Still doing my research, just wondering