The Booming Market for Network Security Engineers

A friend of my who is currently taking her masters degree in network security from a pretiguos university in chicago sent me this email from their professor in one of her subjects about an opening for a Security Engineer in their company:

Dear Student,

You are receiving this email because you are in the MS-CINS program.

I'm looking for an experienced Security Engineer in the Chicago area performing and writing assessments, penetration testing and compliance audits (run scans on data networks, look at the architecture of the networks, evaluate the ability to gain access from outside the networks, evaluate the ability to gain access to unauthorized areas once inside the networks, perform ethical hacking, put controls in place for viruses). Compensation, depending on experience, is $95, 000.00 to $120,000.00 base salary plus 15% to 40% bonus.  My contact information follows and I look forward to hearing from any qualified individual interested in this opportunity.  Thank you again for your help.

I was amazed after reading the email on how attractive the offer is for this type of jobs. Especially knowing that the position is not even a Senior level position.  Pretty striking salary numbers if you ask me. This made me wonder and realized how big the market is when it comes to network security.