Cyber security career progression hive-mind

I've been lurking on this sub for a while and one thing that I persistently see is a huge amount of pessimism surrounding finding a cyber security career, and I'm trying to figure out if a lot of negativity is coming from a vocal few or is the norm in, say, America.

If anyone here asks about breaking into cyber security, the responses are usually pretty grim, along the lines of: "formal study and self study for years, work help …

america career career progression coming cyber cyber security cybersecurity hive lot security