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I'm a 22 year old software engineering currently pursuing higher education and a future career in information security. from what I have found on user profiles and on comments, there are many people with advanced education and overall high experiences in the community (some have held conferences which I have followed on youtube). As I am passionate about pursuing this field, and I am just starting out, should the community allow non-technical questions regarding experience-sharing between the highly experienced user and the ones who are just starting out their career/studies? I feel that this would be extremely useful for prospective students like me who are looking for a future career in this field (and are maybe making wrong decisions which can damage their future career).

Should the community allow these types of questions or should there be a separate place for this?

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We have a Workplace Stack Exchange for questions related to, well, the workplace, and a range of other sites, but all of them are focused on a specific question and answer format. This is the way Stack Exchange is designed.

So unfortunately, no, there isn't a place for the types of questions you describe here.

The DMZ is a place where we can discuss this sort of thing, but it is in a chat format rather than an easily searchable repository of experience.

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  • Rory Alsop I watched your presentation at the Securi-Tay conference at the University of Abertay Dundee and it was one of the reasons I got excited to continue pursuing a future in information technology. Your presentation is also one of the reasons I posted this question.
    – Abbas Javan Jafari
    Jun 16, 2014 at 19:26
  • I was thinking these types of questions are better distributed among the specialized communities rather than the "Workplace"... Do you think including these type of questions (perhaps marked by a flag as a discussion-type question) can improve the information security community on stack exchange or would it do more harm than good (perhaps by changing the organized format of the community)?
    – Abbas Javan Jafari
    Jun 16, 2014 at 19:30
  • I'm glad you liked that presentation (you should also see ones from some of the other Security SE folks - there is an excellent selection). In terms of the format - the structure of Stack Exchange just explicitly disallows discussion type questions, and there is no appetite to change this.
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Jun 16, 2014 at 19:53
  • Thank you for your answer. Could you provide a link to where I can find those presentations?
    – Abbas Javan Jafari
    Jun 16, 2014 at 19:55
  • You could try this link, or the Abertay youtube channel: youtube.com/watch?v=zGUWAkR8gug
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Jun 16, 2014 at 19:59
  • Thank you I really appreciate it :)
    – Abbas Javan Jafari
    Jun 16, 2014 at 20:00
  • @RoryAlsop "and there is no appetite to change this" Yes there is or people wouldn't ask such questions.
    – Andrew Hoffman
    Jun 26, 2014 at 20:24
  • Stack Exchange is arguably the best place to have such discussions, but like you say, is not allowed, not in any useful capacity. We can hold discussions within the comments of a question or answer to skirt around these rules, which imo is proof that there is an appetite for stack discussions in addition to questions. In the fantasy/science fiction SE they can ask/answer opinionated questions all day long, and is essentially a discussion forum.
    – Andrew Hoffman
    Jun 26, 2014 at 20:35
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    No appetite from SE, so it is easy to argue that it is the worst place to have such a discussion - the stated aim is for specific questions and comprehensive answers. In fact discussion is explicitly ruled out from most sites. Even on SciFi discussion is dissuaded - answers are steered towards canon.
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Jun 27, 2014 at 0:13

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