Page 115 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

You must be current

Your knowledge has to be up-to-speed with what’s going on right now and where the market is headed.
Three-year-old information and skills won’t cut it in the ultra-high-speed cyber security arena. One-year-
old information doesn’t amount to much either. It’s all about now and what you know and what value you
can offer today and tomorrow.

Next, focus on improving your written and verbal communications skills. Yes, technical knowledge
remains important, but plenty of strong competitors have that.

You will separate yourself from competitors if you show you can handle the technical aspects of the work
and communicate well. This would mean, for instance, simply and clearly explaining to upper
management why the cyber security projects you and your team are working on are important to the
financial growth of the business.

Be authentic

Want to enchant employers? Be authentic. Employers can tell when someone is faking who they are or
what they can do. Be candid with employers about what you can and cannot do, what your passions are,
why you want to work specifically for them, why you believe cyber security is important, and show them
you understand the cyber security problems they need solved.

Obstacles from Employer’s Perspective

Employers struggle to find and hire cyber security professionals. They often don’t understand well what
cyber security is, why their company needs it, and how it can help their businesses grow or prevent
losses. They have a general sense that they need to have better cyber security so they seek to hire
people who do know about it.

But these employers often cannot communicate who they want to hire because they don’t know what
they want the cyber security person to do.

Be more flexible with job requirements

Another problem: Written job descriptions for cyber security jobs are too lofty, demanding, and stringent.
If a candidate meets six of the eight requirements, for example, but the corporate policy stipulates that
they need to meet all of them, the application won’t move any further in the process.

Companies often miss on what could have been a great hire. Inflexible hiring practices blocked the
process. This is a huge problem.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –June 2020 Edition 115
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