HG - It’s all about Talent

well hello everybody glad you're here my name is Barry McLaughlin uh today I'm going to talk to you about Talent um I work for Bishop Fox Bishop Fox is the best offensive security company on the planet right so we'll talk a little bit more about that statement meant later not about the company about brand about your brand about uh how you show up we're going to talk a little B about that today um the last 20 some years I've spent all in Talent acquisition spent time with the big four fast growth startups um did my own thing for a while um so to me it's it's all about talent that was one of my monikers uh for a

long time in building teams um I've seen organizations in scaling from the big four with companies like eBay and Microsoft where I delivered teams in the past um things have changed certainly right um I think we've all seen that and I think what you can all agree to as well is everything's about Talent no matter where you see it whether that's uh in your employment whether that's people that you hired to do services around your home whether that's the kids you have hire to watch your children a babysitter it's all about that and let's face it today I think there's a deficit in what talent really looks like and how it shows up um stage really moves too so

if you see things moving it's it's the stage uh I don't sit well I don't sit still uh real well either but um yeah I I think as as far as the talent ecosystem goes I think we're challenged in our industry I think we're challenged in our projects I think we're challenged in our own teams I think we're challeng in management whatever your drol is how many people are full-time employees in this room majority majority are um we're going to talk a little bit about that uh what that looks like in in a talent ecosystem as well full-time versus a contractor a vendor um so let's get started by the way this is interactive you got a question raise your hand i'm

not uh wait till the end and you know take pictures so if there's something you want to do question why I shoot it okay all right uh this goals we're going to have for today we're going to we're going to talk about some hiring Trends in cyber security this is cyber security overall this is not experienced hiring only entry-level hiring this is about everything in hiring Trends as of this year we're also going to talk about and you walk away to a little bit today about marketing your own brand my comment about brand about Bishop Fox being the best cyber security offensive leader in the space you should be thinking about how you Market yourself

as well I do as a Global Talent acquisition leader that's important to me as we select talent and I didn't I didn't go into that either that's that's primarily where I came up from from techn recruiter into leadership uh and then managing Global teams so we'll talk about that about your brand and why that's important soft skills critically important today you know a lot of times back in the past Engineers would say well I don't need to talk to people I don't need to to be a a personality Slide the pizza under the door and I'm ready to go right that was the mentality in fact if you think about it an introverted engineer and an extroverted

engineer the only difference is the EXT extroverted engineer looks at your shoes when he's talking to you so there's there's a lot of things we have to look about as soft skills and how you show up it's in your it's just like in your personal relationships no difference and the last uh we're going to talk about today is how do you compete you are competing in your roles today more than ever in your roles for promotions in your roles for job changes uh in your roles for being selected uh we're going to talk about get back to those Trends about how to compete and if you're competing for a job that you're not in today how do you show up for that if

you're competing for a job against peers to be promoted how do you show up in that too so this is going to come Compass all that okay let's talk about cyber security employment landscape first um I started the presentation when I wrote the bio two through in a lie you can read these up there I won't read them to you but anybody got an answer of which one of these cyber security jobs being resilient jobs in the marketplace open today or making a change in cyber security is easy what you got a guess which is the LIE somebody said they're all lies this woman here said three she's absolutely correct um love that Defcon Shirt By the

way um we had a we had a fun time last year at Defcon and some things that we did in a live stream for Bishop Fox um you're absolutely right uh making a career in cyber security is not easy um and it's gotten harder I mean look at the news today or in the last 24 hours on a leading company with 18% of its Workforce amounting to about 400 people fantastic company we ourselves are not immune from it nobody is and so I think what's important is we look at the industry yes number one definitely more resilient in economic downturn look at that first national level slide there on the left that shows a supply demand

that's a supply demand statistic these statistics are in the middle of Q2 this year so if you look at this this is around May time frame all this information is posted publicly there's a phenomenal website I'll share with you later about where you can think about your career career skills for your career and then also um you know where you'd fit into organizations but the supply side right now is at 69% that means that 31% of all the jobs now I'm talking us we'll talk a little globally too are unfilled so uh 69% that means there's plenty of jobs now there's plenty of jobs but I think the scrutiny and difficulty in landing a job could be

certainly uh maybe more challenging but 69% of all open jobs today in cyber security are filled that's everything too that's that's a job being done by a human being uh second second box there as far as what you'll see is total cyber security job openings that's again around May of this year uh 663 th000 jobs now that's everything from security operations that's product that's Services that's everything inside of cyber security and let's face it it's a tremendously broad industry right we talk a little bit about some of that as it relates later as far as uh some change too um and then lastly if you look at the slide on the right um the national uh

total employed in cyber security today in the United States is 1 million 1 1.1 million people so these are statistics today that matter uh I think as you look at these and you look across on the on the national level there's also some tremendous data out there about where jobs show up what jobs are available and again this this uh website is free it's tremendous uh in recruiting we use it a lot we we use it a lot to Market ourselves we use it a lot to find Talent uh for us like our website says Bishop Fox we were remote before it was cool we'll put people anywhere we'll find top talent like you get to an airport got

Wi-Fi we'll hire you so this is the landscape overall today but you're absolutely correct uh cyber security career is not easy let's talk a little bit about the talent acquisition funnel there's three ways to acquire Talent the first is like it says on the left you buy it buying it you're making a commitment it is your highest level of expense as a business is people um by far I listened to a presentation earlier today on CFOs uh and it was about CFOs and comparing CFOs and intellectual property um certainly it is a huge expense for a business uh part-time workers same thing it's still going to be an expense let think about benefits alone a benefited salaried

employee cost you roughly 23% of their salary and benefits 23% so the expense of that is just not payroll it's a lot more than that and it's a lot more how people show up especially as consume things training for example leave vacation all these things are a big expense to the business and then the last way is temporary you're still acquiring a temporary resource maybe it's a part-time temporary maybe it's an engagement basis maybe it's somebody that you need to augment staff because somebody's going on maternity leave but those are the ways that you buy and acquire Talent the second way is building it this was very very prevalent in the last couple years right um do we

have a talent shortage to my point earlier in that slide sure we do I would argue we have a we have maybe a um a creativity shortage how do we find the right person in the right job at the right time maybe that's a challenge right but today we'll talk about this in in entry level it's hard to find a job right now in cyber security if you don't have skills and it's gotten harder but companies right now are not building as much as they used to for two reasons one it's Gan expensive we're going to cut cost we're not going to put these people through these training curriculums we're not going to pay for their Sears go do

it yourself and come to the company with it the second thing that people are looking at now is organiz Al as you look at uh skills and what you're going to pay for um what if it walks out the door you know there's a lot of commitments people make to sign a uh an agreement if we train you or we give you a certification you pay us back for that if you leave within one year right so there's a lot more scrutiny around training today too but that's the second ways to build Talent um the third thing I think is today where where cyber security entry level hiring is hard is um they can't wait around they can't

wait around for you to grow yourself they they need you now they need you on the ground running and they need you to be productive so building has gone a little bit quieter uh as far as acquiring talent and the Third Way is getting more prevalent and that's the borrow uh I say contractors that could be independent that could be somebody that's hung their own shingle uh so to speak and gone out on their own um it could be partners there's a lot of good partners out there that are willing to take on projects maybe it's a deliverable base maybe it's a fixed fee maybe it's an engagement where they just need help to get it done because again

they're not going to hire you as a full-time employee so borrowing is a real viable way right now to solicit Talent there's also less uncertainty so if you bring a contractor in guess what things get to changed and things go slow down what do you do you get rid of the contractor or you get rid of the employee if they're not as good as a contractor right but at the end of the day um the contractor partner Vendor model in competing for talent today is making that landscape even harder now you might say to yourself I want to go do my own thing I want to be my own boss right everybody does um but the challenge with that too

is that it's marketing I mean it's one thing to land a gig it's another to get the next gig and the Peter principal model in a management philosophy is you're only as good as your last gig or your last deliverable right so making that change into what would be a borrow model is difficult however there could be flexibility there could be choosing what you want to do there could be more pickiness there could be more time to take time away um so maybe maybe that's a model too that's interesting to you but there's pitfalls to that as well there all all of them are but uh today in the landscape especially in the last nine months organizations are looking at

Talent from a contract borrow perspective use it when you need it don't put it sit it around don't have somebody uh you know waiting on the bench if you will uh they want those skills and so we're going to talk a little bit about defining that further about how you can be more resilient how you look at a career opport opportunity and the capacity that you have to do other things that's really really important I think it's important we want to hire people like that we do hire people like that because as we take the field we all have the same helmet on we all have the same Jersey we look the same doesn't matter if you're a

contractor or full-time an organizations's got to deliver and um you're going to see yourself in a lot of situations where you're going to sit alongside somebody that's a contractor they work eight hours you know they make more money than you they you know that a contractor is going to be paying on the hour right they might need benefits they might have it through a spouse but it's an interesting Dynamic I think but I feel like in Talent you need to you need all three you you can't just sit there and say oh we're just going to hire our employees that was back in GE days 40 years ago doesn't exist anymore any questions on

that it's a great question the uh the question came from the front was how does c company culture get impacted by contractors versus full-time employees it's a really good question um I think two ways probably the first way is um there has to be unity in the workforce and if there's not there's a division of us or them there has to be a bridge between we're here to deliver as a team but the second challenge is they don't have the same helmet on they don't have the same commitment they might not have the same goal or purpose maybe it's Money Motivated maybe it's skill-based motivated maybe it's an opportunity to increase their career they just going to

be gone the next right so it is hard I think the best way to do it is you hire people that are contractors that know what a full-time employment opportunity looks like you hire people that are good at what they do but maybe they just are they they they're really a full-time employee but they're in a contractors suit but but you're right culture is definitely can be impacted um especially on deliverables how many people here work in Services related organizations like you're delivering a service and a value about half okay um that's different than product right screw the product in install it leave right that's not the case in services so now let me make back that up there obviously need

the services for the product but there is a difference between that Service delivery in a contractor or product to to borrow that out but it is it is hard certainly I think in uh in cultures that are impacted uh and I think the biggest thing leth to is that um for for most organizations if you bring somebody in and they're no good as a contractor and you are you're gone so I I think it affects attrition I think people look at that and go hey if you're going to hire a contractor and you're going to give them the opportunities and take it away from me then I'm going to go find another job so I think attrition is

definitely spiked when you can't balance that on a project how many people here are managers several you know what it's like to build teams you know who you want on your team as far as an organization goes you're the one that makes that culture work you're the one that establishes those guidelines whether that's an okr whether it's deliverable based whether it's how we're going to how we're going to finish a project you do that that's what you do thank you for the question all right let's talk a little about entry level hiring uh entry-level hiring this is a uh publication last week conducted by a company called active cyber active cyber an organization that's a Learning and

Development opportunity a lot of curriculum based things you can buy participate in share information on who you are um this was interesting and you look at the top of 83% of the current job openings are requiring a certification of entrylevel people 83% back to my point earlier companies don't have time to wait around for you companies don't have time to wait around for the fact that they want you to be productive they're not going to wait around for you to come up to speed right so what they want for entry-level people is Sears the top two certifications I've listed there I'm going to show you a stat on what those certifications look like and how many people of those

employed today have those certifications but think about that entry-level people they might have had some skills through college they might have had some things in a work study an internship that's still experience they might have a lab in their basement that's experience people need to see about that in the talent system where they understand and talk about what they've done not because they have all these years and a company but things that they've wanted and done on their own by seeking it because they're interested that's that's a big difference um so certifications are are are very very prevalent today for requirements at this at at G level 92% of the people the candidates are being

asked to be familiar with these things framework standards and regulations I've listed those regulations and standards below go ahead do question was good question he asked if the cissp is an entry level certification no it is a difficult certification it is one that uh if you look at experienced people that that try to pass the cissp it's not easy so it's a difficult Journey but it shows also not not because it's required for the job but it shows your interest in your

field it's a good question he's asked is it required it should be should it make sense what if you're wri in the check what what if you're the employer and you have payroll going out and you want that and to my point earlier with the jobs available There's an opportunity right now for employers to be picky a year ago it was a canid market it is no longer a canid market today it is a employer market now that being said there are some very demanding skills where people can walk if they want or have a you know have a focus we'll talk about the career path in a minute too and I'll show you some of those but it it's a good

question should it be no should a company invest in you to have that done absolutely but that's changed so so today it is did you have a question behind

okay

that's right that's

right it's a good perspective so he's saying it is saying it could should be so that's a good debatable topic but this is where the industry is headed and there are other certifications there's other things they get there's clearances there's other things you can go maintain but the these are two big ones um that they're looking at salaries Sal uh go ahead I I really can't hear you I'm sorry I'm gonna fire that person on my team no I put that together that was me I'm sorry yeah and I worked in healthcare too so yes hip is spelled incorrectly the Privacy Act portability Privacy Act U yep generation retiring at approximately a th people per day and with um Co

killing approximately 300 people per week and disabling about 10% of our population how much longer do you anticipate the current hiring environment staying as an employer pick and choose type thing it's a good question thanks for showing the mic um I think for the foreseeable future certainly I do I think there's other things in forces at play around the corner look at AI what's next year's Trends right I I think that there's other ways that we're going to see that change a little bit what's a global model look like right there's a lot of talented cyber people in the world I there's some phenomenal people look at the people in look at the people the

other event to change the world is Ukraine there's a tremendous cyber focused teams in Ukraine delivering so it's good point and I think there is the change in that right um that that will Trends change with time salaries has been I'm going to cover salaries in a minute too salaries right now for INT employees 53,000 214 53,000 is typically your security operations analyst sitting there behind in a sock doing that kind of work the upper end of that might be somebody's with a little bit more broader skills in pen testing uh some other things in data some other things in modeling vulnerability things like that uh remote work remote work right now is number three on an employes list

of what they're after in an employer number three the first is money the second is your security in your job job security companies standing that that's number two number three is remote work remote work's not happening for for entry level people not as much because why you got to have somebody Mentor them train them sit with them watch them are you making that that back to that point in investment in that person so not as easy to do in remote staff for entry level people college degrees the last very few in college degrees and as far as that goes I don't see that changing as a trend we don't require s we don't require degrees

at my company we require Talent certifications Trump that so that's just something in the industry our industry that is not as prevalent I've seen it in others but not so much in cyber yep do you think that the do you think that the for like remote work it'll change to kind of a landscape of you are in office or something to learn and train for a set amount of time and then eligible for remote work or something like that I think that's right it's a good question I think you have to prove yourself I think you have to show that you can do that remotely not everybody can uh I think that transition had to happen

during coid for obvious reasons however that's not the case anymore so I do believe that uh and I've always said this to my children success has rewards so if you're successful a reward should be able to not Happ the office I do think there's something missing in the fabric though in off without that in office or without getting face to face how many people were Defcon last year in this room quite a few almost tons of people what about a couple years ago right it was quiet so some some people still there so I think that that's a good point I think that that can be done I think it depends a lot on the job as

well and certainly when I'm back to the borrow model the borrow model you're going to have that person pretty much under your thumb or you're going to want to make sure that there's a deliverable based item that they're giving you that you can verify without watching them and seeing them very very important let's move on top skills in demand 22 and 23 these are the top three in a row of um is that fuzzy or is that coming out pretty clear is that is that it's good okay it's just my eyes um top three for 22 top three for 23 you'll see some similarities one of the things I think is interesting in this data um and

this this by the way is um only experience level highers experience level highers is somewhere around three years plus think about that way three years of of experience in a company three years um so the top skills one of the things is interesting in 22 look at 22 the first skill last year app security Engineers number one this year app security Architects so does that say that they need a higher level talented individual in the workforce because they're using the firm Arch or word architect you bet it does or is an engineer somebody that's kind of you know got got some got some baseline skills but they need a little bit more I find that interesting um especially when

when other things get added right like last year it with with with um java.net you had had those Dev skills now without threat modeling you're probably not going to get looked at in your resume or a career opportunity so again that's a that's a that's a personal interest that you have in your employment uh I'm just showing you what's what's hot today and for me and a Global Talent um Talent acquisition leader for me um we got to follow those Trends we got to sell what our customers are buying and we got to deliver top results okay um experience level candidates let's talk about some Trends there uh compensation this is an interesting one I've listed the five areas in

compensation this year that have dropped for the first time in history the only other time that was done was during coid all five of those skills today are at a lower amount in compensation that they were a year ago all five there's one outlier for that only and you know what that outlier was executives because the throat to choke has gotten a lot tighter and so they want somebody to come in and deliver and they want to deliver fast CFOs worth their weight and gold today um so some of those Trends as far as leading an organization developing people you know maybe that's uh maybe that's an individual where the salaries went up equities went down so maybe you

have to pull that lever right there's there's three levels of compensation one's your base salary one's your bonus and then one's Equity or maybe some other things that are on top of that right as you took take a look at those pools but um now this has a lot to do because of obviously because of Co too right obviously with the last layoffs and the mass changes that we had that makes sense that that was the only other year in history where salaries come down but I I think that's a temporary I think that's a temporary thing I think that uh that will continue to evolve but I also think it's like car prices were a year

ago right it's went through the roof it will change it maybe level itself off but I also think that um you know you pay peanuts or you pay peanuts get monkeys that's what I always say so you got you got to be able to pay people too for what they're worth but I'm just saying that as hiring landscape goes there could be other levers to my point about your interest and it's not in base compensation maybe it's something else maybe you're driven by Equity bonuses maybe there a performance guarantee likely not that's why they call it variable right um but important important to note that that's just a change required skills this is going to

be one we're going to talk about later a little bit is the required skills of tech and soft 90% you know you can be really Technical and I was I was in a conversation is he in this room I was in a conversation last night uh by the pool with a brilliant individual I mean he leads a 3400 person team um ceso type ceso type of background and um I asked him what's the hardest thing about finding people what's the hardest thing about retaining people and he said soft skills you find a lot of really smart people you're all really smart people I can tell looking at you you're smart people especially these four in the front these these four

are like brilliant some Bishop fox in the room love it all right um so required skills soft skills think about that think about as you show up with your family members loved ones friends what do they say about you they don't say that you're boring they probably like you why do they like you because maybe you're like them so soft skills have been important in the workplace as well it used to be separate you always had a separate business from personal today there's a lot more about what you who you need to be and showing up locations don't matter as much but obviously you'll see Virginia on this list uh because of the fact that uh the

government sector right the uh public sector California probably because of the size and Texas because it's seen a lot of growth a lot of people moving to Texas there's certain areas that are hotter for others and then this is what I mentioned earlier today with the two security uh clearances that's the number of security sorry certifications today being held by us employees and cyber security so to that point earlier about cissp and where it fits or the top one with you know three times as money Sears just an interesting data stat sir do you think between you got a mic for him yeah what do you think the split is between Federal and uh non-federal use

of those cisp certs I um the the website that I referred to earlier by the way is called cyers seek cyber.org or they would have that answer on there because it's super cool about it you can filter it public private by state by title across the entire and it's and it's updated daily it's a phenomenal site cyber.org yep thank you sir they would have that sure all right this is the uh career path opportunities this is also from cyber seek was where we going to introduce the website you can go to cyber.org plug in what you like to do plug in how your career path looks plug in jobs that are available plug in other

information and it'll show you and I did this on the bottom for a pen tester vulnerability tester if you look at this you're going to find out salaries geographically you're going to find out skills required you're going to find out other things that are hot in the marketplace and where to get those skills and where you want to go the side on the right is Advanced so that sometimes goes into execs but you can see if you think about the feeder channel from entrylevel folks into pen testing vulnerability testing from that side all of them all of them on that and that entry level have a path towards that success you probably came up that

way how many people came up that way from Blue into pen testing vulnerability I know one did all right so but but check that out because I think that's important as you defer Define your career or you defining an organization where you want to go to my point about promotions today uh are difficult too again it's an expense of the business the landscape super talented and people are highly motivated so uh just more on that this isn't just being hired for a job this is about taking a look at what you want to do brand matters my thing earlier about Bishop Fox being the best damn offensive security company on the planet that's a brand statement what's your brand

statement this is a menu I had this over last weekend at a little bar restaurant from Denver Colorado this is a bar restaurant coldest beer in the universe I loved it I took a picture of it right I had to have one of them it wasn't that cold but I thought it was cool right it was outside but here's the thing it's important you start to think about who you are if you don't know that question ask somebody that knows you because there's always an introspective view of yourself that others see that you don't but your brand and how you show up with your brand matters substantially it is the biggest differentiator today in employment by far your brand it doesn't

mean confidence it doesn't mean cocky it doesn't mean arrogant it means positive there's a simple truth the simple truth is that enthusiasm is contagious you show up you show up excited you show up ready people want to be people want to be part of that so think about that as your own brand as you leave today I'm going to give you some examples of soft skills that resonate probably with you and you can't make it up by the way we'll talk about what that means in your own personality um but marketing your brand in your office on your teams in job hunts is critically important yes

sorry we um so we have a Fortune 500 company we own other companies so there's no brand for the company but I I was kind of thinking on those lines of kind of branding our sock team to attract the talent but not sure how to go about doing that that's a great point it's a great question you know one of the things that you don't have to have it be all all for one one for all that's important sure but to your point if you have sock teams and they show up because they're working at three three uh three shifts and they're they're you know there's a lot of pressure in that uncovering what they're doing maybe

there's something that that team needs to do in their own brand right maybe there's something you market and hire people for that or you look at organizations or you acquire companies you know maybe there's something in that brand that collectively meets that all of goal but it could be individual for that particular Department you know rallying behind that right could be something like that okay all right this is how your brand how you show up before before in the past the biggest thing in the Cog and the wheel on the right is competency who are you what are your skills sorry not who you are like as a person again but who who what skills do

you have as a competency that's the biggest that's the easiest as a recruiting professional my mind says I can find out Tech skills all day long I can give you a test we can do a challenge we can understand what what you're bringing to the table because you got it on your resume or you bring it right I got the serd I got the degree I got the years of experience I got the chronological history whatever it is they're going to know that about you right what they don't know about you is that first one on the left's capacity one of the big things employers are looking at today is your capacity to do more my earlier point the start of the

conversation was capacity matters when things do change or you do want to rely on your people right I've been in organizations where uh if people are too and this is usually large organizations if people are too narrowly defined and can't get out of the lane that they're in they could become obsolete so if you look at where um capacity matters it's the ability to learn and expand your skill set that's critically important they're going to ask you that in an interview not that question tell me about your capacity they're going to understand from examples that you give them about why you're able to apply the skills you've learned to deliver results in something they ask you to do that's really really

important and the last one is desire I put the heart moniker up on that because that's the heart beat right desire is how you show up desire is Passion it's interest it's what wakes you up at 3:00 in the morning to write something down because you want to you don't want to forget it that's desire you can't change you can't teach desire um it's one of those things that if you have it towards something bring It Forward be enthusiastic about it especially in the interview process or in a company for uh promotion consideration these big three things are very very prevalent today and going to be even more so in the future and that's changed dramatically in the

last five years that I've seen so again before it was all about competency now it's about more about that and to the point we question we had earlier today when you have culture and teams that you're developing well you better have that across the board whether you're a contractor full-time because that that alone that desire alone is going to lead to results right that's where we link arms right we're one team we take the field together candidate selection criteria this is where those three things show up um you talk a little bit about personality I put that in the top left personalities hired wir in you as a person at 12 years of age statistic Pro

it psychologically proven 12 years of age so personalities you look about that you talk about selfmotivated what gets you up in the morning nobody wakes up in the morning goes hey I'm going to work right but you got to get up in the morning with an interest in what you're doing and and personality for that self motivation is that Curiosity how are you going to answer a question about curiosity how did you grow your career are you boring or are you something you want to still learn and learn more about right are you picking up a trade what do you do on the weekends people are going to ask you that question because they want to know you have a curious mind

character critically important Integrity there's a lot of tests today that companies are giving that'll Define what you show up at not what you tell them you're going to show up at not your resume says but actually a psychological personality test and they are extremely accurate I'm going to cover I'm going to cover one of those in a minute technical industry knowledge again back to your competence back to your degrees back to your certifications your industry uh technology you know that's that's obviously a huge part of the selection it's not changing uh company team fit to the question we had earlier about culture is critically important um a lot of that where organizations I thought fall short is that they don't pay as

much attention to that when they're hiring and ultimately that leads to firing because that person doesn't fit on a team nobody wants to work with them or you're going to be rubbed the wrong way same thing with leadership they say the biggest reason people leave company is because they're manager statistically be relevant so think about that um uh chronological history is important too delivery those of you that manage uh are really important too as you show up but this is how they're going to select you these are the six things an employer is going to look for this the top personality traits being sought today so what I would say to you to do is find three of these what

three of these if you if I went to your significant other a friend of yours and I said tell me about them what would they say because I could tell you right now quick study selfstarter and critical thinker are really really important but so is self-control and initiative look at change fatigue today look at how many people are going through change whether it's in our world or whether it's our jobs interpersonal flexibility to maintain and manage change and stress critically important so find these think about those as your brand and bring those forward when you interview when you look at opportunities for promotion these things matter highly highly important interview questions these are top interview questions today I I I I we

do a lot of training too with managers and hiring manager training this is critically important too easy to find the competency skills too easy to talk about your degree because you geek out on it or your certification find these things out why should we hire you answer these questions if you're not ready to answer these questions they're going to they're not going to hire you the guy that I talked to last night the ceso had he he selected people that not the best not the best qualified or most qualified but the best fit for his team and that's what he found out in the interview process so why should why should he hire you um leaving your role are you running

from something are you going to run to something very very important to understand that question as well um sell me on the company how many times I have sat in interviews before where I asked the person to sell me on the organization or tell me about the company and they look at me like a blank stare and I'm thinking so you didn't do your research before coming here about what our company does and we're not going to hire the person right so so think about that do your research you be picky as well really really important the first one I was going to say the last toic about the um tell me about yourself is um it's not

like where you're from and what you like and what you do on the weekends it's about tell me about yourself in the capacity we're hiring you for so think about that think about the questions there's some tremendous content on LinkedIn about this preparing for interviews questions you'll receive what the anwers should look like how you should frame it what you should bring up tons of stuff out there but think about that because that what I see about this uh line at the top you know there there's there's you know as far as Talent spotting Talent is you know critically recognizing Talent important the cost of turnover is extremely high um organizations should take the time to

hire you thoroughly because if they don't they're going to take the time to let let you go just simple as that better spend the time in the front all right last slide this is the leap the first part of that getting ready is obviously preparing you got to get it ran your brand your CV your LinkedIn profile is your online resume if you don't have that in place you need to get it in place um the company Target what do you want to do who do you want to work for go to glass door what do they say about the organization a lot of times people a lot of people look at glass door um sometimes people just got

a gripe sometimes people got let go sometimes people didn't like a cooworker so they they want to vent so I'm not saying it's 100% accurate but it does show you what others say in the organization taking the leap is difficult when you take the leap it's challenging it's stressful you got to adapt in midair you got you know when rejection is difficult in your search be prepared for it adapt and refocus and you're going to you're going to have a better opportunity spot in the landing is important because where you're going to go and where you're going to end up is going to be really important as far as where you want to land I put some

things in the left hand or sorry on the right hand side that show a little bit about what that looks like when you negotiate an offer there's a lot of things just more than base salary think about that what's personally important to you and the last thing on there is counter offer a lot of times you're going to go look for a job and they're going to tell you to stay they're going to they're going to say to you uh they're going to say to you hey why you going to leave why because it costs more to cost more to hire somebody to replace you it's easier to retain you so counter offers are real in a in a Rec

executive recruiting perspective it's a question I ask every time the other question I ask is what does your significant other think about your job change because that falls apart when you make an offer and then sometimes people just get pissed off one day like I'm going to get a new job because my bosses treat me lousy right they go they go through the cycles and everything else but they're not really ready to leave right so offer is really important to think about so are things like signing bonuses today we don't do a lot of them as a company um other organizations do sometimes they do it to make up the salary differential but there's a lot

there's a lot that goes into an offer uh at the at the end of the day and a lot more is happening today uh on that in that regard all you bright people that's the last thing I have the slide I'll take some questions and wrap up uh right here got the mic for them yep he's got the mic thanks bro appreciate what would you oh Mike's Hot uh what would you say your experience is in the acceptance of retention offers from a counter offer uh for a company so say you're leaving uh you have an offer for a separate company company B and then your your current company offers you what would you say in your

experience personally that you've seen is like the acceptance rate of that I'll stay here offer okay the people that accept the counter offer correct 8% in our company it's 8% I I manage that through applicant tracking system we have a conversion acceptance of 92% so 8% either say no stayed where they are took another opportunity but 92% of that and then and that's a recruiting thing in the beginning to validate who you should be pursuing rather than getting to the end and hoping they take the job but but majority um uh if you flip that around majority of the people that are committed in their job search end up leaving it's just those that either have

a feeling of emotion or respect that end up staying it's not about money it's that we want you we want to keep you right so you got to think about that and as a followup to that would you say say it's more senior individuals that are taking the counter offer to stay or lower lower lower interesting okay yep do you think it's always necessary to negotiate your salary at the end to kind of give when they offer you a um amount a dollar amount should you always ask for more or no it's a good good question of negotiation what I'd say is this wage transparency laws that are in effect today and increasing in America

um you're going to know what that range is right but you can't price it too high so there's certain things that maybe it's to this gentleman's point about remote work maybe you're going to take a job because it's three days remote right maybe that's a benefit to you right so not always but I but I think there's an opportunity for you because you're going to wait another year before that's going to come around again right and if they've made you the offer their mindset you're already a member of their team you're no longer a candidate it's much easier at that opportunity to start to get what you like a little bit more of and bring that up certainly

yep a lot lot of variables to pull in that yep got a question oh go ahead right here you mentioned a current Trend towards kind of contract work from the talent side is that a good option for someone looking to grow their experience and skills or should they stick to full-time that's a good question I think there's a lot of personal uh processing in that answer um I think when you are on your own um and you're not part of a team um it's easier to um it's it's I I think it's a little easier to be part of a team than independent you know just how you feel inclusive as well right but it's not

it's it's really a personal uh taste in that too uh yes sir on your first slide one of the truths you list is the resiliency of cyber security and downturns but this year we've seen tons of layoffs uh rapid 7 is doing layoffs this very week Cisco's laid off a ton of their security teams uh Bishop Fox laid off 13% of their Workforce earlier this year now it wasn't 30 13 yeah 13 do you think that uh that resiliency is still true or is that going to be do you see that changing as I think I think the resiliency in the market certainly for our industry is certainly still true resiliency I think you had a lot of

overstaffing you had a lot of expectations that things would continue you had a lot of change since Co happened you had a lot of overinvestment in the industry of Market investors cyber overall uh and then also with with the change let's face in the last nine months companies aren't spending more they're spending about what they spent before so if you over hired in advance I think that Trend was still going to go up and it didn't you're overstaffed but I do think it's still very resilient highly if you look at those slides of Supply demand so you foresee that resiliency staying a fact as cyber security matures as a field I do okay I do may we got time for one more or and

I'll be I'll stand for a little bit I'm catching a plane out this afternoon but I will stay a little bit for questions uh I think he was oh go ahead do you have any information on how the bottom end of the entry level uh salary has trended over the past few years you can look at historical aspect that check out cyber seek uh you'll see some of that in in salaries because you'll see the range what you'll see in the range is think about that range before this year that range is going to be over time historically is going to increase in that in that window that's that's the easiest way to look at the data sure but

my well I guess what I was getting at is if employers are if employers are asking for more CTS from their entry level people because they want to hit the ground running but they're not paying entry level people more for having those CTS than they have in the past like does it make sense does it still make sense to attain those CTS when you're not GNA get paid more for having them I think it's a ticket to the dance it's the price of to the ticket right now it's what it is I I don't think that's going to change you got one more you one more right thank you for the questions everybody I really appreciate it some

some good content so you mentioned soft skills and you mentioned talking to somebody who said that people are kind of lacking soft skills and it's causing an issue um my question is how exactly do we get into the position to even display the those soft skills because what I'm starting to kind of see is that uh soft skills really only happen when you're face to face like in maybe in emails here and there but like it you don't really get those opportunities you're not even getting past like the the application part and then when you come to events like this and St like that sometimes you're just meeting people who are trying to sell you stuff

and not really people who are looking to find those people with those skills good question I think two things one is uh that should be part of your CV you should have some of those things on there you're right there's algorithms right now they're screening things out before even a human looks at it so let's just say you take self initiative and in your description you show what that is if somebody's looking for that they will put that as a keyword and find that so include that you don't need to put your address anymore put put some of the things that define you it's important everybody thank you for your time very much appreciated today thank

you very [Applause] much