Traditional Recruitment Methods in the Security Niche

About two weeks ago I got a call from a firm on the west coast.  This call came from the Director of Information Security and he was frustrated with the fact he had an open senior security position that he had been trying to fill for several months. He had seen very limited resumes thus far and the few he saw were not even close to being a match. I should mention that I get calls like this often from both hiring managers and Human Resource managers.

When I asked how the hiring manager was trying to identify potential talent he stated  the  internal staffing department had been running many adds on the job boards. They also had several recruiters working on the position, but those recruiters didn’t really have a grasp of security or the position itself. Needless to say the hiring manger was frustrated with the whole process and the time that has passed with no good candidate presentations.

Trying to use these traditional types of recruiting for security positions is a little like casting a wide net and see if you catch anything.  Sure, there are times you may get lucky, but many other times you don’t.

The world of recruiting has changed over the last 20 years. It has moved into the electronic world. There are 1,000’s of job boards and social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. With all this technology you would think that hiring staff for your company is simple.

Well, judging from the comments and conversation I have with many employers that is not the case. Having all the electronic technology in the world does not help if it does not produce the required results.

I hear from Fortune 100 companies and down that identifying “good” talent that meets their security job requirements is getting harder and harder. As I mentioned earlier I get many calls from firms that had an open position for several months simply because the limited talent they see is not close to being a match.

Recruiting in the security niche must be targeted and direct.  Casting a wide net and hoping to catch a perfect candidate is a poor solution for recruitment.

This is where, in my opinion, so many employers are missing out. If the traditional resources you have utilized are NOT producing solid results then why not change those resources. You may very well find that a change is just what your open security positions needed.

Wils Bell

President

SecurityHeadhunter.com, Inc.

SecurityHeadhunter.com is always open to answering questions and discussing security recruitment with both employers and security talented professionals. Feel free to visit us at SecurityHeadhunter.com or call us at 407-365-2404. Let our extensive experience in the Security Search Firm industry work on your behalf.