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List:       security-jobs
Subject:    RE: "Security Expertise In Short Supply", but no gigs to be found
From:       "Littlejohn, Robert E." <robert.littlejohn () unisys ! com>
Date:       2001-11-29 20:07:47
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As a Security Professional who is degreed in Human Resources, I understand
what you are saying. However, in your effective writing courses you should
have learned that with the multiple definitioned acronyms in the world
today, we should not use an acronym and ASSUME that it will be understood
for what it means. Recruiters are not typically reviewing bugtraq, have
never heard of Defcon unless it was DEFCON while they were in the military,
and don't visit security web sites or read security magazines online or
otherwise. I guess what I am saying is that if you really want to get a
positive response, you need to write your resume so that anyone who reads it
understands what you are saying.

Regards
RL

-----Original Message-----
From: Nicko Demeter [mailto:nicko@siterra.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 5:53 PM
To: Moyer, Shawn
Cc: securityjobs@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: "Security Expertise In Short Supply", but no gigs to be
found


While diversity depending on times may or may not be a good thing what
gets me is the recruiter that does not get things like:

"Well I have posted advisories on Bugtraq"
"I have spoken on H2K and Defcon"
"Run my own security site/zine"
"Have contributed kernel code"
etc etc

I am not saying I've done all of the above. However there are skills
that are of course amazing for the job that go into a black hole into
the recruiter's brain since he/she is unable to comprehend the
information.

<venting>
Oh, and talking about diversity I have the titles webmaster, network
admin, edi administrator, systems admin, director of it, and engineer in
my resume. I refuse to make up a title just because it sounds cool or is
the same title the recruiter is looking for. However I always get "Well,
that's great but do you know....how do you call this...TCB..no
wait...TCP and security?"
</venting>

Oh and I do have a DoD sec clearance. Have not seen ANY recruiter get
excited at all about it even when the job is "InfoSec"-ish. I think the
moral of the story is to have a copy of the resume that looks like
exactly what the recruiter is looking for. Bleh...

Nicko

-----Original Message-----
From: Moyer, Shawn [mailto:smoyer@rgare.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 3:07 PM
Cc: securityjobs@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: "Security Expertise In Short Supply", but no gigs to be
found



In monitoring this thread, it occurs to me that this is very likely one
of those times when the ability to switch-hit or have a "fall-back"
skillset is handy. I think most of us came into InfoSec from another
area (Unix Sysadmin, Networking, Dev, etc.), and if responses are
lukewarm, it might not be a bad idea to have an alternative resume or
two emphasizing another skillset. 

I have several colleagues who have a "Sysadmin" resume and an "InfoSec"
resume... Some of the higher-level folks on this list could likely also
serve as competent IT managers, I'd wager. In fact, the InfoSec
background may show a broader history than someone who's very highly
specialized -- it could even be an asset in finding a position in
another area of IT.

I'm not in the market myself (I like to lurk on the list to get a feel
for what's going on in the InfoSec job market), but in the past I
received a lot of calls / emails about Unix and Cisco positions since
those are areas that I work in a lot, even though InfoSec has been my
specialization for quite a few years. Although I found it annoying at
the time, it's nice to know that in a pinch there are some other areas
to market myself in.

To paraphrase the VP of a sales of a certain highly aggressive security
software vendor, it's good to have as many hooks in the water as
possible. 






--shawn

-- 
Shawn Moyer
Project Lead - Information Security
Reinsurance Group of America, Inc.

1370 Timberlake Manor Pkwy.
Chesterfield, MO 63017

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