IT Security Career: Privacy, Pay and Tools

Veteran IT security recruiter Jeff Snyder addresses the growing demand for privacy professionals, the impact of changing industries, pay and tools to evaluate a recruiter and recruiting company.

Mikhael:  Let’s talk Privacy.  Do you see a growing demand for privacy professionals? Are some of the job descriptions including privacy functions into security roles?  Any uptick in privacy certification demands?

Jeff:

• I see an increase in the importance of Privacy positions.  The occurrence of Privacy professionals is most frequent in Banking and Financial Services, Business Services, Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology firms, Government, Insurance, Software and Services and Healthcare.
• A CIPP certification is most frequently recognized and requested by employers.
• Some Privacy Jobs are being rolled into IT Security while other Privacy Jobs exist outside of IT and report to a Chief Compliance Officer or a Chief Legal Officer.

Mikhael:  What advice can you offer to individuals considering switching industries (i.e. Energy to Healthcare, Government to Financial, etc.)?

Jeff:

• Switching industries is sometimes a very healthy career move when the opportunity arises. What is most difficult about switching industries is most often moving from one corporate culture to another.
• Moving from the highly regulated banking industry for example to the film, media, music or software industry can present a significant culture shock to a security professional.  The stiff regulations that drive banking are much different than the entertainment industry.
• Security professionals who learn how to operate in a highly regulated industry often find themselves lost when they get to a largely unregulated industry. 

Mikhael:  Pay for IT security Pros: Stable, North or South?

Jeff:

• I recently saw a survey that suggested pay for information security professionals had risen by 12 percent while salaries for corporate security professionals had risen by 3 percent.

Mikhael:  What are some tools, mechanisms or questions candidates can use to gage how the quality of a recruiter and recruiting company?  Are there any online rating Web sites? Referrals? Yelp?

Jeff:

• Reviewing a recruiter’s recommendations on LinkedIn should be helpful.
• The most accurate review would the personal one-on-one experience one has with a recruiter. 
• Though most recruiters are client driven, meaning that a recruiter’s clients pay their search fees, the best recruiters will still invest time to build relationships with candidates along the way.  For an executive recruiter, a candidate today could be a client tomorrow.
• The best recruiters recognize that they are in the people business.  Whether they recruit engineers, executives, accountants or nurses, all of these professions are served by people.  Many recruiters identify themselves too much with the subject matter they recruit and not enough with the fact that they work with people.
• Evidence of this behavior can be found when recruiters consistently don’t return phone calls, when they consistently don’t respond to emails, etc.