1
00:00:03,700 --> 00:00:04,360
Hey!

2
00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,940
Hey, so this is Kathleen.

3
00:00:06,940 --> 00:00:28,000
We're back at the Career Hacking Village, and I'm so excited to invite my friend Chris Rice to talk about resumes, because Chris and I have done resume reviewing for the last six or seven years at several of the Las Vegas cons, and we can tell you that resumes really are,

4
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:43,460
one, very important to finding your next job, but two, they can be really screwed up if you don't do them right, and three, people will tell you to pay someone to do your resume when they really shouldn't.

5
00:00:43,460 --> 00:00:51,140
So I'm going to turn it over to my friend Chris Rice, and he's going to talk to you about doing your resume.

6
00:00:51,140 --> 00:00:52,540
Chris, take it away.

7
00:00:52,580 --> 00:00:54,520
Thank you so much, Kathleen.

8
00:00:55,140 --> 00:00:58,940
So I'm still getting used to presenting over video.

9
00:00:58,940 --> 00:01:12,460
It's kind of one of those... I prefer talks in person, because I like a little bit of audience interaction, and that way I can usually see if my terrible jokes are, like, getting a laugh, or like normal, you know, just falling a bit flat.

10
00:01:12,540 --> 00:01:17,440
It's a good reminder of why I ended up in recruitment and not in comedy.

11
00:01:17,740 --> 00:01:23,520
So let's talk about my... my talk's going to be called Owning Your Resume.

12
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:27,060
I'll tell you a little bit about me, first of all.

13
00:01:27,060 --> 00:01:38,300
So I've been for a bloody long time now in tech recruitment, and the last eight years have been dedicated specifically to cybersecurity recruitment.

14
00:01:38,620 --> 00:01:50,080
Eight years ago, I co-founded Tyro Security, which is a cybersecurity staffing and professional services company based out of Los Angeles, and covering really the whole of the US.

15
00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:58,420
I also co-founded a company called Commute.io, which we were looking to launch properly Q2 this year.

16
00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:04,060
Much like jokes are all about timing, start-ups often are as well.

17
00:02:04,060 --> 00:02:13,480
Commute was focused on retaining your staff, and doing that by looking at the horrible commutes that people had, and how that affected their happiness.

18
00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:25,400
Clearly, while we're in this... this time where we're in the crazy experiment of COVID, where everybody's working from home, and we're kind of figuring that out, commutes aren't much of an issue right now.

19
00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:27,320
So who knows what's going to happen with that one.

20
00:02:27,540 --> 00:02:41,420
Now, I'm also founding board member and president of the Cloud Security Alliance Southern California chapter, and I'm an advisory board member for the National Cybersecurity Training and Education Center.

21
00:02:41,820 --> 00:02:46,700
And just a little bit about me, I absolutely love diving with sharks.

22
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,040
Don't get to do it much anymore.

23
00:02:50,180 --> 00:02:53,220
I've got a little daughter, wife thinks it's too dangerous.

24
00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:56,480
Yep, this is one of my pictures.

25
00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:03,600
And I was hanging out, I wasn't a cage, don't worry, but I was actually hanging out of the cage with my camera like this.

26
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,820
So I guess there's an element of danger, that's probably why I enjoy doing it.

27
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:11,320
But anyway, I'm on a band now, wife says I can't do this anymore.

28
00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,520
But I am allowed to go to cybersecurity conferences.

29
00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:21,960
And the great thing about that is there must be some cybersecurity people that are scuba divers, right?

30
00:03:22,220 --> 00:03:32,280
So if you are, you need to connect with me on LinkedIn, we need to organize a conference that's on a scuba diving boat, because I'm sure I can get the approval for that.

31
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:34,200
So let's combine the two.

32
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:35,680
Totally up for that.

33
00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:38,480
Right, so what am I talking about?

34
00:03:38,980 --> 00:03:44,260
So I'm going to be talking about writing the actual best resume for you.

35
00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,360
We're going to look at avoiding common mistakes.

36
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:53,040
We're also going to look at what most hiring managers want to read.

37
00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:57,840
And I say most because every person is different.

38
00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:02,960
We've got to work for the majority and we've got to put together a resume that works for the majority.

39
00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:05,440
And that's where my experience comes in.

40
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,900
And hopefully this is what's going to come out of this.

41
00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,900
And then it's going to be talking about getting your resume in front of the right person.

42
00:04:11,900 --> 00:04:16,460
It's no good having an amazing resume unless you're actually having the right person read it.

43
00:04:18,980 --> 00:04:20,760
What the talk's not about.

44
00:04:21,220 --> 00:04:22,900
Resumes, are they outdated?

45
00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:24,140
Well, probably.

46
00:04:26,420 --> 00:04:32,120
We must be able to come up with something better than a piece of paper with this information on.

47
00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:33,860
But we haven't got anything yet.

48
00:04:33,860 --> 00:04:43,560
Nothing that at least is accepted globally and can do everything that these documents do while also minimising any potential bias.

49
00:04:43,580 --> 00:04:46,160
So, you know, we're still figuring that out.

50
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:47,980
LinkedIn and things like that.

51
00:04:47,980 --> 00:04:48,380
Who knows?

52
00:04:48,380 --> 00:04:51,260
Maybe they will end up taking over from resumes.

53
00:04:51,260 --> 00:04:53,600
But right now, resumes are what we've got.

54
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:55,260
We need to make the most of them.

55
00:04:55,660 --> 00:04:59,880
And the other thing we're not going to cover is something I call keyword tricks.

56
00:05:00,180 --> 00:05:06,700
Keyword tricks are things like hidden words, huge skills matrices.

57
00:05:06,980 --> 00:05:22,820
You know, when you write these things all out in white font or in tiny fonts that aren't really readable by a person, but are aimed to be picked up by systems, you only need these things if you're planning to send those resumes into those systems.

58
00:05:22,900 --> 00:05:25,540
And that shouldn't be your goal.

59
00:05:25,540 --> 00:05:28,340
And I don't want that to be what comes out of this talk.

60
00:05:28,500 --> 00:05:33,280
I'm a firm believer you want to get your resume in front of the right person, not into the right system.

61
00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:35,320
So we're not going to be covering this.

62
00:05:38,660 --> 00:05:47,800
So my goals by the end of this talk, the plan is that you will understand why resumes are still very, very important.

63
00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:53,880
You can understand what the common mistakes are, how we go about avoiding them.

64
00:05:54,680 --> 00:06:02,000
Also, the relationship between your social media and your resume and the actual job search you're doing.

65
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:13,520
And then the final part, as soon as we're going to come up with an amazing resume for you, we're going to want to make sure we maximise what we do with that and maximise the opportunities that you can get.

66
00:06:15,740 --> 00:06:19,100
So CV or resume.

67
00:06:20,060 --> 00:06:24,940
You can probably tell by the accent, I'm not originally from the US.

68
00:06:25,300 --> 00:06:31,460
And the great thing about DEF CON is, you know, when I've been for the last few years, you meet so many people from all over the world.

69
00:06:31,460 --> 00:06:33,020
I'm originally from London.

70
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:38,320
I spent half my career in recruitment, actually recruiting for Europe.

71
00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:44,380
And in Europe, we use Curriculum Vitae or CV, which is Latin for course of life.

72
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:46,440
And that's how we refer to it there.

73
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:48,660
Not course of life, of course, we call it CV.

74
00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:58,840
And then the other half of my recruiting experience has been over here in the US, where we use resume, which is French to summarise.

75
00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:08,080
Now, there are a lot of articles that I've read on the web, and it talks about the differences between having a CV or having a resume.

76
00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,160
It talks about the length or maybe content.

77
00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:13,120
But it's the same thing.

78
00:07:13,420 --> 00:07:16,100
It's the same thing, right?

79
00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:21,780
It's a concise written history of your work in life.

80
00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:23,680
And it's designed to get you an interview.

81
00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,880
It's not designed to get you a job, it's designed to get you that interview.

82
00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:33,540
Now, I've been hands off for a while now, I don't do a lot of hands on recruiting.

83
00:07:33,540 --> 00:07:37,000
And I'm still seeing probably 10 resumes a day.

84
00:07:37,860 --> 00:07:42,440
When I was recruiting, 60 a day wouldn't be unheard of.

85
00:07:42,440 --> 00:08:02,720
And if I work back and think about how long I've been doing this for, even with half of it being in Europe with, of course, the famous European vacation time we get, which I definitely made use of, I'd still estimate that I saw over 200,000 resumes in my time within the recruitment industry.

86
00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:06,340
And almost all of that was the tech area.

87
00:08:06,340 --> 00:08:11,660
So I've seen a lot of resumes, and that's what I'm building this information on off of.

88
00:08:14,260 --> 00:08:17,400
So resumes are still very much important.

89
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:20,620
You need to look at your resume.

90
00:08:20,620 --> 00:08:23,420
And some people get frustrated when they think about resumes.

91
00:08:24,460 --> 00:08:26,180
Oh, I've still got to do this.

92
00:08:26,180 --> 00:08:27,840
They can just look at my LinkedIn.

93
00:08:27,980 --> 00:08:30,780
Resumes are still very, very important.

94
00:08:30,780 --> 00:08:39,580
Just as communication skills are important in every job that you go for, they will expect and want good communication skills.

95
00:08:39,580 --> 00:08:44,360
And your resume, you've got to think of your resume as a test, if anything.

96
00:08:44,380 --> 00:08:55,360
Your resume is there to show hiring management, recruiters, everybody in that process, how you would communicate in writing.

97
00:08:55,680 --> 00:08:57,600
So you've got to bear that in mind.

98
00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:03,720
When you're doing this, when you're looking at resumes and you're putting them together, this is a test.

99
00:09:03,820 --> 00:09:07,520
You want to do your absolute best in this test.

100
00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:12,480
And hopefully this presentation and talk is going to help you do some of this.

101
00:09:12,860 --> 00:09:16,720
And just remember this document is there to get you the interview.

102
00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:23,280
And once it's got you the interview, it's going to form a major part of your actual interview process.

103
00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,020
So let's make sure you got it right.

104
00:09:26,020 --> 00:09:30,060
Let's make sure it's something that you know really well and then you can use.

105
00:09:32,790 --> 00:09:34,790
So owning your resume.

106
00:09:35,330 --> 00:09:38,130
Your resume represents you.

107
00:09:38,970 --> 00:09:42,230
This is supposed to be you, right?

108
00:09:42,350 --> 00:09:46,850
You should be the one that is putting your resume together.

109
00:09:46,890 --> 00:09:50,250
It represents you, it represents your career history.

110
00:09:50,430 --> 00:09:52,970
You must write it.

111
00:09:53,010 --> 00:09:54,430
Can you take a look at others?

112
00:09:54,430 --> 00:09:55,430
Of course you can.

113
00:09:55,730 --> 00:09:57,290
Who else do you know in the industry?

114
00:09:57,290 --> 00:09:58,450
Let's have a look at their resume.

115
00:09:58,450 --> 00:09:59,890
Will they share them with you?

116
00:10:00,030 --> 00:10:03,270
Could you use other people's in a template?

117
00:10:03,270 --> 00:10:04,370
Of course you could.

118
00:10:04,530 --> 00:10:06,550
You know, if you want to do that, great.

119
00:10:06,550 --> 00:10:07,790
No problem with that.

120
00:10:08,530 --> 00:10:10,050
Use a second set of eyes.

121
00:10:10,050 --> 00:10:15,510
You know people that are in the industry or recruiters or whoever it may be.

122
00:10:15,810 --> 00:10:19,910
Get them to take another look at your resume and give you feedback on it.

123
00:10:19,910 --> 00:10:22,170
You've got friends, you've got contacts.

124
00:10:22,170 --> 00:10:22,950
Do that.

125
00:10:22,950 --> 00:10:25,130
Just don't pay for somebody to do this.

126
00:10:25,130 --> 00:10:28,590
Please, please, please, please, please do not pay for somebody to do this.

127
00:10:28,630 --> 00:10:37,170
And I'm probably really annoying a lot of people that maybe do resume writing as a career.

128
00:10:38,910 --> 00:10:40,350
I'm sorry.

129
00:10:41,010 --> 00:10:42,310
I'm sorry.

130
00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:44,690
I'm not really that sorry, honestly.

131
00:10:44,690 --> 00:10:57,190
That professional resume writers, I think I know one professional resume writer that actually works within the cyber security industry and has cyber security experience.

132
00:10:57,190 --> 00:10:58,650
One, one.

133
00:10:58,650 --> 00:11:03,490
I think I know 15,000 contacts on LinkedIn, well over 15,000 now.

134
00:11:03,490 --> 00:11:05,550
I still only know one, right?

135
00:11:05,550 --> 00:11:10,490
And your resume is very, very much industry specific.

136
00:11:11,010 --> 00:11:13,930
Different resumes are needed for different industries.

137
00:11:14,930 --> 00:11:19,130
And so the cyber security industry has its own requirements.

138
00:11:19,130 --> 00:11:27,490
So having a generic resume written by somebody that writes resumes for every industry isn't going to be that good for you.

139
00:11:27,490 --> 00:11:36,850
And I've looked at a lot of these and I can tell you much of the time when we are asking for changes and we have somebody say, well, but I paid somebody to do this.

140
00:11:36,850 --> 00:11:43,670
They still need changes in them because they're not set up for what a cyber security resume should look like.

141
00:11:44,170 --> 00:11:47,490
And so you could pay quite a lot of money for that to be done.

142
00:11:47,490 --> 00:12:06,010
So I'm just going to say, save your money, spend it on something that would help your career, whether that's expanding your knowledge, a training course, whether that's buying a new tool that you can play with at home, or whether that's even getting a certification,

143
00:12:06,010 --> 00:12:10,810
just don't pay somebody else to write your resume.

144
00:12:10,810 --> 00:12:12,130
Don't do that, please.

145
00:12:12,490 --> 00:12:15,170
Sorry, resume reviewers, but don't do it.

146
00:12:15,170 --> 00:12:16,670
Don't do it, resume writers.

147
00:12:17,130 --> 00:12:18,250
Anyway, right.

148
00:12:18,250 --> 00:12:20,410
Dress for the occasion is what I call this.

149
00:12:20,570 --> 00:12:23,370
You want your resume to fit the occasion.

150
00:12:24,350 --> 00:12:27,650
And so you're going to have multiple resumes.

151
00:12:27,790 --> 00:12:31,370
What we're going to mainly focus on is your generic resume.

152
00:12:31,870 --> 00:12:38,530
So your generic resume is the one that you're going to base your specific resumes from.

153
00:12:38,690 --> 00:12:41,750
So you've got to get this one right, first of all.

154
00:12:41,750 --> 00:13:01,750
If you're one of those people who like to take a printed copy to job fairs, and I gather there are still people that like to do that, especially because people don't want to send documents that could, you know, especially within cyber security, sending documents to different people or letting people loose on your computer might understand that.

155
00:13:01,750 --> 00:13:08,030
So if you're somebody who wants to take a printed copy with you, this is the one you're going to use.

156
00:13:08,450 --> 00:13:16,490
This one is going to be more tailored towards the type of job that you're most likely to be applying for.

157
00:13:16,850 --> 00:13:24,310
This one's going to talk about projects, experience that you've got that's broad.

158
00:13:24,310 --> 00:13:27,630
It's not going to go into so much the specifics.

159
00:13:27,630 --> 00:13:33,210
It's going to give people a general understanding of who you are and the experience that you've got.

160
00:13:34,490 --> 00:13:40,030
And you're going to use that for certain things you will use that for.

161
00:13:40,030 --> 00:13:46,630
The specific resume is the one that you're going to actually use and write for job description, specific job description.

162
00:13:46,630 --> 00:13:49,310
You know, you've got the job description there.

163
00:13:49,550 --> 00:13:51,450
You're going to take your generic resume.

164
00:13:51,610 --> 00:14:10,170
You're going to really, really read that job description, or even better, if you know somebody that works there, or you even may know the hiring manager, speak to them, get more information out of what they're truly looking for, and then make sure that's in your specific resume.

165
00:14:10,470 --> 00:14:15,890
I did this at my last position, and I know you're looking to do the same project, right?

166
00:14:15,890 --> 00:14:17,510
Make sure that's in there.

167
00:14:17,510 --> 00:14:25,470
And you've got to make sure that that relevant experience relates to the job you're applying for.

168
00:14:26,410 --> 00:14:28,570
The most relevant skills are in there.

169
00:14:28,570 --> 00:14:31,050
The most relevant tools are in there.

170
00:14:31,050 --> 00:14:33,630
Your most relevant projects are in there.

171
00:14:34,170 --> 00:14:39,890
They're all ready for that particular job, and you're going to want to detail that in your specific resume.

172
00:14:39,890 --> 00:14:42,510
So you might end up with quite a few specific resumes.

173
00:14:43,270 --> 00:14:44,590
Totally normal.

174
00:14:45,950 --> 00:14:46,910
It's important.

175
00:14:46,910 --> 00:14:48,370
It does take time.

176
00:14:48,430 --> 00:14:53,970
But this resume is the one that will get you the job, and it's the one that will create the conversation during your interview.

177
00:14:54,110 --> 00:14:55,010
So take time.

178
00:14:55,010 --> 00:14:56,250
It's worth it.

179
00:14:58,250 --> 00:14:59,810
All right, common mistakes.

180
00:15:00,470 --> 00:15:01,350
Oh, boy.

181
00:15:02,510 --> 00:15:04,930
Let's start off with resume length.

182
00:15:06,530 --> 00:15:11,450
Now, I'm talking very much about... I said this earlier in the presentation.

183
00:15:11,450 --> 00:15:17,930
We're talking about generically what most managers want to see.

184
00:15:20,350 --> 00:15:28,210
Some managers out there may well like to see a long, detailed resume, but on the whole, most do not.

185
00:15:28,650 --> 00:15:30,530
And so we're going to work for the most.

186
00:15:30,530 --> 00:15:33,910
We're going to put together a generic resume that works for the most.

187
00:15:34,210 --> 00:15:44,310
And so talking about resume length, your resume is a clear, concise example of your written communication skills.

188
00:15:45,090 --> 00:15:54,910
So unless you just graduated and have very little work experience, I can't see how you will get it to one page.

189
00:15:54,910 --> 00:16:07,310
And the ones that I have seen that are one-page resumes, they're usually missing key information, and they're usually written in a really small font that just makes it awkward to read.

190
00:16:07,730 --> 00:16:08,610
It's not good.

191
00:16:08,610 --> 00:16:11,350
It's not what you would do in a report that you would be writing.

192
00:16:11,350 --> 00:16:15,590
So skip the one-page one unless you've just graduated.

193
00:16:16,190 --> 00:16:19,290
Ideal resume length, two to three pages.

194
00:16:20,110 --> 00:16:24,550
Once you get to four pages, you're kind of pushing it.

195
00:16:24,570 --> 00:16:27,570
And anything more than that, you're going to lose your audience.

196
00:16:29,630 --> 00:16:36,870
I'll tell you a story, and I wrote a blog about this, but I had a resume sent across to us, and I opened it up.

197
00:16:36,870 --> 00:16:38,410
It was 55 pages.

198
00:16:38,430 --> 00:16:40,330
55-page resume.

199
00:16:40,330 --> 00:16:41,110
Wow.

200
00:16:43,210 --> 00:16:45,910
I don't know whether to write a resume or a novel.

201
00:16:45,910 --> 00:16:47,230
It was insane.

202
00:16:47,230 --> 00:17:00,830
So I actually spoke to the person, and you have to be pretty tactile because this is somebody's experience, and they obviously feel passionate about the experience they've got, and they feel passionate enough to write a 55-page resume.

203
00:17:00,830 --> 00:17:06,010
So I did say to the person, have you got another resume that you also use?

204
00:17:06,010 --> 00:17:09,710
Because some people have a couple of generic resumes.

205
00:17:09,710 --> 00:17:18,010
Some people will have a two- or three-page generic resume, and then they might have something, a longer one, in case they get asked and you've got something that goes into more detail.

206
00:17:19,210 --> 00:17:25,830
So I asked that question, and got an email back, excitedly opened up the resume.

207
00:17:25,830 --> 00:17:27,770
That's an amazing experience.

208
00:17:27,770 --> 00:17:30,670
Opened up the resume, 70 pages.

209
00:17:30,850 --> 00:17:35,790
Yep, turns out the 55-page resume was their short one.

210
00:17:35,990 --> 00:17:39,510
So look, I know you're passionate about your experience.

211
00:17:39,510 --> 00:17:50,530
I know you want to work for companies that are also passionate about your experience, but you need to be able to write clear and concise documents for most jobs that you go for.

212
00:17:50,550 --> 00:18:04,030
And so if you can't get it down to that, and we'll talk a bit about how you might be able to do that, but if you can't get it down to that length, you've got to look at your ability and what kind of information you're putting in there.

213
00:18:04,050 --> 00:18:05,190
So look, work on it.

214
00:18:05,190 --> 00:18:05,970
Get your resume down.

215
00:18:05,970 --> 00:18:07,770
Two or three pages is ideal.

216
00:18:08,730 --> 00:18:11,150
So the other thing we're going to talk about is formatting errors.

217
00:18:12,230 --> 00:18:14,970
Choose your font and stick to it.

218
00:18:14,970 --> 00:18:16,990
Same font throughout the whole document.

219
00:18:17,310 --> 00:18:19,350
Don't do multiple fonts.

220
00:18:19,550 --> 00:18:28,350
Be careful when you cut and paste things, maybe from one resume to another or from your LinkedIn, you might find that you actually end up putting in a different font and you didn't know that.

221
00:18:28,350 --> 00:18:32,650
So regularly check that you've got the same font throughout the whole lot.

222
00:18:32,990 --> 00:18:40,190
And generally, probably the same size font as well.

223
00:18:40,190 --> 00:18:47,390
You might have titles in a slightly bigger font, I suppose, but you've got to keep whatever you do, do the format the same right the way through.

224
00:18:47,390 --> 00:18:58,170
So if you have a description of where you worked, how long you worked there, your job title, and then underneath, you've got bullet points of the things you did.

225
00:18:58,770 --> 00:19:07,390
Every job should be done the same way, not bullet points on one and no bullet points for another or square bullet points on one and round bullet points on another.

226
00:19:07,950 --> 00:19:16,610
You want to make sure that you've got all of these things laid out so that the format reads and there's nothing distracting them, basically.

227
00:19:16,850 --> 00:19:20,650
And be really careful about where you use your bolding.

228
00:19:22,210 --> 00:19:31,850
Some places, if you bold every company you work for, and then the date, and then the date isn't bold, you know, if it's the same all the way through, and it's used sparingly, it can look good.

229
00:19:31,850 --> 00:19:40,590
If you're bolding lots of words and you're sending them to different jobs, and sometimes those skills don't apply to those jobs, it's going to look a mess.

230
00:19:40,910 --> 00:19:42,770
First off, and it's often not going to apply.

231
00:19:42,770 --> 00:19:46,210
And somebody's going to be looking and saying, why are they even bolding those words?

232
00:19:46,210 --> 00:19:48,030
They don't apply to this job.

233
00:19:48,030 --> 00:19:52,310
So just be really careful and use it sparingly.

234
00:19:53,850 --> 00:19:56,310
Spelling and grammar mistakes.

235
00:19:58,090 --> 00:20:02,230
I always get a bit, but why are these still happening?

236
00:20:02,290 --> 00:20:06,930
We have tools, you know, Microsoft has tools for you.

237
00:20:06,930 --> 00:20:10,730
If you're using the Microsoft suite, it picks up your spellings.

238
00:20:10,730 --> 00:20:13,230
You get a little red squiggly line underneath.

239
00:20:13,230 --> 00:20:16,330
It tells you that it picks up your grammar mistakes.

240
00:20:16,330 --> 00:20:18,090
It tells you to check them.

241
00:20:18,330 --> 00:20:21,430
And this page had quite a lot of squiggly lines on it, I can tell you.

242
00:20:22,890 --> 00:20:28,530
Use those, read through them, and that should be your first point.

243
00:20:28,630 --> 00:20:41,170
And you'd be so surprised, probably three quarters, I would say, of the resumes we see have still got spelling and grammar mistakes in them.

244
00:20:41,270 --> 00:20:43,970
And so it's such an easy one to avoid.

245
00:20:44,070 --> 00:20:51,390
So make sure you're using the word processing systems or whatever software you've got to pick up on that.

246
00:20:51,830 --> 00:20:56,370
And I get that not everybody's great with spelling and grammar.

247
00:20:56,370 --> 00:21:00,250
I may well be from England, but actually I'm pretty shit at it.

248
00:21:00,250 --> 00:21:02,070
It's not a skill of mine.

249
00:21:02,190 --> 00:21:06,490
And so I ask friends, I ask other people to read over.

250
00:21:06,490 --> 00:21:12,490
In fact, even this presentation, I asked one of my colleagues to have a look through it and point out stuff.

251
00:21:12,490 --> 00:21:14,590
And I made some formatting mistakes.

252
00:21:15,250 --> 00:21:18,950
Thankfully, the spelling and grammar mistakes were only the ones I meant to make.

253
00:21:20,030 --> 00:21:21,610
But I did make some mistakes in it.

254
00:21:21,610 --> 00:21:23,390
So look, get somebody else to look at it.

255
00:21:23,850 --> 00:21:29,050
Now these next couple of things, they kind of do merge a little bit in together.

256
00:21:30,590 --> 00:21:33,670
So missing specific employment dates.

257
00:21:34,030 --> 00:21:42,210
We will see resumes that are sent to us that will say 2018 to 2019.

258
00:21:42,810 --> 00:21:43,770
I mean, when?

259
00:21:43,770 --> 00:21:45,990
I mean, is that a two-month job?

260
00:21:45,990 --> 00:21:48,650
Did you start in December and finish in January?

261
00:21:48,790 --> 00:21:50,350
Or is that a two-year job?

262
00:21:50,350 --> 00:21:53,290
Did you start in January and finish in December?

263
00:21:53,410 --> 00:21:56,710
You need to be specific with your employment dates.

264
00:21:56,970 --> 00:22:05,910
And I'll talk about why, because as we roll into sort of leaving employment gaps, everybody at some point may well have an employment gap.

265
00:22:06,150 --> 00:22:08,430
Maybe you were out of work and you were looking.

266
00:22:08,430 --> 00:22:12,250
Maybe you took the time off to do some certifications.

267
00:22:12,450 --> 00:22:13,450
Maybe you travelled.

268
00:22:13,450 --> 00:22:15,570
Maybe you looked after a loved one.

269
00:22:15,910 --> 00:22:17,010
Maybe you had a baby.

270
00:22:17,030 --> 00:22:18,410
Who knows?

271
00:22:18,550 --> 00:22:22,810
People have good reasons for having gaps in their employment.

272
00:22:24,050 --> 00:22:25,830
And you should embrace that.

273
00:22:25,830 --> 00:22:30,410
That gap in your employment, put what you were doing, put it down there on your resume.

274
00:22:30,550 --> 00:22:38,790
And the reason why I say that is because you will want to cause... when people are reading your resume, you don't want them having doubts.

275
00:22:38,790 --> 00:22:43,570
You don't want them making lists of, okay, I must ask them about those employment dates.

276
00:22:43,570 --> 00:22:46,750
I must ask them what they were doing between that time and that time.

277
00:22:46,750 --> 00:22:48,270
You don't want them asking you that.

278
00:22:48,270 --> 00:22:55,330
You don't want them... because if you have more doubts than the resume next to them, you might just never get a chance to talk to them about it.

279
00:22:55,330 --> 00:22:59,310
Maybe they'll take these resumes and they'll never get to that pile of resumes.

280
00:22:59,450 --> 00:23:03,150
So get rid of the doubts.

281
00:23:03,770 --> 00:23:10,390
Make sure that they can focus just on what your resume has in it, the information and stuff that's applicable.

282
00:23:10,810 --> 00:23:12,630
That's why this is so important.

283
00:23:13,290 --> 00:23:15,710
And then irrelevant information.

284
00:23:16,170 --> 00:23:17,470
I'll give you a few examples.

285
00:23:17,470 --> 00:23:21,110
This is going to really help you with your resume length.

286
00:23:21,610 --> 00:23:35,030
So nobody, at least nobody I know, wants to know lots of detail about a three-month job that you had 15 years ago.

287
00:23:35,990 --> 00:23:37,970
Just probably not applicable, right?

288
00:23:37,970 --> 00:23:39,070
Just not applicable.

289
00:23:39,410 --> 00:23:49,490
So anything you've done even 10 years ago, and some people I've seen even go up to sort of seven, eight years, but certainly 10 years ago.

290
00:23:49,490 --> 00:23:53,290
If it's 10 years ago, it doesn't need to have any detail.

291
00:23:53,810 --> 00:24:01,650
I think if it's 10 years ago, you need to have the company you work for, the specific employment date you work for them, and the job title.

292
00:24:01,650 --> 00:24:02,530
That's it.

293
00:24:03,570 --> 00:24:07,670
A few of you now are looking at really long resumes and thinking, wow, I can just get rid of half of it.

294
00:24:07,670 --> 00:24:08,250
That's perfect.

295
00:24:08,250 --> 00:24:09,190
Thank you, Chris.

296
00:24:09,770 --> 00:24:13,190
So that's what you're going to look to do.

297
00:24:13,470 --> 00:24:18,130
If they want to find out more information about those jobs, they'll ask during the interview.

298
00:24:18,130 --> 00:24:21,010
They're not going to, that's not going to stop you from getting an interview.

299
00:24:21,010 --> 00:24:27,690
It's going to be something they'll ask you about, especially if it's very applicable to the job, or at least the job title is applicable.

300
00:24:28,050 --> 00:24:29,570
So just bear that in mind.

301
00:24:30,270 --> 00:24:34,270
Likewise, and this is kind of a little bit of a bugbear of mine.

302
00:24:35,250 --> 00:24:45,450
Under certifications, a lot of people will have not only certifications they've got, certifications that they've let run out.

303
00:24:45,450 --> 00:24:47,350
So they don't have, they no longer have them.

304
00:24:47,350 --> 00:24:50,750
And then also certifications that they haven't even got yet.

305
00:24:51,150 --> 00:24:53,970
CISSP-studying.

306
00:24:53,990 --> 00:24:56,050
I've seen it so many times.

307
00:24:56,090 --> 00:25:02,910
And that's a bugbear for me because you forget, we have old resumes of people when they apply for jobs.

308
00:25:02,910 --> 00:25:11,370
I can see that for two years, you've been studying for your CISSP because on your last resume, the last time you were looking, it says it.

309
00:25:11,810 --> 00:25:13,150
So honestly, it's bullshit.

310
00:25:13,850 --> 00:25:15,390
I'm going to mince my words, right?

311
00:25:15,390 --> 00:25:16,190
It's bullshit.

312
00:25:16,190 --> 00:25:17,870
You're not still studying for it.

313
00:25:17,870 --> 00:25:18,990
So take it off.

314
00:25:19,170 --> 00:25:22,490
Or if you're truly about to do the test, right?

315
00:25:22,490 --> 00:25:34,470
If you know, September, I've got my test book, September, 2020, I've got my test book, then put it CISSP test book for September, 2020, put the year, right?

316
00:25:35,250 --> 00:25:37,310
But other than that, take it off.

317
00:25:37,310 --> 00:25:41,310
People will ask you, like when you've got stuff on there, people will ask you about it.

318
00:25:41,310 --> 00:25:46,950
And then, you know, you've got an M&R and you might have to, you know, blur the truth a little bit.

319
00:25:46,950 --> 00:25:49,330
And they can tell, they can tell this stuff.

320
00:25:49,330 --> 00:25:50,570
So don't put it on there.

321
00:25:51,610 --> 00:25:57,990
Other thing is we don't need a load of degree, a load of information about what you studied your degree in if it was 10 years ago.

322
00:25:58,650 --> 00:26:01,110
And don't bother people putting graduation dates, right?

323
00:26:01,110 --> 00:26:03,410
You don't want anybody to date you or to age you.

324
00:26:03,410 --> 00:26:07,210
You don't need to put dates of education in there.

325
00:26:07,210 --> 00:26:11,650
You can put what you studied, you put what your major is, you can put your GPA, that's it.

326
00:26:11,650 --> 00:26:12,710
Don't go into detail.

327
00:26:12,710 --> 00:26:14,910
Now, there's a caveat to that.

328
00:26:15,110 --> 00:26:26,890
And the caveat is that if you're a recent graduate, you don't have a lot of experience, then you may want to put into a little bit more detail as to what you did as part of that study.

329
00:26:26,890 --> 00:26:29,090
But that's the only reason you should do that.

330
00:26:30,010 --> 00:26:37,550
And then the last thing about your resume is this is going to be read by multiple people in a company.

331
00:26:38,790 --> 00:26:43,550
Some of those people are going to be technical, and some of those are going to be non-technical.

332
00:26:44,330 --> 00:26:48,770
And they're going to judge your written communication on this resume.

333
00:26:49,070 --> 00:26:57,890
And if you do really, really well, this is probably going to be, you know, in front of management directors, maybe even execs, depending on the position you're vying for.

334
00:26:58,250 --> 00:27:02,390
And you've got to write a resume that speaks to all of those different people.

335
00:27:02,890 --> 00:27:08,470
In my experience, if you're going for a technical job, you will end up having some kind of technical test.

336
00:27:08,490 --> 00:27:13,910
So you don't need to worry too much about making it overly technical.

337
00:27:13,910 --> 00:27:18,350
As long as they've got an idea of what you did, what projects that you've done, they're going to ask you about it.

338
00:27:18,630 --> 00:27:22,430
Make it something that works for all different levels of people.

339
00:27:23,090 --> 00:27:36,930
Because, you know, if you're writing a pen test report or a risk assessment, they want somebody that's able to write something that speaks to different people, different levels of people.

340
00:27:37,490 --> 00:27:41,570
And so let's not make it overly technical.

341
00:27:41,570 --> 00:27:46,210
You don't want a non -technical person to get lost in it and just put it down, right?

342
00:27:46,210 --> 00:27:49,110
Reminder, they will check your technical skills.

343
00:27:51,690 --> 00:27:53,210
I'm going to leave this one up here.

344
00:27:53,310 --> 00:27:54,050
Dishonesty.

345
00:27:54,050 --> 00:27:57,410
Let me take a drink of water while you just look at this slide.

346
00:28:03,230 --> 00:28:05,290
Don't be dishonest, please.

347
00:28:05,290 --> 00:28:06,730
It always comes out.

348
00:28:06,910 --> 00:28:09,050
I've seen it come out during interview.

349
00:28:09,230 --> 00:28:11,650
I've seen it just during people sending their resumes.

350
00:28:11,650 --> 00:28:13,490
I've seen it during the interview process.

351
00:28:13,490 --> 00:28:14,610
It's really awkward.

352
00:28:15,270 --> 00:28:20,930
I've seen it come out after people have been offered jobs and I've seen jobs retracted.

353
00:28:20,930 --> 00:28:28,410
I've seen it come out after people have got jobs and I have seen people fired.

354
00:28:28,510 --> 00:28:29,550
Just don't do it.

355
00:28:29,550 --> 00:28:31,390
There's no reason.

356
00:28:31,610 --> 00:28:36,010
This should be your honest career experience.

357
00:28:36,230 --> 00:28:37,770
Be proud of what you have done.

358
00:28:37,770 --> 00:28:39,150
Don't make up things you haven't done.

359
00:28:39,150 --> 00:28:42,290
It will come up and it will bite you in the arse.

360
00:28:45,910 --> 00:28:48,010
So social media.

361
00:28:49,490 --> 00:29:09,670
You guys generally are pretty savvy and I put a big buck here because for eight years I've been doing this and I still see cyber security people not thinking about how their social media impacts their job search.

362
00:29:09,670 --> 00:29:19,230
I've seen public tweets, old public tweets, that people probably don't feel that way anymore come and stop people getting jobs.

363
00:29:19,230 --> 00:29:21,510
Certainly stop people getting interviews.

364
00:29:24,090 --> 00:29:25,850
There's two ways to work it.

365
00:29:26,230 --> 00:29:31,730
Keep it private and I think a lot of cyber security people probably understand that.

366
00:29:32,130 --> 00:29:34,570
You can have a couple of different social media.

367
00:29:34,570 --> 00:29:41,070
If you want to have a private and a public one and have it separated like that, you can absolutely do that.

368
00:29:41,350 --> 00:29:45,210
Or, of course, you can be at the point of, look, I don't give a shit.

369
00:29:45,210 --> 00:29:46,070
This is me.

370
00:29:46,210 --> 00:29:49,030
If you're going to hire me, this is what I feel.

371
00:29:49,030 --> 00:29:51,670
And I see a lot of people do that and that's great for them.

372
00:29:51,950 --> 00:29:55,390
And there are a lot of people in high demand in our industry.

373
00:29:56,230 --> 00:30:00,710
And so, you know, absolutely, you know, you can go ahead and do that.

374
00:30:01,630 --> 00:30:02,890
But you make that decision.

375
00:30:02,890 --> 00:30:06,390
Just do it with a clear head, I guess.

376
00:30:06,390 --> 00:30:08,990
Do it and understanding what you're doing.

377
00:30:08,990 --> 00:30:14,990
Because the last thing you want to do and I guess, you know, we should be pretty good at assessing risk, right?

378
00:30:14,990 --> 00:30:22,070
And you can decide how risky it is, whether you want to manage that issue or whether you don't want to manage it.

379
00:30:22,230 --> 00:30:23,530
Up to you.

380
00:30:23,730 --> 00:30:30,770
Just make sure you're thinking about it because it can stop you and it will stop you getting jobs and it could stop you getting your dream job.

381
00:30:30,770 --> 00:30:33,310
It could stop you getting the thing that you most want to do.

382
00:30:33,690 --> 00:30:36,490
And, you know, you don't really want it to do that.

383
00:30:37,250 --> 00:30:40,870
So, moving on to LinkedIn accounts.

384
00:30:42,410 --> 00:30:45,410
I've seen a couple of people with a couple of different LinkedIn accounts.

385
00:30:45,410 --> 00:30:51,630
That always looks a bit strange, especially as most of them are not private and they often say different things.

386
00:30:52,670 --> 00:30:53,610
Don't do that.

387
00:30:53,610 --> 00:30:55,210
Have one LinkedIn account.

388
00:30:55,210 --> 00:31:00,490
And make sure the information matches what's in your actual resume.

389
00:31:00,670 --> 00:31:02,790
So make sure the job title matches.

390
00:31:02,790 --> 00:31:05,010
Make sure the description matches.

391
00:31:05,530 --> 00:31:18,250
And if you could probably have a couple of different job titles, you're welcome to have one on LinkedIn and then you could have that same one on your resume and then in brackets, the job title that you would put that as.

392
00:31:18,250 --> 00:31:22,490
Because I know that some businesses use very generic job titles.

393
00:31:22,490 --> 00:31:30,930
So you can you can work within this, but make sure that there is a match there and it isn't going to make somebody say, I love this resume, this person looks great.

394
00:31:30,970 --> 00:31:33,230
Let me look at their LinkedIn.

395
00:31:33,230 --> 00:31:36,490
Oh, oh, well, that's totally different.

396
00:31:36,650 --> 00:31:37,830
Why is it totally different?

397
00:31:37,830 --> 00:31:38,990
That's strange.

398
00:31:38,990 --> 00:31:44,310
And you don't want to create that doubt because you don't know how many people you're up against when you're going for these jobs.

399
00:31:44,770 --> 00:31:48,470
And then think about the information that you share as well.

400
00:31:50,310 --> 00:31:54,610
Would your previous employer be happy about that information?

401
00:31:54,610 --> 00:31:59,450
Would your current employer be that happy with that amount of information you share?

402
00:31:59,870 --> 00:32:06,670
And would your future employer be happy about the amount of information you share on there?

403
00:32:06,670 --> 00:32:09,990
So just be very, very careful around that.

404
00:32:12,980 --> 00:32:14,040
Maximizing impact.

405
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:15,320
Got a couple of slides on this.

406
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:16,160
Very important.

407
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:17,840
You've got the best resume in the world.

408
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:19,420
You put something together.

409
00:32:19,460 --> 00:32:20,780
You're very happy with it.

410
00:32:20,780 --> 00:32:22,840
How can we maximize impact?

411
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:29,120
First up, we're going to talk about cover letters or cover sheets.

412
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:39,600
As an external recruitment company, we do not send out a resume unless it has a cover sheet, a one-page cover sheet right at the beginning.

413
00:32:39,980 --> 00:32:41,540
Absolutely every time.

414
00:32:41,540 --> 00:32:50,160
We do it because we believe it makes an impact on how long that hiring manager will take to look at your resume.

415
00:32:52,660 --> 00:33:02,280
And so it's a way for us to take out very much the most relevant experience in those two or three pages and putting it right up front.

416
00:33:03,020 --> 00:33:08,840
We know Mr Hiring Manager or Mrs Hiring Manager that you're miss hiring manager.

417
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:11,040
Whatever pronoun you prefer.

418
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:18,080
We know hiring manager that you are looking for these five skills.

419
00:33:20,670 --> 00:33:24,290
This person has this many years with this skill.

420
00:33:25,390 --> 00:33:28,130
They were using it in their most recent role.

421
00:33:28,130 --> 00:33:30,090
We pull out that information.

422
00:33:30,310 --> 00:33:31,410
We make it so that

423
00:33:45,270 --> 00:33:48,390
the manager looks at it and is excited by your impact.

424
00:33:48,390 --> 00:33:49,910
So that's how we do it.

425
00:33:49,910 --> 00:33:52,590
As an individual, you might do it a little bit differently.

426
00:33:53,970 --> 00:33:57,850
First off, you've got to make sure that they're specific and concise.

427
00:33:57,850 --> 00:34:04,970
The same way as you would do in your resume, you've got to do the same in your cover letters or cover sheets.

428
00:34:05,190 --> 00:34:07,610
Make sure they're specific to the job description.

429
00:34:07,610 --> 00:34:10,390
Don't send out generic cover letters.

430
00:34:10,690 --> 00:34:11,570
They're horrible.

431
00:34:11,730 --> 00:34:12,270
They really are.

432
00:34:12,270 --> 00:34:13,290
Don't send a cover letter.

433
00:34:13,290 --> 00:34:15,970
If you're going to send a generic one, just don't bother sending one at all.

434
00:34:16,170 --> 00:34:18,810
Make sure they're specific to the job you're applying for.

435
00:34:18,810 --> 00:34:20,390
Make sure they're concise.

436
00:34:20,570 --> 00:34:30,750
Take your relevant experience and actually look at the job description or the job specification and read through it and think about it being a question and answer.

437
00:34:31,230 --> 00:34:33,190
They are looking for this.

438
00:34:33,330 --> 00:34:35,190
What experience do I have with this?

439
00:34:35,190 --> 00:34:36,570
They are looking for this.

440
00:34:36,570 --> 00:34:38,490
What experience do I have with this?

441
00:34:38,490 --> 00:34:41,290
And think about pulling that kind of information out.

442
00:34:41,330 --> 00:34:47,550
The other things you should put on the cover letters or cover sheets are why you really want the position.

443
00:34:48,250 --> 00:34:50,650
What's exciting you about it?

444
00:34:50,930 --> 00:34:53,290
And then that folds on to why you want to work for that company.

445
00:34:53,290 --> 00:34:55,030
What excites you about that company?

446
00:34:55,030 --> 00:35:03,610
If they feel that you're excited about the job, you're excited about working for them, you've done a little bit of background on them, they're going to be excited to meet you.

447
00:35:05,170 --> 00:35:10,890
And then finally, if relevant, you may want to put why you're leaving your current position.

448
00:35:10,890 --> 00:35:15,410
It's really, really important if you're doing this, you keep it very positive.

449
00:35:16,010 --> 00:35:21,850
And you should always be talking as positively as you can about why you're leaving your current position.

450
00:35:22,370 --> 00:35:32,470
It's been wonderful working here, but they don't support going to conferences or they don't actually pay for people to do certifications.

451
00:35:33,250 --> 00:35:34,570
Something like that.

452
00:35:34,570 --> 00:35:36,650
They have eight days vacation time.

453
00:35:36,650 --> 00:35:37,770
I work really hard.

454
00:35:37,770 --> 00:35:42,070
I'm willing to work really long hours, but I would like to spend more time and see more of my family.

455
00:35:42,110 --> 00:35:47,150
Whatever it might be, if it is relevant, then you can put that in the cover letter.

456
00:35:49,190 --> 00:35:52,610
So going on to sort of other ways to maximise impact.

457
00:35:53,230 --> 00:35:57,550
These are the three ways that you're going to really do your search.

458
00:35:57,550 --> 00:35:58,910
So you've got to make sure you own it.

459
00:35:58,910 --> 00:36:00,050
Own your search.

460
00:36:00,990 --> 00:36:03,650
One way is going to be responding to adverts.

461
00:36:04,570 --> 00:36:08,110
The other way is going to be utilising your network.

462
00:36:08,790 --> 00:36:15,290
And then finally, and these are the big three for me, is recruiters.

463
00:36:15,290 --> 00:36:19,010
Working with internal recruiters and working with external recruiters.

464
00:36:20,290 --> 00:36:22,570
So we'll talk about adverts first of all.

465
00:36:22,570 --> 00:36:24,010
Call that adverts a mess.

466
00:36:26,270 --> 00:36:29,150
Adverts are a funny thing, especially for our industry.

467
00:36:30,010 --> 00:36:31,850
So let's think about this for a second.

468
00:36:33,010 --> 00:36:39,330
I'm going to advertise to people that work in security and privacy.

469
00:36:40,070 --> 00:36:58,650
And I'm going to expect them to send their resume, which includes their personal data, through an advert to get added on a database, multiple databases, for who knows how long that's going to be sitting there for.

470
00:36:59,130 --> 00:37:03,850
And then you're going to get maybe standardised responses.

471
00:37:04,290 --> 00:37:06,290
You may or may not even be contacted.

472
00:37:07,130 --> 00:37:15,950
And when you do get contacted, there's a high chance that the first person contacting you or speaking to you may know nothing about our industry.

473
00:37:17,370 --> 00:37:19,970
And maybe even working off a checklist.

474
00:37:20,370 --> 00:37:21,070
Do you have this?

475
00:37:21,070 --> 00:37:21,970
Do you not have this?

476
00:37:21,970 --> 00:37:24,050
Check, check, check, check, check, check, check.

477
00:37:24,250 --> 00:37:28,770
Strangely enough, it doesn't work very well in an industry.

478
00:37:28,770 --> 00:37:29,750
It's broken!

479
00:37:30,210 --> 00:37:31,290
I should be there.

480
00:37:31,290 --> 00:37:33,170
I should smash a glass here for effect.

481
00:37:33,170 --> 00:37:34,470
That would be really good.

482
00:37:35,230 --> 00:37:36,530
It is broken.

483
00:37:37,150 --> 00:37:38,530
Advertising is broken.

484
00:37:38,530 --> 00:37:43,650
You should not rely on this, no matter how great your resume is.

485
00:37:43,710 --> 00:37:48,570
Don't rely on responding to adverts to be the major part of your job search.

486
00:37:48,570 --> 00:37:50,330
Am I saying you shouldn't do them?

487
00:37:50,330 --> 00:37:51,210
No.

488
00:37:51,610 --> 00:37:55,710
I'm saying you can still do that, but it shouldn't make up the major part of that.

489
00:37:56,410 --> 00:37:59,310
And we'll talk about the other things that you are going to do.

490
00:37:59,310 --> 00:38:04,770
As a recruitment company, you're probably saying, hey, but Chris, I've seen Tyro Security.

491
00:38:05,070 --> 00:38:06,910
I've seen them advertise their jobs.

492
00:38:06,910 --> 00:38:08,830
You've got a job page on your website.

493
00:38:09,010 --> 00:38:10,490
You advertise your jobs here.

494
00:38:10,490 --> 00:38:11,490
You advertise your jobs here.

495
00:38:11,490 --> 00:38:12,970
Yes, we absolutely do.

496
00:38:13,010 --> 00:38:17,130
And I can tell you, we don't get a lot of response from them.

497
00:38:17,610 --> 00:38:25,230
And a lot of the response we do get people that are hoping to work in cyber security.

498
00:38:25,950 --> 00:38:29,910
And so the thing is, they haven't got any experience.

499
00:38:29,910 --> 00:38:33,550
And as a recruitment company, we get paid to find experienced people.

500
00:38:33,570 --> 00:38:36,330
So we don't have a lot we can help those people with.

501
00:38:36,330 --> 00:38:42,470
And actually, we've got to do a lot of delving through people that aren't qualified to get to the people that are.

502
00:38:42,630 --> 00:38:45,470
It's not really worth a whole lot of our time.

503
00:38:45,470 --> 00:38:52,290
We still do it because at the end of the day, we're putting out there and you're taking the time to respond to us and we want to take the time to respond to you.

504
00:38:52,290 --> 00:38:55,150
But really, we don't get a lot of benefit from advertising.

505
00:38:55,190 --> 00:39:01,370
The major benefit is probably from having companies come to us and say, oh, do you know what?

506
00:39:01,370 --> 00:39:08,690
I've seen you do a lot of adverts for that application security people or cloud security people or DevSecOps or whatever it may be.

507
00:39:08,690 --> 00:39:10,630
You're advertising a lot of jobs for that.

508
00:39:10,770 --> 00:39:12,770
So you probably got a lot of candidates.

509
00:39:12,770 --> 00:39:18,390
So I want to talk to you because you're a specialist in that area and I'm looking for a DevSecOps person as well.

510
00:39:18,390 --> 00:39:23,250
So we actually probably get more benefit from the client side rather than the candidate side.

511
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:26,660
Right.

512
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,080
Your network.

513
00:39:29,620 --> 00:39:32,380
Your network is going to be absolutely key.

514
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:38,680
The people you know, what companies are your friends, do your neighbours work for?

515
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:43,040
Are they recruiting for positions that you might be interested in?

516
00:39:44,020 --> 00:39:45,340
How are you networking?

517
00:39:45,340 --> 00:39:46,600
Are you using those?

518
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,060
Think about the people you know in person.

519
00:39:49,060 --> 00:39:51,320
Then you think about your virtual network.

520
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:53,460
LinkedIn is key for this.

521
00:39:53,460 --> 00:39:54,400
Who do you know?

522
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:55,660
Who do they know?

523
00:39:55,860 --> 00:40:02,320
Connect with managers that you think may be hiring and take the time when you connect them to write a personal note.

524
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,500
Are you involved with your local community?

525
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:11,700
The funny thing about this is that we're not meeting up so much in person at the moment, right?

526
00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:16,080
But a lot of the communities are doing a lot of webinars and things like that.

527
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:21,320
Certainly, my Cloud Security Alliance chapter is doing regular webinars.

528
00:40:22,020 --> 00:40:27,380
So think about getting involved with that, either just as a member or even as a volunteer.

529
00:40:27,380 --> 00:40:30,340
It's a great way to build your network and be involved.

530
00:40:30,380 --> 00:40:32,740
It'll be amazing to see who you might meet.

531
00:40:32,740 --> 00:40:38,840
You've got people like the Cloud Security Alliance, OWASP, ISARCA, ISSA.

532
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:45,360
You've got other local groups as well that may just have meetups or webinars.

533
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:47,420
So take a look at meetup.com.

534
00:40:47,420 --> 00:40:48,680
That might help you.

535
00:40:48,680 --> 00:41:01,560
If you're part of an underrepresented group, Cyberjutsu, the YSYS people, the Women in Security and Privacy, ICMCP, the Blacks in Cybersecurity.

536
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:09,680
Join a group that you feel you will fit in well to, and that can be a great networking opportunity for you.

537
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:12,100
And you can give back as well at the same time.

538
00:41:12,420 --> 00:41:13,880
Another thing, conferences.

539
00:41:15,820 --> 00:41:17,720
Welcome to DEF CON, right?

540
00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:19,800
You're attending the conference right now.

541
00:41:20,140 --> 00:41:26,320
Conferences are an amazing way to meet people that may well hire you or may be able to even help you.

542
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,220
Most companies nowadays have referral schemes.

543
00:41:30,220 --> 00:41:32,060
They're very, very common.

544
00:41:32,260 --> 00:41:39,660
So even if you're not meeting a hiring manager, you could still be meeting somebody that could refer you internally.

545
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:44,120
And a referral internally can help you skip a lot of the process.

546
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:44,740
You'd be surprised.

547
00:41:44,740 --> 00:41:52,420
I know companies that guarantee that if you refer somebody, if somebody internally refers you, they will call you.

548
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:54,200
You'll definitely get a call.

549
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:58,020
Now, whether you'll get a full official interview or not, but you'll get at least a phone call.

550
00:41:58,020 --> 00:41:59,000
So you will hear back.

551
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:05,680
They get back to their referrals in ways that they sometimes don't get back to their advert responses.

552
00:42:06,260 --> 00:42:08,200
So bear that in mind.

553
00:42:08,740 --> 00:42:11,600
The other thing to think about is speakers.

554
00:42:12,100 --> 00:42:15,080
I always say, failing to plan is planning to fail.

555
00:42:15,340 --> 00:42:17,020
It's one of my favourite quotes.

556
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:24,880
If you're going to go to a conference, if you're going to attend a conference, make sure you're seeing in advance who you want to see talk.

557
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:29,160
Could they help you in the process of you looking for a role?

558
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:30,920
Do you want to work for that company?

559
00:42:31,020 --> 00:42:37,400
If it's an in-person one, be that person hanging around the stage afterwards and actually meet the person.

560
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:43,480
If it's virtual, hopefully, like me, they'll be in a Discord chat and you can talk to them in there.

561
00:42:43,780 --> 00:42:48,660
Or you can reach out to them and say to them, I listened to your speech here and it was great.

562
00:42:48,660 --> 00:42:50,280
It was a really great presentation.

563
00:42:50,380 --> 00:42:53,880
I'd love to connect with you if you're going to connect with me via LinkedIn.

564
00:42:54,180 --> 00:42:57,000
And then the last thing is research and presentations.

565
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,140
This is going to help your credibility hugely.

566
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,260
It's going to be really good for your personal branding.

567
00:43:04,620 --> 00:43:13,660
It's a great, great, great way to network and it's experience that will help you in your career and it will really improve your resume.

568
00:43:13,780 --> 00:43:20,500
So get involved in doing research, presenting research, network and volunteer and help.

569
00:43:20,500 --> 00:43:25,600
These are all great ways to really maximise what you're going to be able to do with your resume.

570
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:29,680
Right, this one.

571
00:43:30,940 --> 00:43:38,440
72% of cyber security professionals do not believe that their HR department understands their hiring needs.

572
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:39,220
Ouch.

573
00:43:39,220 --> 00:43:42,140
Wow, that sounds really, really terrible.

574
00:43:42,540 --> 00:43:45,880
I should state here, I know some amazing internal recruiters.

575
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:54,180
In fact, I'm going to be on a recruitment happy hour panel within DEF CON and some of them I've got so much respect for.

576
00:43:54,180 --> 00:43:58,700
This isn't always actually an internal recruiter's issue.

577
00:43:59,060 --> 00:44:05,340
Internal recruiters that spread at many companies very, very thinly, very thinly.

578
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:14,500
And they can't get enough just cyber security, job JDs, job descriptions to actually just work in that area, to specialise in that area.

579
00:44:14,500 --> 00:44:15,440
Very tough.

580
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:16,200
It's a tough ask.

581
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:26,200
How can you ask somebody that one day could be recruiting for a cyber security person and the next day could be recruiting for an accountant or even recruiting for the same person on the same day?

582
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:38,600
Really tough ask to expect them to know and understand cyber security, to sort of recognise what's on a resume and recognise the relationships between certain skills or certain tools.

583
00:44:38,820 --> 00:44:49,020
And so it can and it does result in people that have applied actually not getting through to the next stage and being overlooked despite them being really good.

584
00:44:49,700 --> 00:44:52,620
It's very tough ask for internal recruiters.

585
00:44:52,620 --> 00:44:55,060
So I just say don't give them too hard a time.

586
00:44:55,060 --> 00:45:01,700
Even if you've had a bad experience, internal and external recruiters, please don't give any of us a bad time.

587
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,000
We try our best, right?

588
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:05,720
Now, I will say this.

589
00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:13,480
There are, you know, your first port of call really should be technical hiring people when you're trying to get your resume in front of them.

590
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:15,420
But there are some great internal recruiters.

591
00:45:15,420 --> 00:45:23,640
If you're working for a very, very large company as an internal recruiter, certain ones have people that specialise just in cyber security.

592
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,060
So they do know what they're doing.

593
00:45:25,060 --> 00:45:34,760
And if they work for a cyber security company or a company, the majority of what they do is in the cyber security business, there's a good chance they're going to know and understand your resume.

594
00:45:34,940 --> 00:45:36,380
So just bear that in mind.

595
00:45:36,380 --> 00:45:40,080
And that stat, by the way, is from the ISRC state of cyber security.

596
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:41,380
And it is tough.

597
00:45:41,380 --> 00:45:45,500
And I think it's tough because a lot of these roles stay open for a very long time.

598
00:45:45,980 --> 00:45:50,440
And people lose faith in their internal people because of that.

599
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:53,000
So just bear in mind that don't be rude to people.

600
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:56,000
Don't be rude to anybody, anybody you speak to.

601
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:57,100
I've got a rule.

602
00:45:57,100 --> 00:45:57,560
It's funny.

603
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:08,440
When I used to interview people to come and work for me, one of the first people I would speak to at the end of an interview would actually be the person that worked on the reception desk.

604
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,540
I'd ask what their first impression was.

605
00:46:10,540 --> 00:46:12,040
How was the person to them?

606
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:16,040
So anybody that's involved in the process, don't be rude to them.

607
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:17,460
Don't talk down to people.

608
00:46:17,460 --> 00:46:18,680
No need to do that.

609
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:26,420
And you'd be surprised how much of a say somebody that you may think may not have could have.

610
00:46:26,420 --> 00:46:27,360
So don't do that.

611
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,020
And don't ignore company's process.

612
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:33,980
If somebody tells you this is the process we go through, don't ignore it.

613
00:46:36,700 --> 00:46:37,420
Right.

614
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:41,280
So external recruiters, us guys.

615
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:49,600
When you're looking at external recruiters, you really want to build relationships with ones that specialise in cyber security.

616
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:58,680
Great way of doing that, you can look at their LinkedIn, of course, you can see what they write, how they describe what they do.

617
00:46:58,780 --> 00:47:03,400
Another way could be looking at the company they work for.

618
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:07,180
Are they advertising just cyber security positions?

619
00:47:07,180 --> 00:47:08,760
Or are they saying they're specialists?

620
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:13,480
Because there's an awful lot of specialists in cyber security that aren't actually specialists.

621
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:17,720
They're generic people and they work on whatever roles that their clients give them.

622
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:18,060
Right.

623
00:47:18,060 --> 00:47:20,440
So you want to work with specialists.

624
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,340
There's an easy way of doing that.

625
00:47:22,460 --> 00:47:25,740
They have credibility in their industry.

626
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:41,340
They can put you in front of hiring management and they can also talk to the hiring management, maybe even explain in a little bit more detail and get a little bit technical as to why you are somebody that should get an interview.

627
00:47:41,820 --> 00:47:53,700
And, you know, that credibility, certainly we see our resumes go to the top of the pile when maybe some generic recruiters might have to go through a slightly different process.

628
00:47:53,780 --> 00:47:57,420
So, you know, part of that credibility and stuff will really help you.

629
00:47:57,420 --> 00:48:00,860
A good way to identify them as well is are they involved in the community?

630
00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:03,920
Are they going out and building a network?

631
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:05,800
Do they go to these conferences?

632
00:48:06,500 --> 00:48:08,240
Do they go to the meetups?

633
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:10,440
Do they volunteer at these places?

634
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,040
Are they regularly attending these?

635
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:16,360
Have you given up your personal time to regularly attend them?

636
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:18,840
Chances are they are dedicated to the industry.

637
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:20,740
So that's a good way to find them.

638
00:48:21,060 --> 00:48:24,580
They wouldn't be that hard to search for, I'm sure.

639
00:48:25,420 --> 00:48:30,000
They're the recruiters you build your relationships with, you connect with them.

640
00:48:30,060 --> 00:48:36,200
They'll have a network and they'll also give you free cyber security resume advice.

641
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,960
They'll be able to tell you on there what you should maybe change.

642
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:44,660
They'll be able to use that industry experience to help you during the interview process.

643
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:51,840
And they're going to be able to really guide you through that process and give you a much better chance of probably getting the job you want.

644
00:48:52,020 --> 00:48:53,560
So, just bear that in mind.

645
00:48:53,940 --> 00:48:57,360
So, coming towards the end of the talk now.

646
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:00,460
Hopefully I'm not too short and not too long.

647
00:49:01,380 --> 00:49:03,580
Looking at my watch here, hopefully I'm doing all right.

648
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:06,760
So the takeaways from this.

649
00:49:07,780 --> 00:49:19,400
Let's make sure you understand, and hopefully you do at this stage, you understand why resumes are still so, so important and why they're worth taking the time to make sure that you get them right.

650
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:27,900
Hopefully you also understand the common mistakes that we see and you can avoid at least those ones.

651
00:49:28,740 --> 00:49:46,660
Also, understanding that relationship of how social media fits into your resume, owning the risk you're going to take, understanding what you're doing when you post things on social media publicly and what the benefits might be to keeping that private.

652
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:53,800
And then finally, how to get this most amazing resume that you're going to be able to put together.

653
00:49:53,800 --> 00:50:01,940
How are you going to actually be able to maximise it and put it out there and get it in front of the people that will make the decisions.

654
00:50:01,940 --> 00:50:04,820
So hopefully this has been useful for you.

655
00:50:07,210 --> 00:50:09,350
This is the end of the presentation.

656
00:50:09,930 --> 00:50:11,910
You can follow me on Twitter.

657
00:50:12,050 --> 00:50:14,230
I'm actually not on Twitter an awful lot.

658
00:50:14,330 --> 00:50:19,770
A lot of the stuff that I post on LinkedIn, I will also post on Twitter.

659
00:50:19,870 --> 00:50:22,730
LinkedIn really is, I'm a pretty big user.

660
00:50:22,730 --> 00:50:25,370
Anybody that's connected with me probably knows that already.

661
00:50:25,370 --> 00:50:27,250
I'm a big user of LinkedIn.

662
00:50:27,250 --> 00:50:30,590
So absolutely, connect with me, please.

663
00:50:30,590 --> 00:50:36,750
I get a lot of connections and I'm probably turned down maybe 80% of what I get.

664
00:50:36,750 --> 00:50:41,490
So generally, if you work in the cyber security industry, I'm going to accept you.

665
00:50:41,630 --> 00:50:52,370
Please, if you can, if you wouldn't mind, just taking the time to write a little note in that section and tell me if you wanted to connect with me to tell me how terrible my talk was at DEF CON.

666
00:50:52,390 --> 00:50:53,050
That's fine.

667
00:50:53,050 --> 00:50:54,090
I'll still connect with you.

668
00:50:54,090 --> 00:50:56,990
We all need some constructive criticism.

669
00:50:56,990 --> 00:50:59,390
If we can keep it constructive, that would be amazing.

670
00:51:00,390 --> 00:51:05,930
So yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn and mention DEF CON if you did see it there.

671
00:51:05,930 --> 00:51:07,870
So look, thank you very, very much.

672
00:51:07,870 --> 00:51:10,510
Thank you, Kathleen, for the opportunity to speak.

673
00:51:10,710 --> 00:51:12,150
Hopefully I did okay.

674
00:51:12,590 --> 00:51:18,150
And those people that I've maybe sent to sleep, they can wake up now.

675
00:51:18,150 --> 00:51:19,350
At least they got a good nap.

676
00:51:19,350 --> 00:51:20,230
Thank you.

677
00:51:20,950 --> 00:51:22,950
Chris, thank you so much.

678
00:51:22,950 --> 00:51:25,750
You brought up some really great points.

679
00:51:25,750 --> 00:51:35,970
One thing I wanted to point out that a lot of people, a lot of the technical resumes that I've been reviewing in the community, a lot of people use templates.

680
00:51:36,010 --> 00:51:40,910
They believe that the templates are going to make their resumes look pretty.

681
00:51:40,910 --> 00:51:47,150
But when you use the template, it doesn't have the spell check or the formatting check.

682
00:51:48,250 --> 00:51:50,630
Primarily the spell check.

683
00:51:50,630 --> 00:51:57,230
So a lot of people have been using templates to make it look design pretty.

684
00:51:57,230 --> 00:51:59,550
Please, just keep it simple.

685
00:51:59,550 --> 00:52:04,910
Keep it something straightforward for everyone to be able to read.

686
00:52:04,910 --> 00:52:09,130
Love the advice about social media.

687
00:52:09,610 --> 00:52:13,250
Keep an eye that it stays out there.

688
00:52:13,250 --> 00:52:24,050
There's online reputation reports that say that HR managers and recruiters will check your social media before they call you in for an interview.

689
00:52:24,050 --> 00:52:30,270
And you might not like what they view as far as your social media.

690
00:52:30,270 --> 00:52:33,250
So be very careful about that.

691
00:52:33,250 --> 00:52:45,890
Also great recommendations on connecting with recruiters, connecting with them in various different places, socially, online, through conferences.

692
00:52:45,970 --> 00:52:48,590
Always great to be expanding your network.

693
00:52:49,090 --> 00:52:52,930
Chris's team is going to be part of our resume review team.

694
00:52:52,930 --> 00:53:00,870
So be sure you be sure you're signing up for resume review and get some really good advice on that.

695
00:53:00,870 --> 00:53:03,390
Chris, as always, great to have you part of this.

696
00:53:03,390 --> 00:53:06,470
Thank you for being part of DEF CON Hacking Career Village.

697
00:53:06,510 --> 00:53:07,550
Thank you so much.

698
00:53:07,550 --> 00:53:08,510
Thank you for asking me.

699
00:53:08,510 --> 00:53:09,210
It's been great.