Published: June 11, 2021
Last Updated: June 11, 2021
These are tips and techniques I have used the past few months to find a job and I’d like to share them
I left my job in February. It was sudden for me, and this was the first time in my life I didn’t have a decent plan ready for what comes after. After taking a month to learn penetration tester methodologies via Offensive-Security PWK training, I started job hunting March 19th. I finally received several offers in early June. If I had been using the latest job hunting techniques that I had honed over several months of trial and error, I may have received offers sooner.
In the hopes that you, dear reader, find a job, I will share them now.
This was my first mistake. Thankfully, I was able to rely on my savings and my amazing girlfriend. This was less so an impact to my finances as it was an impact to my perceived level of responsibility. This very well could affect you financially so unless you feel like your previous employer is affecting your health, I suggest sticking with it until a new opportunity has made itself available to you.
This will be different for everyone. Its ok to be somewhat flexible. Different organizations will use different terms which affect if and when they will show up. For myself, I identified 4 possible position titles to search for the best results: Security Analyst, SOC Analyst, Incident Response Analyst, Threat Analyst.
This sounds like a no brainer, but I eventually found it is better to use Location: United States and ticked the checkbox for Remote. At first, I thought I only wanted remote work. Then I realized I actually wanted VA or NC to be closer to family, so I started including those as options. This is more complicated with more immediate family, so keep that in mind.
You know the ones. “We are looking for an immediate fill for a client of ours….” Their bogus company names too. Work directly with the actual company for the largest slice of pie you can get. If you accidentally apply for one of their spots, ignore their calls and emails. They will not have your best interest at heard and will throw your resume at anyone.
This may be number 5 in my list, but this saved me the most time. Using both Indeed and LinkedIn, and creating a tab for each search, I searched up all 4 of my search terms in all 3 locations for the past 24 hours, for a total of 12 tabs. Now that all tabs are open, go to your browser settings > On Startup > Select Radio button “Open a Specific page or pages” > Select “Use all open tabs”. Now every time you re-open your browser, your search is already done.
I’m not referring to the years experience questions, use your best judgement on those. In my case, I shouldn’t be applying for GRC Analyst or Penetration Tester roles, those aren’t my strengths. My skills are blue team oriented and that is where I had the best opportunity.
If a recruiter is trying to get you to accept on the spot or you find they may be deceiving you, that may be a sign of things yet to come. At the end of the day, they may have decided you are one of the best for them, but now the ball is in your court and you must decide if they are the best for you.
You may have any number of interviews, but most of them are likely geared around you being a good fit for the team, including management. It helps to brush up on common questions you may be asked, but don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something. If they want to hear your best guess, then shoot your shot. For my field I’ve had everything to hands on security scenarios where I have to determine if there is an incident to no technical interview whatsoever.
To me, a common interview process is
Preparing for the process interview may be something you think will be easy, but a big portion of this is to gauge your communication skills and how well you work with others.