Page 184 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2023

How Candidates Apply for A New Role

Cyber security professionals apply for roles in a mixture of ways with applying on a company website
being the most popular channel with 54% of the candidates, is an unexpected for this to be the most
popular when it was only 31% last year. However, the reason for this could be those applying directly to
the company may be competing against a smaller pool of applicants, which will naturally decrease the
competition. Also this helps delivers the applicants credentials to employers in their preferred format, as
opposed to the one utilised by an external job site. Some organisations also provide more detailed
information about job openings on their website, compared to the descriptions on job listing sites.

Using a recruitment Consultancy comes second, 53% of candidates reported finding un-advertised Cyber
Security roles where hiring organisations have chosen to be more discreet. Candidates also preferred
not having to negotiate salary package with potential employers, this part of the process made many
applicants feel uncomfortable. Other ways of applying for a new role include using their own personal
networks (42%), LinkedIn (35%) and job boards (11%).

44% of candidates surveyed checked company reviews before applying for a role, in particular Glassdoor.
Cyber security professionals pay close attention to the ratings and reviews which can significantly
influence whether they choose to move forward with the application process. On average candidates
spend 21 minutes to complete each application.

What Candidates Want from An Organisation

When a candidate has applied for a role on average, they would expect a reply either within three working
days (41%) or up to a week (39%) mentioning if they have been successful to the next stage or not.

If a candidate is successful to the next stage interviews, they are happy to incorporate phone and online
interviews with the final stage to be in person interviews (16%). However, most candidates (41%) are
only wanting to participate with online interviews due to technology allowing us to do so. After each
interview stage it is important for candidates to receive detailed feedback with 42% of candidates strongly
agreeing and 42% agreeing. This is an incredibly important statistic as the importance of employer
branding and candidate experience is hugely important in today’s employment market. The ideal number
of interview stages is seen to be three to four depending on the seniority of the role, this is to avoid
interview fatigue for both employers and candidates.

What candidates want within the role

We asked 1020 cyber security professionals if they had to rank the most important thing, they look for in
a new role the sequence is as followed:

1. Salary/day rate
2. Career progression
3. Employee Benefits
4. Workplace Culture/Environment

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