The alarm rings
The Alarm is set for 6.40am, but I can guarantee my little boy has woken up before then. So realistically it's a 6.15am wake up; change a nappy, 10 minutes of cuddles and play time and then jump in the shower. I leave the house just after 7am and get to the office around 8 (always with a LEON breakfast and coffee in hand). I calculated the other day that I must have spent around £600 there in the last 6 months. Don’t tell the Wife!

What’s the first thing you do when you are looking for security talent? Post a job on LinkedIn? Contact your internal recruiter or your external partner? It might surprise you to hear this from a recruiter but it's often prudent to start your search a little closer to home. In fact a CISO we spoke to in our recent CISO Survival Guide stated "Skills are important but given the shortage that exists it’s rare that you will find a candidate that has every attribute you are looking for. In such cases it’s often a good idea to develop from within where you’ll find people that know the business and know the stakeholders – that’s a great starting point."

How many times have you been in the situation where you’ve managed to get talent through the door, vetted the candidates to the point of offer stage and then they’ve either rejected the offer, pulled out or in some cases, gone dark completely? You are certainly not alone. According to our recent Cyber Security in Focus research over 36% of hiring managers see ‘getting offers of employment accepted’ as a headline challenge. 

Diversity is (quite rightly) an incredibly hot topic in the talent markets that we operate in. Whether it’s security, software engineering, data or technology sales the question hiring managers are asking is the same: how can we attract a more diverse workforce? In a recent interview we conducted with Jane Frankland (CISO Adviser, Author & Champion for Women in Security) she stated “diversity makes for a strategic and competitive advantage. It’s not just about recruiting diversity for diversity’s sake.” Studies show that diverse teams are safer and higher performing due to a more balanced perspective on risk and reward.

Last week (Tuesday, February 13th, 2018) Stott and May partnered up with Exonar to host a Java MeetUp which presented the technical challenges and opportunities around the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which I’m delighted to say was hugely successful.

At Stott and May we are facinated with every aspect of the growth of disruptive technology vendors. We often find ourselves partnering with tech brands in search of that all important business leader capable of being their 'first man on the ground' in a new territory. This individual carries the burden of the success or failure of international expansion on their shoulders. But what does it really take to be that flag bearer? And what advice is out there for leaders who are about to take that career defining step for the first time? To find out we spoke to Joel Curry, US General Manager of the rapidly growing FinTech firm Validis.

Our latest research entitled 'Does Enterprise Architecture need a re-brand?' has highlighted that 'vision' is one of the key things that business leaders look for when hiring their next 'go to advisor' on all things technical. In fact, 58% of respondants stated it was the number one quality they look for in an Enterprise Architect. But in a backdrop where 52% feel that the role is being watered down, we caught up with Simeon Evans to find out his top 5 - slightly 'out there'- interview questions that draw out the candidates capable of bridging the balance of technology, people and politics to create tangible - short term - value.