StottSight

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.

Effective Enterprise Architect interview questions get beneath the surface and reveal important truths about the candidate. Throwing in some ‘out there’ questions can help interviewers really understand the candidate, while allowing the candidate to reveal a bit more of themselves through their answers.

'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, our latest research 'Does Enterprise Architecture need a re-brand?' has highlighted that 58% of respondents 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'- Enterprise Architect interview questions that draw out the candidates capable of bridging the balance of technology, people and politics to create tangible - short term - value. 

Over the last two years around 90% of my day to day activity has been spent talking to developers. It's my job. So it’s safe to say I have had a fair amount of exposure into the thought processes developers go through when it comes to looking for their next role. It's an issue I have been facinated by for some time and to take it to the next level I decided to conduct a survey to get to the bottom of what really attracts developers to a role - the money, the opportunity or the location?

We take the time to catch up with Joshua Springer, Client Services Manager for Utilities, on why he believes the 'Flicking the Switch' roundtable is a must attend event for any CIO that is in the process of creating a customer focused IT strategy in the Utilities industry.

Already this year we have watched a number of high-profile cyber-attacks unfold with disastrous consequences, proving that what the security industry has been doing to date isn’t working. So it’s no wonder that the cyber security industry has become a hotbed of innovation, churning out creative products designed to outsmart would-be attackers. It’s a booming industry with exciting start-ups and innovative technologies emerging left right and centre all claiming to be the next “silver bullet” of cyber defence. We’ve had a look at these emerging players and pulled together our pick of the five hottest capabilities in cyber security.