Job hunter’s information to the highest cybersecurity corporations hiring in 2024

Financial uncertainty and tightened budgets weakened cybersecurity spending resilience in 2023, and the primary causality was jobs. 

Cybersecurity budgets confronted elevated scrutiny final 12 months, and safety leaders anticipate the belt-tightening to accentuate this 12 months as many pursue a vendor consolidation technique. “It’s important to be very even handed about the place you’re spending,” stated Steve Pugh, CISO at  Intercontinental Change. In a current Wall Road Journal article, Pugh stated that the largest change CISOs noticed all through 2023 was how they had been being given much less cash to spend money on cybersecurity. 

2023 was a brutal 12 months for the trade, with 55 cybersecurity distributors reporting layoffs final 12 months, placing greater than 5,000 professionals out of labor. Layoffs.fyi exhibits that 113 cybersecurity corporations have eradicated greater than 9,100 positions since March 2020. 

Cybersecurity job forecasts don’t at all times replicate actuality  

There’s a rising disconnect between the truth of discovering a brand new job in cybersecurity and the double-digit development charges that typify cybersecurity job forecasts that predict a hiring disaster. VentureBeat interviewed a dozen cybersecurity professionals, together with Torsten George, former vice chairman of company and product advertising for Absolute Software program, who’s at present in search of a brand new position. 

The experiences of these interviewed, together with George, contradict forecasts being produced that declare hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity jobs can be found. George informed VentureBeat, “One other facet difficult the optimism for job seekers is the decline in resignations to pre-pandemic ranges, leading to a lower in new hires. This pattern indicators decreased desperation amongst employers to fill vacancies, requiring job seekers to accentuate their seek for promising alternatives. This problem is exacerbated in high-tech or cybersecurity fields, marked by important trade consolidation and workforce reductions.” 

Ben Rothe, an info safety skilled who blogs on Medium, delved into the disconnect many cybersecurity professionals are seeing of their job search in comparison with the forecasts of sturdy job market development. The 2023 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Examine explains a part of what’s driving the widening hole between the roles’ forecast accuracy and the challenges cybersecurity professionals have to find a brand new job. Organizations are loading up the remaining groups with extra work. 

Taking a data-driven view of the job market is vital 

Job seekers want correct knowledge to determine areas of the market the place they’ve the perfect probability of discovering a brand new job. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Data Safety Analyst’s Outlook predicts cybersecurity jobs will develop 32% by way of 2032, with 16,800 new jobs created every year. 

CyberSeek has created a Heatmap and Profession Pathway in collaboration with Lightcast, NICE and CompTIA. Heatmap and Profession Pathway depend on a detailed methodology to provide job seekers essentially the most correct knowledge doable. Primarily based on CyberSeek’s methodology, there are 572,392 cybersecurity job openings nationally at present and 1.1 million cybersecurity professionals within the workforce. 

How cybersecurity roles are distributed throughout workforce classes and the variety of openings by the kinds of certifications requested. Supply: CyberSeek 

Discovering the place essentially the most cybersecurity jobs are at present 

Probably the most frequent request VentureBeat receives from cybersecurity readers is insights into new alternatives. We’ve supplied an preliminary evaluation of which cybersecurity corporations are hiring primarily based on their open LinkedIn positions and the way they’re rated on Glassdoor. Whereas a tough approximation, it’s a helpful metric for stack-ranking distributors who’ve positions open. 

VentureBeat’s purpose in creating the evaluation is to assist job seekers discover the highest-rated corporations they’re occupied with and instantly know what number of positions they’ve open. The evaluation relies on CRN’s 2023 Safety 100 checklist of cybersecurity corporations because the baseline. The CRN cybersecurity checklist is neutral and unbiased. By evaluating the (%) of staff who would suggest the corporate they work for to a good friend and (%) of staff who approve of the CEO for every firm on the CRN checklist, the perfect cybersecurity corporations rating was created. 

>>Obtain the full spreadsheet of rankings.<<

The next are the important thing insights primarily based on VentureBeat’s evaluation of the cybersecurity corporations hiring at present:

There are 12,543 open positions out there throughout the 100 corporations within the evaluation, and 87% of all positions are concentrated in 26 corporations. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four open positions at Microsoft have cybersecurity as a part of their position definition or title. Zscaler, which skilled a layoff in March 2023, now has 665 positions open. Palo Alto Networks has simply over 1,000 open positions listed on LinkedIn.

There are 1,919 open positions throughout the 20 distributors that comprise endpoint and managed safety, with OpenText and CrowdStrike having essentially the most open positions. CrowdStrike is among the few cybersecurity distributors that hasn’t had a layoff. They’ve 266 full-time positions open, 84 of that are in engineering. The share of staff who would suggest the endpoint and managed safety firm to a good friend they work for is 70%, with the typical CEO score being 72% throughout the group of 20 corporations. 

Id Entry Administration And Knowledge Safety distributors have the best focus of open positions throughout all classes, with 3,201 on LinkedIn at present. Microsoft, Broadcom, Okta, 

SailPoint, OneTrust, Acronis and CyberArk have 2,701 open positions between them.

The ten finest cybersecurity distributors to work for in 2024 excel on referral scores and have 100 or extra positions at present open. Kaspersky Lab, ServiceNow, Cisco Programs, Microsoft, SailPoint, Juniper Networks, Artic Wolf, CyberArk, CrowdStrike and Proofpoint all have 100 or extra open positions at present. On common, throughout the group, their staff suggest their firm to a good friend 84% of the time.  

Supply: CRN Safety 100 checklist analyzed with Glassdoor rankings, January 8, 2024.

Job searching recommendation from somebody residing it at present  

George observes that whereas low- to mid-level positions are plentiful even in high-tech and cybersecurity, the pipeline for senior roles “diminishes shortly.” He’s typically seen employers submit a job opening, however the requisition has been placed on maintain for financial causes with out being mirrored on the corporate’s job portal.

Amidst fierce competitors as a consequence of widespread layoffs in high-tech and cybersecurity, George encourages job seekers to undertake strategic approaches:

Optimize your resume: Align it with the most recent requirements and optimize for applicant monitoring system (ATS) key phrases to bypass the preliminary filtering course of.

Tailor resumes: Customise every resume to match particular job necessities as a substitute of utilizing a standardized template.

Leverage relationships: Use current connections with recruiters for suggestions in your resume. When contemplating resume writing providers, analysis totally and browse unbiased opinions.

Craft a compelling cowl letter: Take the time to create a canopy letter that aligns necessities with private achievements, showcasing instant worth to potential employers.

Networking issues and saves weeks of ready: Transcend main job boards; faucet into your community for unposted openings, as most positions are stuffed by way of referrals.

Persistence Pays Off: Observe up with employers who haven’t responded, as inner communication gaps can result in delays.

Be Lifelike: Perceive that securing alternatives could take time, particularly throughout the vacation season or the beginning of a brand new fiscal 12 months. Train persistence within the job-seeking course of.

A CISO gives her recommendation 

VentureBeat lately interviewed Merritt Baer, Subject CISO, Lacework, to get her perspective on the present state of the cybersecurity job market, the hiring practices of corporations and the way girls can get began within the discipline. 

“We all know that individuals who stroll by way of the world in a different way assume in a different way. They method issues in a different way, they code in a different way. So corporations ought to take concrete motion to rent diversely— not simply because it’s the fitting factor to do ethically, however as a result of it’s the sensible factor to do for enterprise,” Baer stated.

She continued saying, “We additionally know that, sadly, girls face challenges getting in safety and returning to the safety workforce after a detour. For these breaking into a brand new discipline, my recommendation is easy: Who else however you? All of us needed to study these things at one level. Decide one thing and dig in (there’s a lot of free coaching on-line, from GitHub to YouTube to focused cloud trainings)–make it one thing of us affiliate with you. And, construct your community– not at networking receptions however by way of real contacts with of us within the trade.”  

Baer says, “My recommendation to corporations: do away with outdated worker insurance policies, look ahead to coded language that cages out sure of us, do pay transparency, put real vitality into job candidates who’ve been on a break or come from one other trade, and be a spot of us wish to work. It’s good for enterprise.