Brad Rager’s Post

"There's no shortage of labor. I get tons of applicants from my postings." This is a quote from a talent acquisition leader with whom I recently spoke. I then asked why so many of her positions had been open for an extended period. She said "My hiring managers are just too picky. They want the right experience, education and cultural fit." I then asked why she thought that was the case. She said "Oh, their just worried about having to train." I said maybe they are concerned about how the person will perform and how it will reflect on them. She said "We still are going to stick with posting for now." Believe it or not, these are actual conversations that are happening every day. And when the labor force in the US continues to shrink due to 10,000 boomers retiring each day, shrinking international migration and other issues, these companies are putting themselves at huge disadvantage. If they aren't filling roles, the work either isn't getting done or isn't getting done well. If they are filling roles, they aren't getting the best talent. And this might actually be far worse as even little mistakes can be very costly. Remember Crowdstrike's botched software update? I'm not certain which senario is worse but both are bad. Now clearly there are entry level roles for which posting is completely appropriate. That said, for managerial and highly skilled roles does it make sense to either not fill the role or fill it with less qualified people? The Chamber of Commerce recently published a report on the labor force shortage. It is a must read for anyone with interest in the US talent market. https://lnkd.in/gMsjhSsk #marketingrecruiter #salesrecruiter #medtechrecruiting #hightechrecruiting

Should You Be Anxious About Keeping Your Job? 😓 Over half of Americans are worried about job security and how AI will impact their future employment. People who work in IT, software development, and advertising appear to be the most anxious. 😲 Mass layoffs in the tech industry have made headlines nearly every week since late 2022. 😒 Combine that constant barrage with the rise of AI and uncertainty over the global economy and you have the perfect recipe for increasing anxiety across the American workforce when it comes to fears about job security. 😨 Now a new survey out from online marketing firm Authority Hacker put some concrete numbers on just how many of the currently employed are worried about their job security in the years ahead. In a survey of 1,200 workers, Authority Hacker found that: 54.58% of full-time workers have increased concerns about their job security. Men (62.87%) are more likely than women (47.53%) to fear for their job security, which Authority Hacker says may reflect the 3:1 gender ratio of male to female employees in tech firms. The more a person makes, the more likely they are to worry about their job security.  Those making $150,000 or more worry the most about their job security (72.48%), while those making $50,000 or less worry the least (50.26%). The younger an employee, the more likely they are to worry about their job security. 😖 62.2% of 25 to 44-year-olds worried versus less than 50% of those over the age of 45 worried. 😕 C-suite execs are the most worried about their job security at 79.31%.  But just 46.82% and 45.80% of non-management staff and admin staff, respectively, are worried about their job security. The larger the company is, the more likely employees are to worry about their job security.  Authority Hacker found that 74.33% of those at companies that employ between 500 and 1,000 workers worry about their job security. Only 45.38% of workers at companies with 25 or fewer employees worry about their job security. And, when it comes to concerns by profession, workers most likely to fear for their jobs happen to be those whose industries are most at risk of being impacted by AI. Those professions are: >IT – Services & Data: 89.66% >Software development: 74.42% >Advertising: 70.00% >Finance and Insurance: 67.56% >Human Resources: 64.29% NOTE: To arrive at its findings, Authority Hacker surveyed 1,200 full-time workers in the United States aged 25 and above.

Dive deep into the state of the workforce and find out what measures are being taken to maintain resilience and tackle skills shortages in our latest blog: https://ow.ly/LYT950QoMxX #ISC2WFS2023

"What the @#$% is going on? I've applied to 1000 openings and have been referred to a ton of companies and still haven't been able to land a job." I've heard some variation of that question and statement at least 100s of times in the last year. I'll give you my take as to what is going on and why people aren't being hired in #cybersecurity right now. ➡ Heavy focus on inbound recruiting leading to 1000s of applicants per job. The internal recruiting team is inevitably overworked which leads them to skim the first 100 candidates off the top of the pile to try to make a hire. ➡ With the market flooded with candidates, hiring teams feel they can be as "picky" as they want. Unicorn hunting has never been more prevalent. ➡ On the candidate side, people have poorly formatted resumes or resumes with errors. Some of this is due to people paying resume writers and career coaches that have never been recruiters. Hiring managers don't like seeing resumes with errors and recruiters will often see a jumbled mess if a resume is parsed poorly by an ATS. ➡ Companies are posting "ghost jobs" on platforms like LinkedIn to look like their company is doing better than it is. ➡ Venture capital investment is trending upwards but is still waaaaaay lower than it was in 2022. Money is not as cheap and investors are being more careful about only investing in profitable businesses vs. companies just chasing the next round to stay afloat. ➡ Cybersecurity is seen as a cost center. Don't shoot the messenger. Yes, I know security can be a business enabler and revenue generator, but most Boards don't see it that way. When execs and Boards are uncertain about the current and future state of the economy, budgets and headcount are lower for cost centers. ➡ Again, due to the economy, companies are rescinding budgets for roles, laying people off, and making rash decisions in the interest of cutting costs in the short term. I've never heard so many crazy stories... ➡ With budgets being tightened, the security leaders that WOULD like to work with specialist security recruiters to fill their roles quicker are being hamstrung. ➡ Job seekers are "spraying and praying" resumes and applying online to every job that's anywhere close to a fit for them. This practice further exacerbates the first point I mentioned about recruiters being spread too thin. ➡ Security professionals have neglected their professional networks over the last few years because they were perfectly comfortable in their roles. Now that they're back on the market, they don't have good referral sources to lean on. I've seen this phenomenon occuring from SOC Analysts all the way up to CISOs. What did I miss?

There are plenty of valuable candidates on the market. Hiring managers are simply looking in the wrong places.

In a gold rush, you sell the shovels used to dig for the gold. With the jobs situation I see a positive feedback loop, in that more hiring will increase demand for used (not new) cars, more employers will enroll employees in identity protection, more opportunity for data breaches, more energy will be consumed as more output occurs on all sectors. In p particular, data-centric companies, Cyber sector, Used Car sector, energy tech/superconductors will be the shovels in the current "gold rush"

We’ve recently made a BIG change. For the last 3 months, I've started sending out feedback surveys... To EVERY client and candidate that works with us! I *want* to hear the good, bad & the UGLY 😅 I'm obsessive about it. If you've had a great experience with us or we could have done something better, tell me. My goal is not to: - Take on as many clients as we can - Fling candidates in bad-fit roles for cash - Hit arbitrary financial targets It's to be the MOST trusted staffing consultancy for gaming studios in the entire world. It's our relentless effort to improve that's helped us 👇🏻 - Build a team of 11 elite staffing consultants - Secure partnerships with global gaming studios - Grow an industry-leading pool of hire-scoring talent Things I'm very proud of. Put your ego away and get your pen & paper out. Make notes when people talk. Then take action! 🙌🏼 P.S. Survey results show 98% of our clients would engage with us again. The result of non-stop service improvements!

Some of the biggest insider threats at America's companies are their either poor and ignorant or willfully counterproductive recruiters. These people are turning away very qualified candidates and then the companies wonder why they're struggling to get things done. So many incredibly smart, hard-working, and dedicated people are struggling to find jobs because instead of investing in hiring and making it effective, many companies are using bad but cheap recruiters who don't know the first thing about the roles they're tasked to fill.

The tech job market is brutal right now. After 10+ years of a candidate-driven market l, we find ourselves in an employer’s market. Companies right now are slowly cutting folks and being cautious on hiring people. They also have more options to choose from now more than ever and are taking advantage of the situation while they can. Not surprised to see this after a black swan hiring event from 2020-2022 where company’s were increasing headcount by 50%+ & massive pay packages in just a few years. They want to find the “right size” of how much headcount they exactly need to be as efficient as possible. So they’ll slowly trim a few more folks until they feel they’re at that balance. Now things can change of course. Tally in a few rate cuts within the next 12 months and we should find ourselves in a candidate’s market again. Don’t expect anything like the Zirp era of 2020-2022. But something similar to 2010-2019 should be the expectation

In today’s digital age, concerns over data privacy lead many to omit contact information from their online applications on the UK's leading job boards. And to be honest I don't blame them with all the recruitment scams going around. With the rise of AI recruitment tools and platforms I see data security as growing concern. Hiding your contact details maybe a prudent move, but it often turns our task into a detective mission! 🕵️♂️ While we excel at uncovering the perfect skills match, connecting talent with opportunity becomes a thrilling puzzle without those crucial details. Although we often consider ourselves as elite private detectives in search of stellar talent, remember, our expertise lies in skills-based job matching, not espionage. We might not have MI5’s facilities just yet, but our commitment to your success is unwavering. Please consider a job application burner phone or email account if you have these concerns. 😅 #JobSearchTips #PrivacyFirst #RecruitmentLife