CYBERSECURITY JOB HUNTING GUIDE
  • Home
  • Introduction
    • Things you should know
    • The strategy
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    • First steps
    • SWOT Analysis
    • How much time do you need?
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      • Credit score
    • The salary
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  • Goal Setting & Career paths
    • Find your career in 5 steps
    • Cybersecurity career options
    • Career finding with LinkedIn
    • Transferable Skills (general)
    • Transferable IT Skills
    • Find a path with job descriptions
    • The I do not know path
    • Do you know “garbage” jobs?
    • “Bonus” knowledge
    • Learning & Motivation
    • Particular vs. any job
    • Pentester path (start)
    • Pen Testing as Career
    • SOC Analyst as career
    • Security Engineer as career
    • Compliance & Risk as career
    • How to find a career (IAM Engineer)
    • Find a company
  • Networking
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    • LinkedIn
    • Referrals & Skills
    • LinkedIn Recruiters >
      • Working with a recruiter
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    • Networking University
    • Mentoring
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      • Atomic Red Team
      • DVWA
      • Metasploit
      • OSINT tools
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    • Blue labs >
      • Blue Team Labs Online
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      • Letsdefend >
        • LetsDefend password stealer
      • Opensecuritytraining (free)
      • PurpleLabs
      • RangeForce
    • Blue tools >
      • Install a Canary Token
      • CyberChef
      • EDR Lima Charlie installation
      • EDR LimaCharlie configuration
      • EDR Velociraptor (free)
      • EDR Bluespawn (free)
      • DeepBlueCLI (logs Powershell, free)
      • Raccine (ransomware protection, free)
      • Install RITA (detects C2 traffic, free)
      • Sandboxes >
        • Joe's Sandbox
      • SIEM ELK Stack
      • SIEM Graylog >
        • Getting started with Graylog
        • Install Graylog
        • Graylog Windows agent
        • Graylog Linux agent
        • Graylog as application
      • Suricata with RangeForce
      • Identifying IoCs with RangeForce
      • What2Log
  • Certifications, Degree & Courses
    • Overview
    • Free & Affordable Resources
    • Pick your cert
    • Skill Assessment
    • Get a cheap degree
  • (Employment) fraud & scams
    • Suspicious Offer
    • Second Offer
    • Certification Scams
    • Fraud with courses
  • Analyzing a job ad
    • The Header
    • Building a Bridge
    • The Responsibilities
    • Desired Skills
    • Preferred Qualification
    • Benefits
    • Own skills vs job ad
    • Dealing with poorly written job ads
  • Resume writing
    • Templates
    • Building a draft
    • Resume in Detail
    • Understand the company
    • ATS and tailoring
    • Last Step
  • Cover letter
    • Writing a cover letter
  • Preparation & Interview
    • Organize your job hunt
    • SWOT Again (interview)
    • Twitter
    • The interview
    • Interview Questions Designed To Trick You
    • Post interview tasks
  • I did it all, but...
    • You are not alone
    • Try Something New
    • Why You'll Fail in Cyber Security
  • Yes, I got a job!
    • Two, or more offers?
    • Continued learning
    • Moving up
    • Lessons learned
  • Conclusion
  • Additional things
    • Reviews (labs, courses, certs) >
      • CompTIA A+
      • CompTIA Network+
      • CompTIA Security+
      • CompTIA Server+
      • CompTIA PenTest+
      • DroneSec DSOC
      • Defensive-Security Purple Labs
      • FAA Part 107
      • INE eCPPT & PTP
      • Letsdefend review
      • Microsoft AZ-500
      • RangeForce SOC 1
      • RangeForce SOC 2
    • Work In A Different Country >
      • The Work Permit
      • Working in the US
      • Studying in the US
      • Studying in Germany
      • Work in a different country
    • Other Resources >
      • Useful Links >
        • All about careers
        • Red resources
        • Blue resources
      • YouTube
      • Twitch
      • Podcasts
      • Books
      • Udemy
      • Thanks
    • Contributors
  • Stefan Waldvogel, where can I help?
  • Home
  • Introduction
    • Things you should know
    • The strategy
  • Paths into Cybersecurity
    • First steps
    • SWOT Analysis
    • How much time do you need?
    • Calculate& Evaluate Knowledge
    • Imposter syndrome
    • Time Management
    • Cybersecurity Domains
    • Cloud Security
    • Financial advice >
      • Credit score
    • The salary
    • Advocacy for underrepresented groups
  • Goal Setting & Career paths
    • Find your career in 5 steps
    • Cybersecurity career options
    • Career finding with LinkedIn
    • Transferable Skills (general)
    • Transferable IT Skills
    • Find a path with job descriptions
    • The I do not know path
    • Do you know “garbage” jobs?
    • “Bonus” knowledge
    • Learning & Motivation
    • Particular vs. any job
    • Pentester path (start)
    • Pen Testing as Career
    • SOC Analyst as career
    • Security Engineer as career
    • Compliance & Risk as career
    • How to find a career (IAM Engineer)
    • Find a company
  • Networking
    • Networking like a pro
    • LinkedIn
    • Referrals & Skills
    • LinkedIn Recruiters >
      • Working with a recruiter
    • Cyber Community
    • Networking University
    • Mentoring
    • Build your personal brand
    • Goal of Networking
  • Hands-on
    • The home lab >
      • Designing a home lab
      • Ways to create a home lab
      • Hypervisors >
        • VirtualBox
        • VMWare Player
        • QEMU/KVM
      • Docker
      • Operating Systems >
        • Kali Linux >
          • Installing Kali with VirtualBox
        • Parrot
        • BlackArch
        • Red Hat Enterprise Linux >
          • RHCSA
        • Security Onion >
          • Installation Security Onion
        • Metasploitable2
        • Ubuntu
        • Windows >
          • Windows in a VM
          • Windows with Virtual Machine Manager
          • Preparing Windows logging
          • John Strand's ADHD VM
      • Firewalls >
        • pfSense Installation
        • pfSense configuration for Security Onion
    • Volunteer Work
    • Note Taking
    • Red labs >
      • Cyberseclabs
      • HackTheBox >
        • HackTheBox Academy
      • INE red side
      • RangeForce
      • Offensive Security
      • TryHackMe
      • Virtual Hacking Labs
    • Red tools & techniques >
      • Atomic Red Team
      • DVWA
      • Metasploit
      • OSINT tools
      • OWASP Juice Shop
    • Blue labs >
      • Blue Team Labs Online
      • DetectionLab (free)
      • INE
      • Letsdefend >
        • LetsDefend password stealer
      • Opensecuritytraining (free)
      • PurpleLabs
      • RangeForce
    • Blue tools >
      • Install a Canary Token
      • CyberChef
      • EDR Lima Charlie installation
      • EDR LimaCharlie configuration
      • EDR Velociraptor (free)
      • EDR Bluespawn (free)
      • DeepBlueCLI (logs Powershell, free)
      • Raccine (ransomware protection, free)
      • Install RITA (detects C2 traffic, free)
      • Sandboxes >
        • Joe's Sandbox
      • SIEM ELK Stack
      • SIEM Graylog >
        • Getting started with Graylog
        • Install Graylog
        • Graylog Windows agent
        • Graylog Linux agent
        • Graylog as application
      • Suricata with RangeForce
      • Identifying IoCs with RangeForce
      • What2Log
  • Certifications, Degree & Courses
    • Overview
    • Free & Affordable Resources
    • Pick your cert
    • Skill Assessment
    • Get a cheap degree
  • (Employment) fraud & scams
    • Suspicious Offer
    • Second Offer
    • Certification Scams
    • Fraud with courses
  • Analyzing a job ad
    • The Header
    • Building a Bridge
    • The Responsibilities
    • Desired Skills
    • Preferred Qualification
    • Benefits
    • Own skills vs job ad
    • Dealing with poorly written job ads
  • Resume writing
    • Templates
    • Building a draft
    • Resume in Detail
    • Understand the company
    • ATS and tailoring
    • Last Step
  • Cover letter
    • Writing a cover letter
  • Preparation & Interview
    • Organize your job hunt
    • SWOT Again (interview)
    • Twitter
    • The interview
    • Interview Questions Designed To Trick You
    • Post interview tasks
  • I did it all, but...
    • You are not alone
    • Try Something New
    • Why You'll Fail in Cyber Security
  • Yes, I got a job!
    • Two, or more offers?
    • Continued learning
    • Moving up
    • Lessons learned
  • Conclusion
  • Additional things
    • Reviews (labs, courses, certs) >
      • CompTIA A+
      • CompTIA Network+
      • CompTIA Security+
      • CompTIA Server+
      • CompTIA PenTest+
      • DroneSec DSOC
      • Defensive-Security Purple Labs
      • FAA Part 107
      • INE eCPPT & PTP
      • Letsdefend review
      • Microsoft AZ-500
      • RangeForce SOC 1
      • RangeForce SOC 2
    • Work In A Different Country >
      • The Work Permit
      • Working in the US
      • Studying in the US
      • Studying in Germany
      • Work in a different country
    • Other Resources >
      • Useful Links >
        • All about careers
        • Red resources
        • Blue resources
      • YouTube
      • Twitch
      • Podcasts
      • Books
      • Udemy
      • Thanks
    • Contributors
  • Stefan Waldvogel, where can I help?
  CYBERSECURITY JOB HUNTING GUIDE

LinkedIn Recruiters

Author: Stefan Waldvogel
​Editor: Mahfuz Talukder, ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahfuz-talukder/

Working with recruiters on LinkedIn

We start with the nasty side first. LinkedIn and other platforms are full of employment fraud, identity theft, and not every recruiter is your friend. Some steal your PII and use it against you. Always, always be a smart and careful person… Real recruiters do not need a CV to see if you are qualified, they can use their LinkedIn features. If you get a recruiter message and the recruiter is not premium, that is weird. You get an email, and the ending is .gmail or something similar… huge red flag.

Are you afraid… no, just be careful. I highlight it, because you want something, which makes you vulnerable. If you know the risks, you are prepared.
On LinkedIn, there are some special Cybersecurity recruiters, examples are:
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/joebhudson/ (US/Canada/ sometimes UK) ← he is awesome!
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/Cybersecuritysecricki/ (Australia, more towards high end jobs)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-charles-pentest/ (UK/US) ← easy to connect via discord
​
Paul is not premium, because he uses his discord channel for recruiting, LinkedIn is not his main channel: https://discord.com/invite/uMzAkv2QXH
These recruiters are examples, and I am sure there are more IT specialized recruiting companies like TEKsystems or westpointrecruitment. If you send a request to a recruiter, add a useful message. Remember, you have this single chance to stand out! Sometimes, they get 50 messages a day. If you do not get feedback or an acceptance, just write some days later.

If you are a veteran and have an active clearance, you can find specialized recruiters. Join some groups and ask.
Do you want to find your local recruiters?
Most recruiters (in the US) use “talent acquisition” (1) as their title, and you can search for it. At the moment, we have over 6 million recruiters on LinkedIn; therefore, you have to filter them.
Picture
Search for people (2), and under connections, you have two options. Suppose you have few connections; select 1st and 2nd. This way, you get more tech-related recruiters. If you have a lot of contacts, you can go down to 1st connections. If I change this setting, I reduce the number from 2700 to 71, and that is enough. The location field (4) is essential. Usually, you want to work with a local recruiter because local recruiters have a deeper inside about your area and, most likely, more jobs for you. The field “current company” is powerful if you want to work for a more prominent company. Why not try to work for Microsoft, Tesla, Google, and other big companies?
Most active recruiters use LinkedIn premium because it is part of their job. If you have a huge list, pick Premium recruiters first. They pay for all the nice LinkedIn recruiting features, so they are most likely active.

Things do to if you get a recruiting message
Keep the balanceKeep the balance
​Recruiters often send vague messages. Recruiting is a business, and if you write back, ask for:
  • Job title --> you can check the salary
  • Job description --> you want to know what you do
  • Location --> can you move?  You need the location for the salary evaluation.
  • Required skills --> can you do the job?
  • Salary range --> a range gives you and the recruiter space. If you do not get a salary range, move on. The same if it is too high or too low.
  • Other things like remote or not. Try to get a hint for the company culture.
If you do not get all details, why do you want to work with this recruiter? In the US, we have millions of recruiters and ten-thousands of open jobs,
--> you have the choice. This might not work with little work experience (entry-level) but if you have some years in IT and valuable skills, you can pick, it is an employee market.
--> Many recruiters just harvest your data and they do not have a real job. They still call you because it is part of their job. Recruiting is a hard business, that is the other side.

Working with a recruiter
Next: Cyber community
© 2021. This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license​