Australia, like much of the world, is in the midst of a cyber security skills workforce shortage. Australia’s cyber sector currently employs about 20,000 cyber workers, but according to a recently released federal government report, approximately 33,500 will be required across government and private sectors of the economy by 2024.
Part of this shortfall is due to graduates not having the necessary skill sets to be job-ready from day one, especially if they are placed in a high-pressure environment where their organisation’s data is at high risk.
Unfortunately, education doesn’t always equate to job readiness, especially in the cyber sector.
So under these circumstances, how do hirers attract and upskill people and how do enterprises ensure that their skilled workers are effective?
To foster industry growth, hiring teams must explore unconventional recruitment methods and move beyond traditional hiring practices, and this involves skills testing, which has become more essential than ever in the current environment.
Unconventional hiring
FifthDomain has become an established leader in developing cyber skills testing solutions that identify, develop and retain cyber talent. FifthDomain’s solutions are used by leading enterprises and government departments and are specifically designed to identify talent through cyber skills testing, the employer can assess the performance of the candidate via state-of-the-art analytics.
“Employers have told us that the quantity and quality of talent coming through the formal education sector is not providing graduates with the skills they need to perform their tasks. We specialise in finding technical skills involved in cyber security across enterprises and government, these skills are crucial for these organisations to operate safely,” Fifth Domain founder and CEO Matt Wilcox says.
Our gamified assessment and training solutions are designed to expedite the hiring process by de-risking it as much as possible, with a full understanding that finding and enabling the best people also goes a long way toward staff retention.
“How do you upskill and attract the most suitable people into a job? From a cyber perspective, this can be difficult to quantify and could lead to a lack of preparedness. This means it’s often unclear if you’re being protected or just not seeing the consequences of these attacks. Employers and recruiters can use our tools to gain a full understanding of a candidate’s cyber skill set, so if they were to employ the candidate the CISO/SOC Manager can be confident that their organisation won’t end up on the news post-breach,” Matt says.
From Hospitality to Cyber Operator with FifthDomain.
In the fast-paced world of cyber, finding the right talent can be a daunting challenge. Hiring managers often rely on traditional methods like interviews and resume reviews, which may not accurately assess a candidate’s ability to apply hands-on skills. FifthDomain was approached recently by a private enterprise customer to engage FifthDomain’s cyber assessments. The customer had several cyber operator roles to fill, using FifthDomain’s sovereign skills assessment platform the hiring manager embarked on a mission to identify the most skilled talent from their applicant cohort. Among the hopeful candidates was Eliza*, who came from a background in hospitality, lacked cyber experience, and held an unrelated undergraduate degree.
Eliza’s* unique situation initially led the customer to overlook her for the role. However, her passion for cyber security was ignited by a personal experience involving a cyber incident that affected a family member. Eliza* had been teaching herself operator skills both informally and through accredited training.
Fortunately, the private enterprise decided to invite her to undertake FifthDomain’s cyber skills assessments, to gain deeper insights into her skill set. This decision would prove to be a turning point.
Eliza’s* performance in the assessments was nothing short of remarkable. She effortlessly demonstrated her prowess in cyber operations, surpassing the expectations of the hiring manager. Scoring in the top percentile of her entire cohort, Eliza’s* talent and dedication set her apart from the competition.
The customer was able to identify Eliza’s* potential. By capturing her performance through cyber operations tasks conducted via virtual machine, the platform provided invaluable performance analytics. Armed with this data, the hiring managers made an informed decision that forever changed Eliza’s* career.
Eliza*, once overlooked due to traditional hiring methods, secured a cyber position with this enterprise. Her transformation from a hospitality background to a cyber operator was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The hiring manager realised that relying solely on interviews and resume reviews would have prevented the discovery of Eliza’s* hidden talent.
FifthDomain’s Assessor emerged as the hero of this case study, empowering SOC managers, CISOs, and recruitment professionals to make sound cyber hiring and management decisions. Designed to be easy to use and tailored specifically for the industry’s needs, the solution captured candidate performance through realistic cyber operations tasks. The use of sovereign virtual machines ensured a comprehensive evaluation, providing hiring managers with the essential performance analytics they needed.
Imagine the missed opportunities if the private enterprise had not embraced FifthDomain’s Assessor. Eliza’s* remarkable journey serves as a testament to the transformative impact of this cutting-edge solution, proving that unconventional backgrounds and undiscovered talents can shine through when given the right opportunity.
Don’t let exceptional candidates slip through the cracks. Embrace FifthDomain’s solution and unlock the true potential of your cyber workforce.
* For more information on FifthDomain, click here:
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