TippingPoint Looking For A Few Good Problem-Solvers

The first thing Rohit Dhamankar does when scanning a job candidate's resume is to look for experience and what certifications the job seeker has achieved. If he likes what he sees on paper, TippingPoint's security research team senior manager then makes a call to the candidate. It's during that conversation that he learns whether the resume holds water.

"I'll ask specific questions about security technology, the projects they've been involved in and if they pass muster I'll invite them in for an interview," says Dhamankar, who's been with the Austin, Texas company, which provides network-based intrusion prevention systems, for nearly five years.

The interview process includes meeting individually with seven to eight members of the security research team, all who ask different questions and pose puzzles and problems to the candidate to solve.

"By the end of that day we all have a good idea of whether the candidate would be a good fit," says Dhamankar, adding that he's always looking to grow his IT security force which currently numbers about a dozen staffers.

It's also during the interviews that his team discovers whether the job seeker is a team player and can apply what they learn quickly to the job—both traits are mandates to get hired, he says.

As Dhamankar explains, today's IT security workforce is split into two broad role categories: Those who handle the enterprise security needs, from slapping down patches to building firewalls and everything in between, and the "hacker oriented" experts who work on reverse engineering, analyzing applications and correlating bits and bytes to build good IT defense systems.

It's professionals in that latter group—those with hacker-type skills—who are hard to find.

"The market has picked up as more companies are realizing they need security experts on staff, even the small-to-mid sized business are hiring on or using managed services providers who are hiring security folks. They're in demand right now," he says.

One reason is that the needed skills are typically learned on the job as there are no courses or educational programs teaching the skills, he adds.Yet both groups of professionals should boast certifications, Dhamankar says, as the programs are critical to working as a security professional. For the enterprise security professionals that could include Cisco certifications, and a SANS certification for the hacker-type expert. In fact, Dhamankar says that certification is the road to take for anyone looking to move into the field, and those wanting to advance in the field.

"If I have two candidates with very similar skills, the job will go to the one with the certifications," he says.

Another big hurdle in hiring today, aside from the shortage of candidates, is that security experts tend to work independently and learn by themselves, says Dhamankar. That doesn't bode well for his needs as he's looking to hire professionals who can work well in a team atmosphere.

"Even if they have all the skills and certification credentials, it's vital they can work as a team member because they need to be a good fit into the group," he explains.

That's one of the reasons that recent college graduates are high up on his radar for finding quality new hires.. Newly minted professionals aren't ensconced in the need to work alone, and they're often eager for problem-solving challenges, he adds.His advice to IT staffers who want to move into the field is to get working in the industry and start tackling courses.

"A good step in the right direction is to get going on the certifications. They're very valuable and in demand," he says.

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