FastTrak Candidate Assessments: Setting Up New Cyber Hires for Success

FastTrak Candidate Assessments
Setting Up New Cyber Hires for Success

By Debbie Gordon

The disconnect between hirers and hirees

As all security leaders know, there is a cyber skills shortage in the US and around the world. However, even though there are 3.5 million open cybersecurity jobs globally, there are also hundreds of thousands of students and newcomers to cybersecurity seeking employment. 

But a lot of them are not able to get jobs.  

Why?

I get people hitting me up on LinkedIn all the time that I don't know or I talk to people at various events, and they are asking for advice on how to get a cybersecurity position. The problem baffles me because there are so many open positions. 

One of the reasons for this conundrum is that a lot of companies have stringent hiring requirements, such as wanting a four-year degree or 10 years experience on a technology that’s only been around for five years. Job requirements like that are alienating people who could potentially be really good at filling the positions.

There is a disconnect. A disconnect between those who are hiring and those who want jobs, and a disconnect between the way companies hire and the way schools are educating. 

Getting game film

Cloud Range did a project with a women's university in Massachusetts that was upgrading its forensics program. The institution wanted to incorporate our simulation solutions to help students get a job after graduation. The goal was to not only provide real-world experience to the students, but to also give them “game film.”

The idea is similar to what aspiring athletes use during recruitment. Coaches want to see more than statistics. They want to review their game film to know what they can do and how they perform. 

In the same way, the university wanted its students to have “game film” of how they detected and responded to a cyber incident. Even without years of experience, the video would show the security team hiring manager what they can do and how they perform in a true-to-life situation. 

To meet the university’s objective, Cloud Range custom-developed hyper-realistic, live-fire scenarios in our cyber range. The Cloud Range team researched what forensics examiners do and talked to many large organizations with forensic teams, such as major insurance companies, to gather information, requirements, and nuances of the work. The organizations were eager to help us develop the exercise because they knew it would benefit them in the long run. 

We used what we learned to help the university teach the students in the program. Plus, students used our advanced simulation platform to go through a live exercise. They could experience the challenges and alerts and practice their detection and investigation techniques in a safe, controlled environment that emulates what they would see in real life.  

At the end of the program, the students went through our FastTrak assessment, a simulation that is recorded and tracked. The resulting recording shows all actions taken, and the scorecard outlines objective measurements of the person’s skills and abilities. Students were able to use the assessment to show their capabilities to prospective employers. More than a resume that lists certifications and courses, the “game film” helped them prove that they know what they’re doing.

There were many positive results from this process. The students were able to get jobs immediately after graduation, which had never happened before at that university. The university is renowned for its strong forensics program. And the companies that have hired the students were impressed with what they could do and that they could see it.

FastTrak Candidate Assessments

Cloud Range now offers FastTrak Candidate Assessments for all security roles, including SOC analysts, engineers, incident response, senior security resources and more.

The assessments can be used in two ways:

1. To get jobs

New and legacy cybersecurity professionals can use the assessments to show employers their proven capabilities. That not only helps them secure the positions they want, but it also shrinks the skills shortage.

2. To validate candidates

Companies can use the assessments to verify their candidates’ abilities. For example, if a company is hiring 20 SOC analysts and 5 forensic examiners, Cloud Range will work with them to develop bespoke simulation exercises, incorporating their specific tools and technologies, to see how the candidates work and what they can do. 

The assessments also help the employer recognize any gaps or areas for improvement, so new hires can get the relevant training in the future. It's much better to hire somebody when you know exactly where they stand versus finding out later that they can’t do what they said they can do. 

Succeeding with cyber simulation 

Cyber simulation solutions have become a valuable component of increasing the cyber workforce, reducing the skills gap, and ensuring retention. Cloud Range’s FastTrak Candidate Assessments prove this to be true. Students, candidates, and employers use the assessments in our industry-leading simulation and analysis platform to ensure new cyber hires are set up for long-term success. 

Contact us to learn more about our hiring assessments and other cyber simulation programs.