It Security Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Information Security Job

Information security is a hot career area and is among the strongest fields within IT for growth and opportunity. With excellent long-term career prospects, increasing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and an increase in security & privacy regulations and legislation, the demand for security professionals is significant. Even with a bright future, that does not necessarily mean that a career in information security is right for everyone. What differentiates an excellent security professional from a mediocre one is their passion for the job. With that, IT Security Interviews Exposed is a mixed bag of a book. For those that are looking for an information security spot and have the requisite passion for the job, much of the information should already be known. For someone who lacks that passion and simply wants a security job, their lack of breadth will show and the information in the book likely won't be helpful, unless they have a photographic memory to remember all of the various data points. If you find information security challenging and either want a job in the field or are looking for a better job in the field, the book will be quite valuable. But for those looking for a hot security job, their lackings will likely show through on in interview, even with the help of this book. As to the actual content, chapter 1 provides a good overview of how to find, interview and get a security job. The chapter contains many bits of helpful information, especially to those whose job seeking skills are deficient. A good piece of advice the author's state is that one should never pay a fee for headhunting services. There are many people that call themselves recruiters, but are nothing more than fax servers who charge for the service. The burden to pay is always on the hiring firm, and a job seeker should be extremely suspicious of anyone requesting a fee to find them a position. I would hope that in future editions of the book, the authors expand on chapter one. The chapter itself in fact could easily me made into a book in its own right. As part of the job search process, many job searchers often do not ask themselves enough fundamental questions if they are indeed in the right place in their career. Such an approach is taken by Lee Kushner, founder and CEO of the information security recruitment firm LJ Kushner and Associates. Kushner formulated the following 7 questions that every information security job candidate should ask themselves: 1. What are my long and short term plans? 2. What are my strengths and weaknesses? 3. What skills do I need to develop? 4. Have I acquired a new skill during the past year? 5. What are my most significant career accomplishments and will I soon achieve another one? 6. Have I been promoted over the past three years? 7. What investments have I made in my own career? The other 9 chapters of the book all have the same format; an overview of the topic, and then various questions and interviewer may pose. The