Cyber security Story teller

Well, job hunting has certainly changed in the past few years. On the surface, an AI-powered recruiting pipeline makes sense. Given a job description, have ChatGPT rack and stack the candidate’s resumes. It’s an easy way to direct the more value human time and add value to a hard process.

In 26 days, I applied to 44 positions. Most of these were in the critical infrastructure and vehicle space, but I wasn’t picky, either. Somewhat obviously, I am once again gainfully employed.

I had two other interviews, but neither were great matches.

Of those, 15 never responded — 34%. Another 21, or 48%, let me know they were not moving forward with my application. Of those 21, 20% took longer than a month to reject me.

One reached out a month later to say, essentially, “Please hold.” It’s been almost three months since then.

Two positions were pulled after I applied. One was polite — they were “no longer recruiting”. The second was harsher — “We’re very sorry, we cancelled the position.”

Two rejected me within hours of applying. In the evening. On a Friday. Clearly, I didn’t pass some automated system somewhere.

Three let me know 2-3 months later that the role had been filled.

More fun stats: For the role I’m in, there were 95 applicants. I was told 80 were just AI resume slop. That’s not fake applicants, just applicants who jazzed up their application with AI help.

With those numbers, is AI assistance a value-add to the hiring process? I’m not sure. Regardless, it’s our new reality, and we have to live in it.

I was fortunate enough to have a severance and had an assigned “transition coach”. That helped, as did the career consultant attached to my MBA program.

Here’s what I learned from them:

Yes, you should probably use AI to help you. This goes double if you hate writing your resume, dread performance review season, or hate promoting yourself. Privacy wise, it’s your resume — you probably have a lot of the same info on your LinkedIn already. If you need, generalize your experience.

It’s worth noting that there’s nothing inherent in this process that requires AI usage. I’m not your supervisor, if you don’t want to use AI, don’t use it.

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Redact anything covered by an NDA or other protected information before including it in an AI prompt.

Have a branding statement. Choose your favorite AI, and prompt it:

Create a branding statement on my resume below. It should be easy to read and include highlights of my expertise and skill sets. $PASTE_RESUME

If you’re old enough to remember having “objective statements” at the top of your resume, this is similar.

Keep the response in your back pocket for now; it’s great for questions like “Tell me about yourself” or for speaking biographies. Or think of it like an elevator pitch for yourself. The goal is to sell yourself to the organization. If you don’t like the AI response, or if it’s off-base, tweak it until you’re happy, either manually or refining your prompt. That advice goes for everything below; AI is a tool, not a dictator.

For your base resume, plain is better. Various Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are machines parsing your resume. Avoid characters it won’t like, such as pretty bullet points or separators. Better options include — and |, if you need. Unless you’re actively enrolled in a degree program, leave off graduation dates; it helps avoid looking old. Keep it to a page or two; short and sweet is still better. My resume has sections for top skills, career highlights, professional experience, and education/certifications. Whatever your sections, keep this as a source of truth document.

Take advantage of all the sections of LinkedIn. Have a reasonably up-to-date profile picture, even if it’s not a professional headshot. Check your local security conferences to see if there’s a professional photographer on site for headshots. Cover images help draw recruiters to your profile, so don’t ignore that block. It should be something “on brand” for you. Mine is something vaguely cyberpunk; I’ve seen others that are basically a business card. Use the headline section to add some words to that brand. If your LinkedIn URL still has numbers at the end, you’ll want to edit your custom URL, so it’s easy for recruiters to remember.

Fill out the “About Me” stage with that branding statement. Each experience section should have some verbiage; it’s fine if it’s not as detailed as your actual resume. Use AI to help with a prompt like:

Reword what I did at my experience below. Keep the details confident. Reference my resume below. $PASTE_RESUME_SECTION

Don’t confuse the AI with more than one section at a time. Another great prompt is:

Create a list of skill sets that include both technical skills and soft skills that I can list on my LinkedIn. Reference my resume below. $PASTE_RESUME_SECTION

Take the skills and add them to LinkedIn for that experience. LinkedIn allows up to 100 skills; try to hit that number. You never know what the winning keyword will be when a recruiter is fishing for candidates.

Armed with a base resume and a shiny profile, find an open job posting! It’ll have a job description attached.

Time for more AI with prompt 1: Pull the top 20 keywords and key phrases I need to include in my resume (in order for it to pass through the applicant tracking system) for the job description below: $PASTE_JOB_DESCRIPTION

Prompt 2: Modify my experience section to include the keywords and key phrases above (as they fit) with my experience listed below. Rewrite my accomplishment statements if needed. $PASTE_RESUME_SECTION

Rinse and repeat step 2 with each resume section. Again, don’t confuse it with more than one resume section at a time.

Websites like jobscan.io, tagcrowd.com, and find-keyword.com can also help at this stage. I want to highlight JobScan in particular; it was recommended to me by the transition coach, career consultant, and the state unemployment office.

Generate a custom resume for the job and apply!

Yes, this will take time. Expect to take about an hour per application; I was told to aim for 1 or 2 applications a day. That’s enough to keep your search going without driving yourself insane with the process. This method does not promise overnight success; you’re still beholden to the organization’s speed of hiring.

When you have an interview, be prepared!

Have a suitable answer for why you left your last position; be sure to shift it to a positive. Leaving a position, whatever the reason, sucks. Process that however you need, but the new gig does not care. They only care that you’re not some kind of sociopathic asshole. Shift the conversation to a couple of qualities from the job description and how you have those qualities.

Keep a document of professional stories, ready to use in an interview. They should take about 3 minutes, give or take, to tell.

Writers think in word counts. My Managing Imposter Syndrome talk was limited to 10 minutes; it clocks in at 1681 words, as posted. Choose a text of known length and time yourself as you speak naturally. How long does it take you to read 500 words? How many words can you read in 3 minutes? That’s how much space you have to work with.

There are four key beats to hit in that space: Situation, Task/Obstacle, Action, Result. The acronyms are STAR and SOAR. Or, answer these questions:

What was the context?

What was the task to be accomplished or obstacle to overcome?

What did you do about it?

What happened after you took action?

Don’t overthink it. If you need to get something on paper, try telling it like you would explain it to a loved one, or like how you’d tell it at a networking event. If you’re really struggling, record yourself just talking. Transcribe it after the fact and make edits from there. Plenty of published authors do just that for entire novels! Or, plug AI again, and ask the robot overlords to help.

What about the plot? There’s an enormous range of common interview questions.

Tell me about a project that went well.

Tell me about a project that went terribly.

Tell me about a difficult coworker interaction.

Tell me about a difficult decision.

Tell me about an important idea you contributed to a project.

Tell me about your strengths.

Tell me about your weaknesses.

Tell me about your most recent project.

Tell me how you prioritize tasks.

Tell me about your ideal job.

The list goes on. You don’t have to have a story for every question, of course, but having a bank of stories to lean on is helpful. That’ll help reduce the awkward pauses between question and answer, or the anxiety panic as you scramble to think of an answer. Don’t be afraid to buy yourself time with phrases like “That’s a great question”. Critically, stick your landing. Make it clear you’ve ended the story instead of trailing off into awkward laughter.

“So that’s how I recovered the data center after the fire.”

“The team and I met the deadline with hours to spare, and the project was saved!”

“The client was happy with our results, even though we showed a domain controller compromise.”

“Bob and I buried the hatchet after our kids got along so well at the company picnic.”

“I completely failed, but I learned not to take on so much at once.”

Only that last one is a real example … and it’s debatable if I’ve actually learned. That’s not the point here. The point is to have a beginning, middle, and an end to your story. Above all, relax and be a human being. You are a human being, right? You don’t have to memorize your stories word-for-word, but you should know its beats. Engage your interviewer with a back-and-forth dialog.

It’s rough out there. Support each other, and fare thee well.