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Our Team Is Hiring: New Position Open – North America

by Anton Chuvakin on March 11, 2019

As Gartner GTP client inquiry volumes grow, our team needs to expand again. We now have a new position open (an expansion hire). This role is super exciting since this is an expansion hire for the same topics that Augusto Barros, Anna Belak and me cover!

Apply here!

Topics you need to know well for this role:

Subject matter expertise in security operations, monitoring and vulnerability management technologies, with the ability to demonstrate understanding of the business requirements and opportunities in that market
Knowledge of security information and event management (SIEM) systems, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) tools
Knowledge of vulnerability and threat management as well as threat intelligence services and practices
Knowledge of security operations center processes and systems as well as experience with incident response

Generic job description for our team – with my highlights:

Conduct research and analysis in specific areas of expertise targeting client’s key initiatives.
Deliver high quality actionable advice through a variety of media.
Write high quality, clear, actionable, advisory research documents.
Remain ahead of the curve on developments and issues within these specified areas as well as applicable adjacent areas.
Respond to client questions, create materials for and deliver to clients in person, via teleconference, video conference or webinar and event presentations
Maintain the Gartner’s industry leadership reputation by responding to press inquiries
Proactively work with the wider sales organization and deliver outstanding sales support in order to retain and grow the business.

In essence, your job would be to do research and write papers [1], advise clients (via phone inquiries / dialogs) [2] and speak at events [3]. Also, we do list a lot of qualifications, but you can look at my informal take on them in this post.

A few common questions that candidates have asked in the past:

Location? Any location in the region noted (e.g North America for this role) would be acceptable, mostly due to the desired time zone for client call coverage. This is negotiable for these roles, to some extent. You will still work from home most of the time.
What does occasional travel really mean? In all honesty, there is not much travel, apart from 2-3 Gartner events per year, really. If you want to travel more, you can. Probably cannot travel less than 1-2 times a year.
Do we really need 10 years of experience? Well … we don’t really need TEN years, but we do need diverse and extensive experience in the real world (ideally, “vendor + enterprise/government + consultant”, but “pick any 2 of those” works as well, with enterprise/government security architect being the preferred background)
Do we really need a college degree (advanced or bachelor)? Frankly, no. We have people already working on the team without such, and they are great. Still, if you have a PhD, this is great as well. In any case, many people with advanced degrees working in security have them in areas other than security [like, say, me]
What is the salary? Naturally, I cannot tell you, and frankly I don’t even know what exactly we offer to start. However, some candidates reported that they think we pay too low. OK, I admit that we definitely pay LESS than what you can earn at a large security vendor with the skills / experience we ask for, and possibly less than what you may earn at a good security start-up. We like to think that we pay more than a security architect will earn at an end – user organization. However, we offer work from home, a humane travel policy, no-surprise / predictable travel a few times a year, low stress (we have few job emergencies!) and enough freedom to pick your projects and topics. This DOES matter!
Is this a technical role? Well, it is a role for a technologist, a person who was recently hands-on and/or has a deep understanding of how security technologies work inside the box. However, Gartner does not really do lab product testing (you are welcome to have a home lab, of course, and some security analysts do) so there is a risk of losing some of the cutting edge technical hands-on skills. Ideally, you should be able to retain them (mostly) via ongoing conversations with “people who do stuff” (as opposed to “just talk about stuff”), but it may be challenging for some…

Now, let me share some Anton’s super-secret interview tips (learned by our team from the experiences interviewing many candidates in the last 7 years or so) – ignore them at your peril!

When preparing for a group interview [a second stage in our interview process], you will be asked to write a mini-paper and then defend it. By god, pick a topic you know really well. I feel stupid even saying this, but some candidates sunk since they picked the topic “they wanted to explore.” Hell no! Put your BEST foot forward!
When writing a mini-paper, re-read the text for clear and logical structure and potential value for the readers. If you need to rant, get a blog. Think of this as a mini-research paper, not a mini-vendor whitepaper – your point is to help, not to sell.
Now, an actual super-secret tip: the key to success at our group interview is to be firm-but-not-defensive-or-too-pushy, and let me tell you this is really hard for many. However, if you are TOO FIRM (“NO! You guys are just wrong!”) or TOO SOFT (“Yeah … perhaps this is also OK.”), you will not be hired. This is important!!
To expand further on this, pick a position and be ready to defend it with facts and materials in hand. As one of our freshly hired team members said “don’t get wishy-washy during the group interview”
Finally, behave professionally during the interview! And… eh…one more tip: for fs sake, don’t ask “how many more twitter followers will get if I join?”