appointments-uk

Off Topic New Year Thoughts.....

2012-01-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

Can I wish you all a Happy New Year when it gets to 12 January? I recall last year someone wished me good luck for the new year in February which seemed a bit excessive. It reminds me of those annoying salespeople - no, not like us recruiters, surely such a thought didn't cross your mind - who when they call you before Wednesday ask how your weekend was and after Wednesday ask you what you have planned for the following weekend.

So how has 2012 been so far? My first Client presentation of the year didn't go so well. Suffice to say that if children have access to your ipad please be aware that in the 'Smurf Village' application a notification can appear at any time telling you that your crops are ready for harvest. At least I can guarantee I made an impression and they will always recall my presentation, even if the memory is accompanied by hysterical laughter....

Over the Christmas period I did finally discover the genius that is Jack Handey. If you haven't read his humour I would certainly suggest a look and the following still makes me laugh out loud: 'To me clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kinda scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my Dad'.

Back to work matters in my next blog but for now I leave you with one of my favourite songs from the legend who incredibly turned 65 this week.

Christmas Networking

2011-12-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

It seems to be accepted wisdom that this time of year isn’t a great time to be looking for a new job as everything is shutting down for the Christmas period.

I have read numerous recruitment articles saying this isn’t the case....great opportunity to get ahead of others...process never stops...etc, etc but I think this is pretty well nonsense. Back in the real world, my view is that once the party season starts most Hiring Managers aren’t interested in too much formal recruitment, especially starting a new process if you aren’t already in the system.

So, off to the bar then for us all and a very Happy Christmas!!!

As you may know, I am never one to argue against a trip to the bar but whilst there I do think this is a good time to actually do some informal networking. I know, I know most of us who are more technical are put off by just the word ‘networking’ and would rather spend Christmas day with Edwina Currie! Maybe I exaggerate a touch....

However, networking in this context is as simple as getting introduced to people from organisations you think could be of interest to you in the future for a five minute chat. No mention of jobs or necessarily even work but just noting a name and making a contact that could be useful in the future.

This contact could be useful in many ways. One of the most simple happens often and occurs when your department receives a job application and people are asked if they know the applicant. If someone has just met you for three minutes at a Christmas party that could be the small edge that leads you to be invited to interview ahead of other applicants (and don't make the mistake of thinking that it is the 'best' people who get to interview stage, pure ability is usually way down the pecking order). Sometimes it is these fine margins that are the difference between securing a great new position and another year of disillusionment.

Of course, when out partying, the most vital thing that you should always be aware of is that if you spot your favourite recruiter in the room their glass should always be refilled....Enjoy (hic)!

Gary Speed

2011-12-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

It has been exactly a week since, in a state of disbelief, I heard of the tragic death of Gary Speed, apparently by hanging, at the age of just 42.

I don’t recall ever being as genuinely upset by the death of somebody I didn’t know personally but I think the real shock with his death is that on the outside it appeared that Gary had every reason to live.

As a huge supporter of the Mighty Leeds United in the early 90’s when I attended most games Gary Speed - then at his peak in our midfield - was one of my real heroes for the way he played the game and, equally as importantly, the exemplary way he behaved off the field. A really special man who was liked and respected by everyone.

RIP Gary Speed (8 September 1969 - 27 November 2011)

The Samaritans can be contacted on: 08457 909090

Overkill.....

2011-11-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

I am staggered by many things, in fact, most things....but nothing bemuses me much more than unnecessary interview processes.

The process which always used to amuse me the most was Kent Police when they recruited forensic analysts. To say it struck me as overkill is a complete understatement - suffice to say they had to hire half the office space in London just to cope with the masses invited for the initial assessment. If successful in this task there were just another three hundred or so stages before a potential offer was made. If you applied by age six you were potentially looking at starting work before retirement age along with the other ‘lucky’ applicants.

I am sure it was a thorough process (to say the very least) and to be fair, they did recruit some outstanding people, but was it really the best way to select candidates for a first role in forensics – or any role for that matter? As you may just have gathered, I think it was way over the top and wasted the time of lots of people.

However, recently I have seen an increase in never-ending processes for more senior people in both forensics and ED, including the dreaded panel interview. Of course, for an important role you need to ensure you have found the person with the skills for the role blah, blah, blah.... but, surely, the key to the whole process is a frank discussion between hiring manager and jobseeker?

A jobseeker wants to work with people who really want to understand what they are all about and how they can contribute to the work that needs to be done. This must mean that the main - and only genuinely significant - interview is a frank conversation between the hiring manager explaining the issues faced and the jobseeker explaining how they will successfully complete the work.

Anything else is purely padding, isn’t it?

Personal Relationships

2011-11-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who has sent their best wishes during my recent little batch of ill health – yes, I know that YOU didn’t but others of a more caring nature did...Never mind and don't feel bad, maybe you could make up for it with a particularly generous Christmas gift?

Back at my desk today demonstrated (yet) again to me THE key aspect of looking for a new role which is the importance of maintaining and developing personal relationships. After way too long I finally caught up with two of my oldest friends in the computer forensics sector and both conversations as well as being hugely pleasurable also opened up considerable opportunities for me as a recruiter.

If you are seriously considering changing jobs the easiest way to do so is by utilising your personal relationships before you even think of doing anything else. Really, it is so obvious but how often have you actually asked your friends in the industry who is recruiting? On Facebook have you made it clear that you are looking for a new role and made public your experience? Just doing these two things will massively increase your chances of securing your new role before your next course of action - calling your favourite recruiter...

So, which personal relationship have you let slip recently and will you call them tomorrow?

Bullying

2011-10-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

After my last dreary post today I intended to be upbeat and positive, but, like the England Cricket Team in India, I have reverted to form and failed miserably. My topic today is bullying.

We all know the real human damage caused by bullying whether in the playground or the workplace. Nobody reading this has ever bullied anyone, right? Or stood by and watched a colleagues life being made a misery as that is the easier option?

I am not naive enough to think that bullying doesn’t exist in most workplaces to some degree but over the last few weeks I have been genuinely sickened by three specific cases in my sectors. There are pages of literature on corporate bullying so I am not going to bore you with amateur psychological/sociological nonsense, but, I think in areas such as those in which I recruit the bullying often takes the form of intellectual harassment.

The specific examples I am thinking of are where people have been made to feel a failure due to not having the knowledge or not being quick enough to pick up concepts/information that comes easier to others. We see clear evidence of this behaviour on professional forums all the time but online it feels a little more removed – how would you feel if you were facing this every day? One example I have in mind is a new graduate who moved to London for her first real forensics job. Within a month this poor girl had her confidence totally destroyed by experienced practitioners who should know much better.

This behaviour is so upsetting – how would you feel if this was your daughter who was trying to adjust to the pressures of the world of work for the first time in a new City and was effectively being laughed at and made to feel stupid on a daily basis?

In areas such as Computer Forensics/Electronic Disclosure some people will very quickly realise that they don’t have the technical/intellectual/investigative ability to be successful and will naturally leave the discipline very quickly. However, if you see someone struggling in your organisation, please think carefully about how you behave towards them as a friendly arm around the shoulder can mean everything to someone feeling isolated. Just on a human level surely we all have a duty of care to help to solve the problem rather than make it worse?

Gaddafi

2011-10-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

A short, off-topic post this evening.

As I see it there is no doubt that Gaddafi committed terrible crimes and there are lots of people who are (probably) understandably delighted to see him dead. On a personal level I really struggle with the media coverage here in the UK celebrating the death - for a variety of reasons it makes me very uneasy.

Autumn

2011-10-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It has been a month since I last blogged and you have missed my incisive, witty, intelligent and informative posts. You don't have to say it out loud, let's just leave it unsaid! As today is my birthday I thought it was time to share some more random words with the world this time about autumn.

The month of my birth is in many ways as unremarkable as a senior member of the Cabinet taking his best friend everywhere with him (apparently David Cameron can't sack Liam Fox because, and I'm not making this up, he has a cat). Talking of politics, I bumped into a friend of mine earlier who told me his wife had just phoned to say she's just gone into labour. He told her it was bloody ridiculous to start a career in politics when they are expecting a baby.

I digress. Here in England the weather on this day is usually quite dull and dreary (please don’t even think of making the connection here) however, it is notable as it is one of the most popular times to change jobs in our sectors.

It is hard to give a concrete answer why the autumn is such a popular time to make a move, but looking back through my records from 2003 the shape of the graph is remarkably similar each year. Immediately after Christmas recruiting levels are very low and this doesn’t really change until March. We then see a steady increase in recruitment through to September and this activity accelerates until late November before declining to a standstill by mid-December.

According to one of my first bosses, the reason for the autumn peak was that people resigned after reflecting on life during the annual summer holiday. Mind you, the same boss who shared this wisdom with me placed a £500 bet on England to win Euro 2008 the day Steve McLaren was appointed England Manager! OK, so I think we can conclude my old boss is not exactly Nostradamus for the 21st Century but there is probably some truth in his thoughts. I think it is also because appointments need to be pushed through before the party season begins in mid-December.

This autumn has been especially busy, particularly on the ED side where demand far exceeds supply at this time which means that some very attractive salaries are currently on offer to help persuade professionals to make a move. If you are pondering new opportunities this is as good a time as any to make that call to your favourite recruiter!

As it is my birthday I am feeling a little self-indulgent so will leave you with one of my favourite songs of all time by the incredible Nick Drake. Enjoy!

Get a Life....

2011-09-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

In her excellent blog a clearly frustrated Libby (a recent CF graduate based in the US) asks the following:

I’ve always been told that after receiving rejection letters, phone calls,etc… that I should contact the company via email or a phone call and ask in a polite manner what I can do to improve my interview performance or what would make me more employable…..so I do this after every rejection. I have only received a reply once offering constructive criticism and advice. Why is this? Why only one reply?

Libby is absolutely right to be annoyed. I always advise people – however senior – to thank the interviewers and ask for any feedback and strongly believe this is the right thing to do when you have invested time and energy in any interview process. Frankly, I find it impossible to believe that anyone is really too busy to spend three minutes typing out a quick reply: do you? Maybe the people ignorant enough not to reply are the same people who bore us to death on twitter about how there isn’t enough time in the day/week/month/year etc, etc...Perhaps a time management course could help although I guess they are much too busy/important for that so maybe just some basic manners could suffice?

In recruitment it is sometimes quite amusing observing how situations/people change. Going back to the often used car salesroom analogy, I appreciate that most people want to just buy a new car, not become best mates with the salesperson at the showroom – and this clearly applies to the recruiter/jobseeker relationship.

However for me it should be different!!! For those who don't know me I am a great guy: incredibly charismatic, witty, intelligent, attractive and look great in a fake leopard skin thong 'posing' on the beach. Therefore, naturally I am incredibly popular (if somewhat deluded) and so most people I know professionally want to be my friend (although not at the beach, surprisingly)....However, hard as it is to believe, some people I have dealt with on a professional basis can be just plain rude when they secure a role and never again have time to take my call. Of course, when they are then looking for a new role again we are best pals in their eyes....But I don't forget. Ok, I don't keep a little black book and a wide selection of voodoo dolls (well, maybe just a few) but often for more experienced people I am asked about their personal characteristics and in discussions with Line Managers their inability to maintain a relationship is always noted.

It is no coincidence that the best and most successful people in my sectors - many of whom I have dealt with for years - make time for all their contacts. I guess this is networking. One Global Head of Investigations I have known for 10 years calls me maybe once a month just for five minutes to catch up on the industry gossip and I know he actively maintains other relationships not directly relevant to his daily job. In terms of our relationship why wouldn't he stay in loose contact as he knows that as a recruiter in his area I often have access to information unavailable elsewhere. It is human nature that whenever he has asked me (or anyone else in his network) a favour I don’t hesitate to make the time to help.

Going back to Libby, I look forward to the day when she is running a successful Team and treats all people – not just those who can help her short-term career - in the correct way. By doing this she will reap all the professional benefits and, more importantly, do the right thing by treating people correctly.

Current Opportunities

2011-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking...In the summer us recruiters spend our time either at major sporting events or ‘posing ‘on beaches in just a thong whilst you are hard at work?

Well, much to the relief of everyone where I live, the latter certainly isn’t true as I am busier than ever working this summer! Due to this, rather than ranting about the wilting Leeds United or delighting you with amusing anecdotes (ahem) I thought I would instead let you know about four of the roles I am actively trying to fill at this time.

By the way, do you know someone who could be interested in a new position at this time? If so, please do ask them to call me on 07789 633926 or email me at: David@appointments-uk.co.uk and I will happily show my appreciation by transferring £500 to your account if the person you recommend is successful in securing a position.

Without further waffle, below are the top four items on my ‘to do’ list:

1, Project Manager Electronic Disclosure Computer Forensics – no sector experience needed
London. To £60k + package

The demand for Electronic Disclosure Project Managers outstrips supply at this time. However, this is a rare opportunity for someone with NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE in the sector – so it is all about Project Management ability.

2, Electronic Disclosure / Computer Forensics Senior Manager

Birmingham. To £70k + package

All the best paying roles are in London right? Wrong!!

Are you currently working in London but want to move back to The Midlands? Call me today (in the strictest confidence) on 07789 633926 to discuss this role.

3, Computer Forensics Technical Specialist

London. To £55k + package

No sales skills or ED needed here as this role is all about technical computer forensics ability. This company want the very best – interested?

4, Electronic Disclosure Consultant

London. To £75k + package

Do you work for Big 4 and hate the culture? Maybe you work for another Consultancy and just want to work for another organisation where you can actually take the lead on major assignments without having to hand the juicy pieces of work to others? Please call me to discuss.

Musings on events

2011-08-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Like you, I have been glued to the coverage of the riots here in the UK these last few days. Also, no doubt like you, I have been appalled by the plight of the innocent people who have either suffered physical injury or who have had their homes and/or livelihoods destroyed. I can't offer any amazing social analysis (no surprises there, huh) but I do increasingly worry about the implications for the future when we have a society seemingly split between those who have opportunity and those who are seemingly left behind without the same opportunities.

Like everyone I know I am alarmed by what is proposed for policing in the UK. I personally know lots of police workers through my work in the computer forensics industry. Almost without exception they have a real passion for their work but over the last few years I genuinely don't recall one who is happy with the way the police force is progressing at this time. I appreciate the necessity of public sector cuts but surely recent events have once again demonstrated the folly in cutting police numbers further?

Where I live in the sleepy coastal town of Brightlingsea in Essex (pictured) we actually have an unmanned police station and I genuinely don't think I have ever seen a police(wo)man in the town. As someone who grew up with the local bobby being a regular face in the community and at my school I find this quite hard to accept - I like to see a police presence on the streets, even here in Brightlingsea.

From a recruitment point of view recent events haven't really affected our work (so far, anyway). I am, however, reminded of the terrible events in July 2005 when terrorists bombed the London Underground. That day, we had an ex-policeman on interview for a forensics role at Control Risks Group who were based very close to where the bomb on the bus was detonated. He arrived maybe twenty minutes after the explosion and although unable to access the offices where the interview was due to take place he spent the rest of the day helping the Met police maintain order around the scene. I have come to expect this hands-on attitude from people I know who work for the police service. Incidentally, he returned a week later and was offered the job.

Moving to less important matters, sadly, my pessimism about the prospects of the Mighty Leeds United is proving well-founded after we were humiliated at Southampton on day one of the new season (thank you to the 4,000 people who texted me about the game - I appreciate it). Still, as the song goes (if you don't know, trust me on this one), we have our 'ups and downs' but as every true Leeds supporter knows we only enjoy the ups so much as we spend most of our time 'enjoying' the downs....

One Small Step

2011-07-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, after years of moaning about something that really annoys me I have taken positive action! Avid readers of this blog (Hi Mum) will no doubt recall verbatim my post about F3 (https://www.f3.org.uk) in November last year:

http://appointments-uk.blogspot.com/2010/11/not-welcome.html

For those who can't be bothered to read the link (understandably - I struggle to read my turgid prose too) I essentially moaned how F3 is happy to take my money for advertising in their brochure every year and yet I am not allowed to attend the conference as I am just a pesky recruiter and not a practitioner. Ok, maybe I sweat the small stuff too much but I have bored colleagues for years about this as I think that in the eight years or so I have worked in this sector I should be seen as a part of the community. Oh dear, do I sound like the guy who was neglected by his father aged five and has inclusiveness issues?

Anyway, no more! This year I thought it was time to stick to my principles and not advertise in the brochure for a conference where I am not welcome! Finally, I have made a stand!

Gosh, I feel so proud - whatever next? Finally become vegetarian? Refuse to spend thousands a year watching the Mighty Leeds United live due to the lack of ambition on the pitch displayed by Chairman Bates? Tell my friend 'pretentious Steve' to stick his kind offer of his house inThailand for Christmas?

Hmmmm, I think one small step at a time....

Actions & Consequences

2011-07-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Poker players nearly always lie: it is the essence of the game.

At the Bellagio late one night I was playing at a table with a wise old Vegas local I know well and who is a preacher at his local church. I asked him how he could justify the lies, even in a game. He looked at me, sighed deeply and said slowly with a mischievous glint in his eye, ‘Always tell the truth son, even if you have to make it up’....

Away from the poker table we all lie sometimes, don’t we? However insignificant the lie may appear and however noble the reasons for doing so, is it always wrong ?

Just this week I got caught out telling a small fib: well, in reality it wasn’t even telling a lie, it was just not clarifying a situation which then gave the perception that I was not telling the truth. Friends and business colleagues know that the very essence of my work is integrity and without it I have no credibility, especially in my sectors. However, perception is reality - especially for people who don’t know you well – and due to my omission it looks like I am going to lose a potentially important friendship.

For jobseekers the parallels are obvious as numerous studies have shown that the primary job seeking tool – the CV - usually fails to reflect the whole truth. When I am specifically asked about lying on CV’s my advice is always to exaggerate the positives but never lie. In an area such as Computer Forensics you usually will be checked out fully by potential employers (even if the role doesn’t require SC vetting or similar) and if there are any discrepancies the job offer will be withdrawn.

If you think that in reality this never happens then think again. I have personally seen this occur maybe twenty times in the last ten years and the situation is exacerbated further by the offer usually being withdrawn after the jobseeker has already resigned from their current role. Three of the most recent examples of offers being withdrawn are as follows:

The CV stated that the jobseeker had obtained A’level grades (eight years ago) of BBB. The reality was BCB. The A’level grades weren’t necessary for the role but it was just the lie that lead to the offer being withdrawn.
The jobseeker altered dates to show that they had worked for an employer for an extra three months when in reality they had resigned and been unemployed. Like the previous example, the period in question was a few years ago and would have had no effect on them being offered a position.
The most recent case was a little more extreme. The jobseeker had been sacked from a position and when asked for a reference contact actually supplied the details of a friend who had never worked at the company. Unsurprisingly in such a tight sector as forensics, this did not prove to be a successful strategy!

In summary the situation is exactly the same for jobseekers as in the rest of life. If you do choose to lie (or omit key information) go ahead....but be very aware of the consequences of following this course of action.

The System Is Broken

2011-06-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

There are some great blogs written by forensics professionals out there at the moment. Two of my favourites are the amusing accounts of forensic life written by two law enforcement forensic guys here in the UK:

http://faintingchicken.wordpress.com
http://happyasamonkey.wordpress.com

I love their often irreverent and always interesting twitter posts too so do follow them at: @happyasamonkey and @faintingchicken.

The Chicken, in his recent eggscelent (sorry) post, really lays (oops) out in clear terms the ridiculous position he is currently facing with the A19 procedure. I don't know chicken personally - or even his name so I have no personal axe to grind - but it seems but he effectively has to re-apply for his job. However, due to 'the system' he is way down the pecking order (no more, I promise). How ludicrous! All the training, development and experience he has gained is just let go and the money then needs to be spent on training somebody else.

I often advise people new to forensics to work in law enforcement for a couple of years to gain experience before moving on as 'the system' makes it almost impossible to be promoted to Manager level. However, many when they get there stay in law enforcement as they love the work, enjoy working closely with like-minded, talented colleagues and have a genuine commitment to public service. I especially find this at the Met. However, many others who are ambitious for career progression just walk away with incredible experience and skills to another employer as 'the system' means they have no other option.

Surely the system is broken?

English summer

There is nothing much worse that being stuck in the UK whilst the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) continues in Vegas. I have been at the WSOP for the last two years and it is amazing. Every day sees somebody else land a huge payday - life changing in many cases. When not in Vegas I follow the action via twitter, live-streaming, reporting and via friends who are in town but it just isn't the same.

A trip to the WSOP usually keeps me alive in the gap between the football and rugby seasons. Mind you, with the inactivity at the Mighty Leeds United this summer and the bewildering departure of three of our top players (hmmm, is all relative) I am not sure that this coming season will be any less than a disaster.

In terms of summer sport here in the UK, Wimbledon isn't really my thing and the cricket series agains Sri Lanka was less than inspiring. I am, however, going to pop along for a few days of the India Test Matches as I love the atmosphere generated by the absolutely fanatical Indian supporters - they are amazing! If you are going to any of the games do let me know and I will kindly let you buy me a beer or three....

Recruiter Briefing Hell

2011-06-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

After a few days in France it is always a relief to revert to good old British hand-shaking rather than the endless stream of kissing. However, my joy at this was short-lived as I knew I had been roped in to attend my least favourite thing in the entire world: a recruiter briefing. Trust me, these events make major root canal work look appealing...

I usually avoid these things like the plague. It starts at reception when you notice the other recruiters all milling around with bundles of files (why: what is in the files?), Ipads and laptops. We are then herded like sheep into a room to be briefed on the organisation and their recruitment needs. Straight away this makes you feel very special as you are one of thirty or so all working on the same roles. I mean, which Clients do you think recruiters will really spend the most time with – those who make an effort to see them on a one to one basis or those where you are one of many?

At this stage I give myself a little pep talk about how I must try to concentrate. Then it starts with a surprisingly brief HR summary before the introduction of one of the Hiring Managers.

After about three minutes I am reminded of the Oscar Wilde quote, ‘I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a word I am saying.’ After a while the will to live has left me and I drift off into an almost hypnotic state punctuated with nodding randomly as the stream of clichés drift over me. Maybe I should have stabbed myself with a pen to gain his attention? Rather than taking notes it seems I had sketched voodoo dolls and a noose...

Finally, just as I am taking the laces out of my shoes and looking for beams the monologue was over and questions were invited.

At this stage I do wake up as it is the best part of the proceedings! So many recruiters love to talk and ask irrelevant questions – maybe they have a list of stupid questions in their files? You know that course you attended that had run over and when the instructor asked for questions you all kept quiet as you just wanted to leave - but one person didn’t get it and kept raising inane points? Well, a recruiter briefing is like this but much, much worse.

At first the Hiring Manager and HR happily answer all questions but after twenty minutes or so even they are looking bored by the tedium and pure irrelevance of the questions. They exchange bemused glances on more than one occasion. I actually cringe for one recruiter who asks eight questions very loudly and appears to laugh at the end of each sentence for no apparent reason. Finally, after an hour of questions we are invited to drink warm white wine and sample a few dodgy sandwiches as we ‘network informally’ with other members of the Team. The recruiters surge forward to ingratiate themselves and ask more questions.

I slink out of the side door in search of real people living on the same planet as me.....

Weekend in France

2011-06-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

I am writing this blog in the departure lounge awaiting my flight to Paris. Some exciting work followed by a long weekend in France celebrating the 40^th of one of my oldest and best friends - can't wait!

I have spent some great times in France, especially sailing in Brittany. When me and JP were actively campaigning our Laser 5000 (pictured) on the European Circuit a few years ago our trips to La Baule and Lorient (both wonderful sailing locations in Brittany) were incredible. Big waves, great sailing, amazing food, superb parties and fun people...

However, the last time I was in Paris was twenty years ago as part of my 14 months travelling before University. Me and my pal Bupa had hitch-hiked to Paris from Amsterdam - including spending a very unpleasant, damp night in a shop doorway in Belgium – before arriving in Paris. We were on such a shoestring budget we actually slept in Charles de Gaulle airport every night for a week before heading into Paris during the day until one evening the local police suggested we leave. We ended up spending a very uncomfortable night in sleeping bags within the Gare du Nord before heading off for Munich the next day. I had planned to spend the winter in the ski resorts of Germany until the Berlin Wall came down a month or two later and I headed straight to Berlin to spend a superb couple of weeks celebrating the incredible events unfolding before our eyes.

On this occasion I am in Paris as part of a major search assignment for one of our best Clients who is looking for senior eDisclosure professionals. In this pretty tough market nearly all my personal recruiting seems to be in the eDisclosure area at this time, with particular demand for experienced Project Managers and Senior Consultants.

In fact, it has been a few months since I was asked to recruit for a pure forensics role. Is this going to be the case in the future I wonder? On twitter this week, one experienced HTCU forensics professional was shocked that we are so quiet on the forensics side as he thought that people from the public sector would be in the market seeking opportunities. My response was to ask where these people would go? Big Four or similar in an eDisclosure role? Bank or other major corporate as part of their IR, security or investigation Teams? Are there realistically many positions available for people with these skills at this time?

Forensic 4Cast Awards

By now most of you will have heard who has won these awards. I was especially pleased to hear that Eric Huber won the best blog prize for his excellent blog ‘A Fist full of Dongles.’ If you aren’t a regular reader I suggest you take a look as it is always an entertaining read from a guy who really knows his material:

http://www.ericjhuber.com

Interview with Angus Marshall

2011-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

In this blog I am delighted to publish an interview with Angus Marshall.

I first met Angus a number of years ago when he was inspiring large numbers of students through running the digital forensics course at Teesside University. Nowadays, although still involved in academia, Angus is active in a wide range of work within the digital evidence/forensic computing sector including representing the Forensic Science Society on the Forensic Science Regulator's digital evidence advisory group.

This broad mix of experience gives Angus a unique perspective as you can see from his answers below:

1, How did you become involved in the digital forensics sector?

Almost by accident. About 10 years ago I was a lecturer at the Centre for Internet Computing in Scarborough and also managed the network for staff machines & our labs. One day someone spotted that all the campus bandwidth was being used by one of our Linux servers. I spent some time analysing that and my then girlfriend (now wife) suggested that I should write it up for the Forensic Science Society. After I presented the paper, on some theories about malware & incident analysis, Pat Wiltshire (forensic palynologist) suggested I should contact the old National Crime Faculty to become an expert on their register. A couple of months after that process was complete, I found myself working on a missing person case that soon turned out to be a murder.

I'd had an interest in forensic computing for a while before that happened, but it was always difficult to convince my employers to let me run a course. Fortunately, the success with the casework at Scarborough allowed me to at least put some forensic content into a final year module on the Internet Computing degree. It wasn't perfect, but it gave some insights into how to handle evidence.

2, Do you think students looking to move into this area are better taking a broader IT degree or a more specialised forensics course?

That's a very difficult one to answer. My own first degree was in Computer Studies & Microsystems and I still find myself falling back on principles that I learnt in the 80s. Of course, it's not enough to be just technically competent - you need to know something about applicable law, general forensic & crime scene science and a lot about how to write clearly & concisely.

There's a lot to be said for having a good general computing BSc followed by one of the specialist MSc courses, but there are some very good BSc programmes out there too. I think the key is to find one which combines the technical with the investigative & legal aspects properly - has them running as themes through the whole programme, rather than a course where the "forensic" element is almost bolted on as an afterthought through one or two modules added for marketability.

3, Course accreditation vs competence. Your thoughts?

Ouch! Well - since I've just finished a project with the Forensic Science Society to create their component standards (working with practitioners and academics) for accreditation of academic courses, I have to say that course accreditation is a good thing. I think it gives employers and students an assurance that an independent assessment has been made of the content, and that means that good students should be competent when they graduate. The scheme has been running for a few years now in the "conventional" forensic sciences and I know that employers particularly find it useful.

The problem is, of course, that not everyone in the industry will go through an accredited course and that skills in our area change rapidly - we're up against the ingenuity of other human beings after all. So I see an independent certification of competence as an important element too. This is something that the work on regulation & standards is turning into a requirement.

I think we need an independent body which can periodically test practitioners and give a certification of competence in particular skills which are relevant to them and the enquiries they deal with. That would also allow for new skills to be developed and shown to be fit for purpose. Quite how we achieve that, I'm not sure - but I have some ideas and am working with some partners to put together a project which should go a long way towards providing such an independent certification.

4, Why did you leave the world of academia ?

That's a complicated one to answer. Part of it came from increasing frustration caused by constant pressure on the HE sector to do more and more with less and less. It was becoming impossible for me to continue to carry out research and casework alongside managing some very successful courses. It wasn't a decision taken lightly - it took over 12 months before I finally made the leap and I still miss the contact with students and colleagues. Fortunately, I'm not completely out of academia yet. I still deliver a distance-learning module for Ulster, am a visiting lecturer at De Montfort (where some very exciting things are happening) and external examiner for the OU as well.

5, As a recruiter, I talk to a lot of people in the sector who are experiencing very difficult times. What is your view on the current state of digital forensics?

Times are hard. The austerity measures put in place to deal with deficits has meant that a lot of casework is no longer being outsourced. I think that only the best and the highly specialised are likely to survive.

Having said that, we're seeing some interesting developments outside the law-enforcement sector, not least with the launch of new insurance products designed to cover businesses in the event that they need a digital investigation of some sort. To me, that suggests that digital forensics is coming of age and being recognised as an essential part of business incident response planning.

6, I know you recently attended the ISO/IEC SC27 meeting in Singapore. What is your involvement with this?

Well, as some people know, I'm the Forensic Science Society's representative on the Forensic Science Regulator's digital evidence advisory group. As part of activity there, the regulator has an interest in some projects that the ISO Information Security Committee (SC27) is working on which related to digital evidence. Since I have some time to spare, I agreed to represent the UK at the meetings where this work is progress. In October I was in Berlin for my first meeting and then Singapore in April for the second. The main project to date is ISO/IEC 27037,not published yet, which will be a standard for handling of digital evidence from first response through to acquisition & preservation prior to analysis. It aligns quite well with the existing ISO17025 which has been adopted by forensic science laboratories, but clarifies some points and is more applicable to all types of digital evidence, particularly in the context of incident response.

I'm also leading the UK proposals to add 3 new standards to complement 27037. We think we need to complete the set with something on investigative models & processes, analysis of digital evidence and validation of digital evidence methods & tools. The validation problem is a big one and one that some parts of the industry seem to be trying to hide from.

None of this is paid work, by the way, I'm lucky if my expenses are covered - and it's definitely not a holiday - we spend a week sitting in committee rooms from 8-5 every day.

7, Tell me about the other work you are doing now?

I can't tell you about all of it - that's the nature of what we do! For me, though, apart from the casework, the most exciting area is around the three pillars of quality within the standards - proficiency, competence and validation. I've been fortunate enough to be commissioned to visit a few labs. and produce reports on their state with regard to applying for ISO accreditation. Most are very good at what they do, but not so good at keeping evidence of how they achieve their hight quality. It's not much fun being the bearer of bad news, but it's something which we all need to bear in mind as compliance is expected by 2014.

I have a lot of ideas about how we can help the industry solve some of the biggest problems and generally demonstrate their quality to a level which should satisfy even the strictest judge. The end result of that will be a much smoother passage through the post-investigtion phase (court, tribunal, disciplinary hearings etc.).

8, What does the future hold for you?

I thought you had the crystal ball ;) I've given some hints in my answers already, I think maybe I should let the readers see if they can work it out for themselves. I can guarantee, though, that the world will run out of pies before I run out fingers to stick into them.

Whatever it is, it had better be challenging, I hate not having a problem to work on - which probably explains why drive an old Lotus as my everyday car.

n-gate ltd. is going to seize every opportunity that comes our way, and try to make a few for ourselves too. We're always open to new ideas and difficult problems in particular. I think my ideal is for us to become known as "the experts' experts".

Angus Marshall can be contacted in the following ways:

Website: http://www.n-gate.net

Blog: http://marshalla99.wordpress.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/angusmarshall

Email: Angus@n-gate.net

Twitter: @marshalla99

Teesside Digital Forensics Conference

2011-05-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

As readers of this blog will know, I spend a lot of my time at Universities talking to forensics students. I have spoken at Teesside University for the last four years and for the last two years, my company has awarded a cash prize for the best presentation at the annual Teesside Digital Forensics Conference. This year, the quality of presentations was exceptionally high but the prize for best presentation was won by Louise Purvis who has kindly written a summary of the event and her presentation below:

"The Teesside Digital Forensics Conference (TDFCon) is an event organised and run by final year Digital Forensics and Forensic Computing students at Teesside University. The students are responsible for the full organisation of the event, from arranging catering and inviting guests, to creating contingency plans for the day of the event! In addition to the organisation, students are also required to prepare and present papers, which must last approx. 45 minutes.

As secretary of the conference, I was very involved with the organisation stages, so when the event received such good feedback from the guests and our course leader it was very pleasing to see many months of hard work and organisation go to plan, especially as it was the last assessment of our final year, and therefore marked the end of our time here at Teesside University.

We were also incredibly grateful to the guests, who ranged from representatives from HMRC, Trading Standards, Northumbria Police and Teesside Uni. staff and Graduates, who took the time to attend and offer advice and support to the students. We are obviously also very grateful to David Sullivan for providing the prize for the best presentation.

My presentation was based on my final year project “Online Vulnerability: Identifying Characteristics for Victim Profiling”. It aimed to identify what it is about a victim that makes them an attractive target to criminals, and what vulnerable areas are preyed upon. I chose this area after speaking to Arron Martin Zeus Brown, my course leader, as I wanted a project that mattered, and could in the future, potentially make a difference. There is a noticeable gap in literature in this area, in that much research addresses cybercriminal profiling, but very little is currently available about the victims of cybercrimes.

After conducting a thorough literature review, the 17 characteristics identified which contributed to vulnerability levels were grouped into four specific categories, namely: Biological, such as gender and age; Psychological, such as human emotions and desires, trust, and impulse; Situational, such as environment, exposure to risk and time spent online, and finally Social, such as lifestyle, education, experience and employment. All of the aforementioned areas were believed to hold some influence over levels of vulnerability online, as they all contribute to victimization.

My presentation aimed to raise awareness of these areas, as many of them such as trust, are carried out at a subconscious level by an internet user on a daily basis, without fully considering the implications and the risks. Educating users as to what it is that makes them attractive targets online, as opposed to what the risks are and instructing them what (not) to do online, could be a useful aide against preventing cybercrime. Those who are aware of such vulnerable behaviours may alter their online activity/behaviour in such a way that they could minimise the risk of being targeted and subsequently becoming a victim.

Winning ‘best presentation’ of the conference came as a complete shock and was totally unexpected, as there were so many good presentations over the two days. I was just pleased the guests and other students found my presentation interesting, and hopefully took on board the message I was trying to purvey"

Contact Louise

I should add that Louise is actively seeking employment in the field. For more details about Louise take a look at her Linkedin Profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/louise-purvis/20/536/7a or email Louise directly at: louisejpurvis@gmail.com.

Meaning Of Life

2011-05-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

My pal ‘Little Tim’ (he is 6’5 – obviously) always relates everything back to the deeper meaning of life. He could listen to the Romanian entry at Eurovision and see some deep, hidden meaning behind the lyrics providing a vital lesson to be learnt – a bit like the worst of those dreadful corporate trainers who constantly drone on about ‘learning opportunities’.

Personally, I sway towards the view that seeing depth in Eurovision misses a real ‘laughing opportunity’ and as for the meaning of life, I tend to agree with Charles Schulz when he had his Eureka! moment: ‘I think I’ve discovered the meaning of life – you just hang around until you get used to it’. Quite...

That said, I have been pondering a few of the deeper questions this week – only briefly I hasten to add – mainly as I have spent most of the last seven days speaking with a seemingly endless stream of unhappy people. Especially within the computer forensics sector, things seem really tough right now across the board. In the public sector forensics professionals appear to be under tremendous pressure to hit ever increasing targets with no spare money to be spent on personal development. In the private sector a number of people I have spoken to are seriously worried about losing their jobs this year. Moreover, if they do lose their jobs where can they go next as demand appears to have slowed considerably?

This is actually a point that I have discussed with numerous people this week. I would suggest it isn’t so bad if you are more junior as there are still likely to be some potential positions. However, if you are an experienced mid-career forensics analyst earning say, £45k, what opportunities are really open to you? Unless you move to one of the rare management roles, where do you go from here? Do you need to diversify into a wider Information Security role? A broader Incident response role? Or will positions arise as the sector continues to evolve?

I don’t have the answers but I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts.

Stating The Obvious

2011-05-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

You may find this hard to believe, but there are some incredibly bright and outstanding people working in recruitment who are pushing all the boundaries. Truly amazing, inspirational people. On the other hand, I wonder how some recruiters expect to be taken seriously.

Some of the advice that is passed on in articles and blogs is often so staggeringly obvious you do wonder why they bothered writing them in the first place. Obviously, other recruiters write with great depth and insight – ahem!! – or so I hear anyway....

I thought of this today having just read a really tedious blog post about not bad-mouthing your current employer as it makes you appear unprofessional at interview. No kidding. Tell me, do you think there is really anyone out there in our sector who would seriously slate a previous employer? I wonder what the next blog in this instalment will be about – the importance of chewing when you put food in your mouth? Or maybe a quick guide to washing your hands....the mind boggles!!

Maybe, like many recruiters, the writer just has too much spare time? Mind you, in direct contrast, I saw a great article a couple of weeks ago from Mervyn Dinner of Jobsite about people who are always talking about how busy they are on twitter:

http://mervyndinnen.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/the-busy-brigade

Does that remind you of anyone??! I can certainly think of one or two.....

Anyway, I digress... maybe recruiters were put on this earth to state the obvious? In that spirit, the David Sullivan Obvious Tip for today is this:

Always post your job title on your LinkedIn/ Facebook and Twitter accounts

Obvious, right? I thought so too but apparently not. I do appreciate that some people in our sectors don’t like to share too much information for security reasons (except, maybe, how busy they are of course), but it is interesting to see the number of specialists in the forensics / electronic disclosure space who contact me about finding a new role and yet they fail to have this information readily displayed on their social media profiles.

As a jobseeker in 2011, it really is vital to make it easy for people to find you (hmmm, I reckon that comfortably qualifies for obvious tip number two)! Increasingly, I would suggest that Facebook is key to your jobsearch strategy and yet it is amazingly underused for this purpose. For more information about utilising this tool correctly, have a look at a blog post I wrote a couple of months ago which can be found here.

In my next blog post – which hopefully won’t be quite as rambling and unfocussed – I expect to be announcing some very exciting news. Ok, when I say very exciting, maybe mildly of interest to one or two people is a better phrase. Either way, watch this space....

Forensic 4cast Awards

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to cast your vote for the 2011 Forensic 4cast Awards:

http://www.forensic4cast.com/forensic-4cast-awards

The results will be announced at the 2011 Sans Forensic Summit in Austin.

Covering All Bases

2011-05-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is all about covering all bases: combining the best of the old, traditional thinking with new techniques and ideas. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the exciting, high-octane, rock 'n' roll world of the Liberal Democrats (for example, if you haven't seen it, look at Lembit Opik's brief but excruciating Citizen Smith influenced video)....or in recruitment.

I will try to demonstrate this by referencing an interesting thread on Forensic Focus this last week or so where a forensics undergraduate is looking for an industrial placement. The link is here.

Speaking to computer forensic undergraduates at Universities, it is clear that whereas some Universities offer outstanding guidance on this subject, other students still have no guidance at all. Due to this clear knowledge gap, I wrote an article last year exploring the techniques needed to find an industrial placement which can be found here.

In response to the thread, the Forensic Focus community has been very generous with advice and offered some really useful information (although some points, as usual, would arguably only have been useful before 1964). A couple of salient points really struck me from the discussion:

1, The ‘best’ jobs/placements don’t go the the ‘best’ people.

Of course, the really talented students tend to get snapped up pretty quickly by major organisations. However, in my view, despite the surplus of graduates for the limited jobs available in the area, students should be able to secure a placement/role if they are thorough and professional in their approach to jobseeking. Why? In my view, quite simply, most jobseekers are so haphazard in their approach to finding a role that if you are thorough and persistent this gives you a massive advantage. This is even more apparent at graduate level.

I won’t go through all the basics again, but I am constantly amazed when graduate jobseekers only approach a handful of companies. Surely, it is just common sense to ensure you cover every single organisation with a forensics presence in the UK? It is then all about contacting the correct person in the right way – i.e., calling/sending an excellent CV to the most senior person you can find in any company. In 2011 with all the information publically available, it isn't difficult to locate organisations and people operating in the sector.

This isn’t just a problem at graduate level. If you think you are an exceptional candidate to work at a company why would you just email your CV to an HR person along with all the other applicants? Does this demonstrate your qualities for the position above others? Surely, the key is to take control and speak to the Hiring Manager to stand out from the crowd or if the role is via a recruiter ensure at the very least you meet the recruiter so that they are able to represent you in the best possible manner?

2, Social Media

Even in niche areas like computer forensics/electronic disclosure every aspect of finding a new job is changing. If you think I am exaggerating the massive changes occurring, take a look at some of the companies at the leading edge of developments in this area such as http://www.bravenewtalent.com.

Some people in my sectors certainly 'get it' but most jobseekers – whether active or passive – just aren’t utilising social media anywhere near enough. Being lucky enough to see a job advert for a dream role on some job board/forum is fantastic. However, how many times has one of your peers secured a role that you had no idea even existed? How do you they gain access to these roles? The answer, as usual, is surprisingly simple. Recruiters – whether working directly for an organisation or external (like me) - increasingly use social media to find people with the skills/experience needed by employers. Make yourself easy to find!

When all the superfluous is stripped away, the basic rule in looking for a new role is to make it clear to your target audience that you are potentially interested in opportunities. If you are actively looking for a new role at this time, are you covering the 'old skool' basics thoroughly whilst also utilising new the opportunities presented by social media?

Sometimes, it is all about salary...

2011-04-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

In reality, it is often all about salary, isn’t it?

For all our talk about culture, professional challenge and other factors most of us need to earn a certain amount of money to feed our families, crack habits etc.

There was an interesting job advert thread on Forensic Focus recently. The original advert is for a pure forensics role working for the Met Police in SE London paying about £40k (with allowances).

Some people on the forum, along with others I have discussed it with since – and whose opinions I respect - feel that this salary is way too low for the skills/experience required. I find it hard to agree. During the last two years, unless it has been a Team Leader role I certainly can’t recall any pure forensics roles in the private or public sector paying much more than this salary, with the exception of the odd financial institution.

When I speak to computer forensics professionals I sometimes think there is a lack of realism on the question of salary. In the current market here in the UK, my experience is that salaries for computer forensics professionals are facing pretty strong downward pressures. For example, I know one excellent analyst with over five years law enforcement experience combined with three years in the private sector who moved to another private sector company just this month for £38k. Two years ago I reckon he could have been looking at a basic salary £8k-£10k higher.

What do you need to do if you really need to significantly increase your salary?

Well, if this is how you feel then the options are quite simple – get promoted to a management role (easy huh!) or go and work in Electronic Disclosure where the salaries are considerably higher. However, before you do either of these things, stop and think whether this is really what you want? For example, if you talk to somebody about the reality of daily life as an ED Manager at Big Four as opposed to a pure forensics role at the Met Police I imagine you will hear that both the salary and career development is excellent, but the quality of work...well, it is certainly very different to a pure forensics role working for the Met Police....

I guess I am also a little bias as I have a really soft spot for the Met Police. We have recruited for them in the past and almost every person I have met who works in their forensics team at Newlands Park has struck me as a thoroughly committed person doing an excellent job under difficult circumstances. Moreover, the forensics professionals I speak to at the Met tend to love the work they do, manage to obtain excellent developmental training and speak very highly about the competency of their colleagues. I reckon it sounds a pretty good place to work, don’t you?

However, as I said at the start of this blog, sometimes it really is all about salary. Isn’t it?

Libby Baugher

When I speak to new graduates looking for their first position in the area I always advise them to start a blog to differentiate themselves and to showcase what they have to offer potential employers. Libby Baugher graduated from Champlain College in 2010 with a degree in Computer Forensics and Digital Investigations and she has just started to write a very personal blog which is an excellent read. Catch up with Libby's progress here:

http://computerforensicgraduate.wordpress.com

Under The Weather

2011-04-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

Like me, do you suffer from sea sickness?

It has been said that when you are sea sick for the first hour you think you are going to die and for the rest of the time you wish you had died! I remember a sailing race from Portsmouth to Cherbourg a few years ago when I was terribly sea sick and until this week that was the longest, most unpleasant time I can remember. Well, along with a number of Nick Clegg speeches of course....

However, this week my flight home from Las Vegas was ten thousand times worse. All I will say is that a ten hour flight when suffering from severe food posioning is no fun either for you or for others on the plane. Since arriving home I have even felt too unwell to work until this morning - which is most unlike me.

I will return to work-based blogs next week, but for now will conclude with a modern take on the old slogan that should be remembered by all visitors to Sin City:

'What happens in Vegas stays....on Facebook'.

Trust

2011-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Events this week have made me reflect on the relationship of trust between a recruiter and jobseeker.

When I started in recruitment my manager made it clear to me that I was not able to tell a jobseeker the name of the company we were recruiting for as it would be easy for them to then just contact the company directly. I always felt pretty uncomfortable – and a little ridiculous – following this policy and would tell somebody, for example, that the recruiting organisation was a ‘large bank near Liverpool Street’.

Forward-wind to 2011 and I am always 100% transparent about the name of the recruiting organisation. Frankly, it is nonsense not to be as it is just as important to talk about cultural fit with any jobseeker before they commit to spending time attending an interview. I certainly wouldn’t want a recruiter to represent me at an unknown organisation.

This week I spoke to a jobseeker about a new opportunity at company ‘x’. The jobseeker knew somebody who worked at ‘company x’ but he wasn’t aware that they were recruiting at this time. I then sent the jobseeker a full job description ahead of our discussion about the role and the next day they emailed to inform me that they had been contacted by ‘company x’ and invited to interview. Ok, this could just be coincidence but I have my doubts.

I spend a lot of my time giving free advice on all aspects of recruitment in my sectors and am happy to do so as this builds long-term relationships. However, as a recruiter the situation described above is just plain annoying as we make our living by finding people jobs. At least in this particular scenario it isn’t as bad as the other two cases I have experienced in my recruitment career where the jobseeker had no knowledge of the recruiting company and just sent them their CV after speaking to me!

The relationship between recruiter and some jobseekers is often a loose and transient one as not every jobseeker is interested in building a relationship with the recruiter. It can be seen by some like a trip to a car showroom where the buyer just wants to buy a car and not become godfather to the children of the car salesperson! Of course, I understand this view but even in the short-term the relationship can only work with trust on both sides.

Moving on.....

As readers of this blog will know I have supported Leeds United all my life. This week was the eleventh anniversary of the tragic deaths of two Leeds supporters, Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight, who were stabbed in Turkey on 5 April 2000 ahead of the UEFA Cup semi-final against Galatasaray. The fact it is the anniversary makes me even more bewildered to hear from my friends at the Millwall game today that some home supporters were waving Turkish flags. Unbelievable.

A personal post

2011-04-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Despite being in the most exciting City in the world, Las Vegas, I have had a pretty bad 15 hours or so for a number of reasons. In this more personal blog than usual I thought I would share how I am feeling at this time:

1, A very experienced Computer Forensics professional I have known for many years attended an interview which was a disaster. Although the role was very senior, it transpired that the organisation still required much stronger hands-on knowledge than this person has and so it was a hopeless mismatch all around. Nothing upsets me more as a recruiter than wasting someone’s valuable time and I feel particularly bad as this person is a friend.

2, I expected two job offers today but both were unsuccessful at the final stage. When I broke the news to one chap he was devastated. I think that sometimes we forget the emotional commitment a jobseeker puts into finding a new role and to be turned down late in the process from a job you really want can be heartbreaking.

3, I can’t make contact with a line-manager who has interviewed three jobseekers in the last ten days or so. Following on from the point above, I struggle with this aspect of recruitment as jobseekers are naturally anxious for feedback following an interview and surely a Line Manager has a duty to provide that information asap. This makes us recruiters look pretty inefficient and more importantly, leaves the jobseeker completely in the dark.

4, On a more personal level, eighteen years ago this week my best friend at University, Nik Lynch, was killed whilst travelling in Brazil. We met via the University Sailing Club and had travelled all over the country to sailing regattas enjoying some of the best times of my life. Nik was always the life and soul of the party.

In April 1993 he was visiting Manaus, in the heart of the beautiful Amazon rainforest. Having spent a perfect day swimming in the river and having fun with friends, later that evening he and two others went for drinks at a local bar. They were walking back to their hotel when they got caught in gunfire between armed robbers and security guards and Nik was shot in the head by a stray bullet. He didn’t regain consciousness. Nik Lynch was only 23 when he died. I still think of Nik every day and often wonder what he would have done when I find myself in tricky situations.

Just before writing this blog I saw a moving blog post by Mervyn Dinnen about the very sad death of a multimedia expert, Fraser Maclennan, who carried out the filming at the Unconference I attended last month:

http://mervyndinnen.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/the-precariousness-of-life

The premature deaths of Nik Lynch, Fraser Maclennan and others puts all our business problems in perspective. Mervyn ends his post with the following which pretty well sums up how I feel today:

"Life is precarious, sometimes too fragile to be ignored. If ever I needed a reminder to seize the day and grab every opportunity to enjoy it then this weekend provided it. You never know what will happen next."

New Video / New Article

2011-03-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your comments about my last blog post. This isn't me being sarcastic - there were in fact no public comments - as a number of people contacted me via email/twitter to pass on their views.

I have followed the continuing debate by real experts in the industry such as Eric Huber, Harlan Carvey and others with interest and the discussion has really re-inforced my view that Twitter is where the real community now lies. Whether or not this is true the most important thing, following the article by David Kovar, is that the whole subject is actually being openly debated and I look forward to hearing more thoughts on the topic of community.

I am now almost a week into my trip to the US and this weekend I am looking forward to a break from the bright lights of Vegas to trek in the beautiful Red Rock Canyon (pictured) which is an amazing place. Before I put on my hiking boots and head off into the wilds, I wanted to share my latest article/video which I hope will be of some interest to readers of this blog.

1, New Article

For lovers of cutting-edge, insightful, analytical and thought-provoking work I can only apologise as I can't help you with anything of that nature. However, my new article about the importance of personal branding has now been published on Forensic Focus and can be found via this link:

Personal Branding Article

I really would be grateful for any comments as I think this is a vital area neglected by most jobseekers in the computer forensics/ electronic disclosure spaces.

2,Leeds Metropolitan University Video

As mentioned in a previous blog, I was filmed delivering my guest lecture to computer forensics students at Leeds Metropolitan University earlier this month and the 'highlights' can be seen below. I should point out to anyone who views the video that Leeds Met appear to have suffered technical difficulties as I don't seem to sound like Richard Burton and my boyish (yet rugged) good looks don't seem to have come through as in real life.....

Leeds Metropolitan Video

For once, no comments welcomed!!

Belonging and Community

2011-03-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

I have just read a very interesting blog by David Kovar about fragmentation of the digital forensics community:

http://integriography.wordpress.com

It is a thought-provoking piece on many levels, but the idea of community has always bothered me a little within digital forensics.

With the notable exception of www.forensicfocus, where Jamie actively welcomes newcomers - however ridiculous the questions often are - unless you are an established forensics professional is there even such thing as a community? I have always been quite surprised at the tension between Law Enforcement/Non-Law Enforcement and even today I would argue there is quite a divide. Does the dynamic of this split within the sector mean there will never be a true community?

I wonder if people on the inside realise how tough it is for newcomers to the area to gain any foothold into whatever community does exist. Is it the nature of the business that makes professionals wary of new faces?

Let me illustrate this just by two of my personal experiences of being excluded or at least on the very periphery despite being a relatively high-profile recruiter in the area for the last seven years or so:

I am still unable to attend the F3 Conference (my blog on this ‘Not Welcome’ is here: http://appointments-uk.blogspot.com/2010/11/not-welcome.html);

I am unable to join a number of forums here in the UK such as the very popular and apparently excellent http://www.digital-detective.co.uk – I say apparently as being excluded makes it tricky to form a judgement.

I can think of three pretty good arguments for the exclusions:

The nature of the work that means that some things shouldn’t be open to the wider public with an interest in the area. I am not a computer forensics expert so I don’t know if this is really valid. Is it?
I have nothing to add to the community - well, even my close friends wouldn't argue that I add very little to any conversation!;
Using a recruiter as an example isn’t ideal as I do appreciate that terrible recruiters out there who abuse forums, LinkedIn groups etc.

However, what about undergraduates who want to actively get involved in the community? Or talented professionals in other areas of IT or law who would like to move across into digital forensics but are unable to penetrate the barriers currently blocking their access to parts of the community?

Social media is changing the very concept of privacy and I wonder that if, as time progresses, we will gradually see more openness in the world of digital forensics. Interestingly, talking of social media, since I have been active on Twitter I have become very aware that there is a relatively small, but incredibly knowledgeable and supportive digital forensics community active on that platform. If you aren’t using twitter yet then I suggest you sign up and use the hash tag #DFIR to have a look at what this community is discussing today. Follow me at: @davidsulivan

Well, a cold beer with my name on awaits at the Bellagio poker room so as I disappear off into the Las Vegas evening I would, as always, welcome your comments.

Fabulous Las Vegas

2011-03-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am off to Las Vegas in the morning for three weeks. I wouldn’t say that it is impossible to be bored in Vegas, but I think it was Sinatra who said that the problem with Vegas is there just isn’t much to do between 8am-9am on a Sunday morning...

I am delighted that we do a lot of work with US West Coast Clients as it gives me the chance to base myself in this great City between meetings. I can’t deny that live poker games and banter with drunken tourists 24/7 is attractive, but so is the spring climate, huge variety of food, drinks, bars, shows and people – I love the place and spend a lot of time there. If you tire of the lights and constant activity then a short drive takes you either out into the beautiful mountains where there is fantastic hiking or else to stunning Lake Mead for a spot of sailing or windsurfing.

I always look forward to spending time with one of my best pals out there, Steve, a US recruiter who specialises in sales recruitment. Steve is tremendously successful professionally (let’s not go there on his personal life right now, hey Steve) – invoicing over $1.5M in fees last year - and he puts a lot of this down to the coaching he provides for jobseekers, especially around being aggressive at interview. Don’t worry, he doesn’t condone physical violence – well, except for maybe those really annoying interviewers who were obviously neglected by their parents aged five and delight in catching you out with their superior knowledge. Gosh, how incredibly clever these people are....zzzzzzzzz.....

However, Steve is convinced that jobseekers must raise their aggression levels to be successful. For example, if you are being interviewed for a senior sales role then he suggests a good interviewer is likely to expect you to ‘close’ them at the end of the meeting. Typically, this will involve you as a jobseeker asking a question such as, ‘Now you have met me Mr Client, do you have any concerns about my ability to succeed in this position’.

Assuming the interviewer is happy to play ball, this strategy provides the jobseeker with the opportunity to answer any concerns and to further reinforce reasons why they should be hired. This makes perfect sense as when the interviewer asks you for questions at the end of a meeting when you really want the job then that is the question you really want to ask, isn’t it? Especially when you feel you haven’t quite clicked personally with the Hiring Manager or don’t think you have really portrayed yourself in the most positive light.

However, in more conservative disciplines such as eDisclosure and computer forensics should you be using these techniques? My natural instinct for roles in these areas is not to attempt to close the interviewer as it can be perceived as a little too aggressive. When I said this to Steve he downed his beer, laughed for a good half a minute and asked me if I still listened to music on cassettes as I am so ‘old skool.'

Hmmm, I fear he may have a point. What is your view?

Bad Advice

2011-03-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to start writing a blog after continually reading terrible advice for jobseekers. In the first paragraph of my very first blog post I wrote the following:

‘One of the problems with recruitment is that most people have experienced it in some form and that objectively it is incredibly easy – and it is of course, or rather it should be – but this very simplicity causes a large number of people to 'offer' recruitment advice. The problem is that a lot of this advice although well-intentioned is just incredibly unhelpful to the unsuspecting jobseeker.’

I was reminded of this today after reading an article by ‘Recruiter X’ suggesting that the modern jobseeker should differentiate themselves from the masses by sending a CV by post on high quality paper. How can anyone possibly offer this advice in 2011 when a paper CV is a complete pain for everyone concerned? It will certainly ensure you stand out in the same way as turning up to interview in a fake leopard skin thong, ‘I’m with stupid’ T-shirt and a beret will make you memorable to the interviewer!

Not persuaded and still think a paper CV gives you an edge? Well, why not go a step further and do what one jobseeker did when they posted a CV to me and fill the envelope with confetti. How I laughed whilst on my knees clearing up for twenty minutes. Mind you, the CV did stand out as it was the only one in the bin for a couple of weeks.

Regular readers will know my thoughts on this subject. Your CV is still important if you choose to reply to a jobboard advert and it must be clear and uncluttered like this so that when you are asked to send a CV you can represent yourself in the best light.

However, to actually stand out from people with similar levels of skills/experience it is increasingly all about effective personal branding/self-promotion or whatever else you would like to call it. How well known are you outside your immediate Team? Are you active on forums, relevant LinkedIn groups and Twitter? Do you write a blog or record your thoughts on YouTube? If you are actively looking for a new role are your Facebook settings correctly enabled to show your business details?

If you contact somebody about a potential new role – or even send them a CV - how easy is it for them to search online to find out about you and discover what really sets you apart? How easy is it for them to contact you and have a conversation?

Not convinced? Well, for Christmas an elderly relative bought me some lovely notepaper and envelopes which you are more than welcome to use in your job search. I can also recommend a great article by ‘Recruiter X’....

Back To The Future

2011-03-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I listened to the latest excellent podcast from Lee Whitfield and the guys from Forensic4cast.

Towards the end of the episode they got into a very interesting discussion about whether forensic tools have evolved so much that this may, in fact, negate the need for specialist forensic investigators.

If you haven’t listened yet I suggest you do as they raise some very interesting issues:

http://www.forensic4cast.com/2011/03/episode-35-anonymously-yours

On a related point, I have been pondering whether the steady prevalence of social media will in fact negate the need for recruiters, even in specialist markets such as mine. As with the computer forensic analyst, the decline of the recruiter has been forecast on numerous occasions over the years, probably most recently with the rise of the job board which was going to kill us off for good. As many of you who are contacted regularly by recruiters will know, we are still out there in numbers.

Let me share with you my view of the future.

Advertising is still at the heart of the recruitment industry in 2011 but in a niche area such as Computer Forensics / Electronic Disclosure advertising has always been a bit hit and miss due to the limited size of the target market combined with the fact that the best people – the ones Clients want to hire – are rarely actively looking so aren't reading adverts. As an aside, one of my hates as a recruiter is posting a job on say, Forensic Focus, and then other recruiters post what is clearly the same job a day or so later. Don’t these people realise how silly this looks or do they just not care? The whole advertising of jobs in this area is all very haphazard to my mind and results are usually poor.

I don’t think that recruiters will carry out the actual recruiting in the future as this will lie with the hiring manager (HM). I see the future recruiter as someone who can advise the HM on market conditions and help the HM to use the correct tools for sourcing certain roles, eg, Boolean search techniques on Google/Bing. Think about it – the recruiter always used to have a valuable database but with the growth of social media the value of this database has massively receded. The skill now is finding the best people from the huge social media database available to everyone. Arguably, the only reason the HM doesn’t do this all the time in 2011 is time and habit.

The way recruiters are currently paid is ludicrous. If you don’t know, recruiters are paid a percentage of first year salary by the organisation that hires a jobseeker which leads to significant problems with the treatment of the jobseeker. As recruiters get paid by the hiring organisation, not the jobseeker, this means that the levels of customer service for jobseekers is, well, consistently awful. This could all be changed really easily by allowing recruiters to act as personal agents for individual jobseekers, paid by them rather than the organisations they join. This would mean the recruiter/jobseeker could form a genuine long-term career partnership, based on the same model as sports agents or the people who represent movie stars during their careers.

If the recruiter is still required to carry out a specialist search by a particular organisation, wouldn’t it make sense to invoice for the number of billable hours worked by the recruiter on the specific requirement rather than a random percentage of year one salary? Doing this would mean that recruiters were engaged exclusively by an organisation and this would again lead to a much stronger partnership between recruiter and HM and much more accountability. Everyone would gain from this development of the relationship.

In recruitment there is lots of talk about partnership and the awful cliché ‘adding value’ but this is usually just words. The reality is that once a jobseeker has accepted a role at an organisation the recruiter usually walks away with a fee and there is no ongoing engagement with the hiring organisation or hired jobseeker. This can’t be right?

As always, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Getting Serious About Facebook

2011-03-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

I spoke to forensics students at Leeds Metropolitan University on Friday.

As readers of this blog will know, I spend a lot of time in Leeds watching silky, Brazilian football at Elland Road, but it was my first visit to Leeds Met and I had a great time! The students were keen, the campus was amazing and the two lecturers, Maurice Calvert and Emlyn Butterfield were outstanding – I can only see this course grow in reputation.

The University Marketing Team were also very switched on filming parts of my lecture and then spending a good 45 minutes afterwards interviewing me about my background and what I hoped I had been able to bring to the students via my talk. Overall, I was very impressed.

During the talk, I was again surprised at just how few students utilised social media as part of their job search strategy. Very few had LinkedIn profiles, a twitter account or had considered using Facebook as a serious recruitment tool. As regular readers of this blog will know, I think it is absolutely vital to develop a personal brand via social media. Students have the very best opportunity to do so as their online profile is less developed than those later in their careers and so easy to manipulate.

The attitude towards Facebook always confuses me. The view I usually hear is that Facebook is more about staying in contact with friends and family than a serious business tool. I can't agree. If that is what you think then consider this:

The majority of people who find new jobs - over 50% - find these positions via referral. In some countries this figure is much higher - such as Sweden where it is more like 70% - and in tight communities such as forensics/edisclosure I would suggest that the figure is probably over 70%;
People like to refer people they know;
Facebook is the largest social network available so this is your best chance of getting referrals;

In practical terms, this means that your status must show you are looking for a new role. Update this status fairly regularly (emphasis on the word ‘fairly’) to keep potential referrers up to date with your progress. Although it doesn’t come easy to a lot of us, ask for referrals.

On top of your personal referrals, every organisation that understands the possibilities offered by social media (and even in my markets this is growing daily) has a presence on Facebook. Many recruiters are also searching Facebook on a daily basis looking for people with your skills/experience. Make it easy to be found!

For advice on how to effectively utilise Facebook, I suggest you read the following article from Texas-based Social Recruiting expert Craig Fisher: http://blog.matrixresources.com/blog/how-find-winning-job-facebook

I spent three days with Craig at a conference a few weeks ago and believe me when I say this guy is a true expert on social recruitment strategies. If you only follow one piece of his advice I would suggest it is the following about Facebook apps which will give you a massive edge over your competition:

"You should definitely be using Branchout. This is a Facebook app that utilizes the employer data on your info page to populate a social graph of business connections. It tells you who in your Facebook network you know at which companies. It also gives you the option to import your LinkedIn profile for deeper networking. You should also import your blog posts into your Facebook profile. There are many apps that do this. If you don't already have a blog, you can actually start one by using the notes section of your FB profile. Write about your area of expertise and let your FB friends know you are knowledgeable in your field."

The first rule of job searching is to make people know you are available. Facebook gives you access to a huge number of people. The second rule is to make people like you as we hire people we like. Facebook gives you the opportunity to do this.

If you are serious about your job search I would ask whether you can you afford not to be utilising Facebook as part of your strategy?

Jonathan Krause - A Contractor's Tale

2011-03-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

I am delighted to say that Jonathan Krause (pictured) of http://forensiccontrol.com has kindly written a guest blog which I have published below.

I have known Jonathan for a number of years and always enjoy his company, despite his rather unfortunate passion for Nottingham Forest.

Jonathan is one of the most successful freelancers I know within the computer forensics space and in this blog post he provides a fascinating insight into the reality of his work.

Jonathan always has interesting opinions on all things computer forensics so I would certainly suggest you check out his new blog and, of course, follow him on twitter

A contractor's tale

I’ve been working in computer forensics for the past seven years, the last three of which have been as a contractor/freelancer. The decision to move from permanent employment to running my own affairs was a big one but one I’ve not regretted it all. In IT as whole the role of contactors is well established but in computer forensics for reasons unknown - which I touch on later - is quite unusual in that I’d estimate that there are fewer than thirty of us on the UK market.

The terms contractor and freelancer are interchangeable for me as I consider myself to have a foot in both camps. The difference for me is that a forensic freelancer works on individual projects directly for an end client (usually a law firm or a corporation) while a contractor works for longer periods on behalf of another forensic provider.

The advantages of working this way rather than being employed are many. Being independent is a big one; I decide my terms of business, the design of my website, what time of the day I start, how much to pay myself, whether I would rather spend the day in the park with my family than sit in front of monitor and so on; for me it’s a more ‘civilised’ way of earning a living than working to someone else’s rules. The money? Well, that obviously depends on how much work you get in but the scope is there to earn substantially more than any advertised forensic/e-discovery salary I’ve ever seen. If you’re employed by a corporate, you probably know your hourly/daily charge out rate; are you OK with the fact that you only ever see a fraction of that? I knew I wasn’t.

Unsurprisingly however, it’s not all milk and honey. The entry costs can be formidable – licenses for FTK, EnCase, X-Ways, and a myriad other tools. Then there’s your analysis computer, write blockers, laptop, cables and so on. Software licensing needs to be updated, and unless you’re going to sit on your laurels you need to factor in training and certification costs. When freelancing you’re a one man forensic department so you have to be able to turn your hand to almost any device or situation you may come across. Setting up a limited company and registering for VAT are a must which means you’ll need to pay for an accountant.

Contracting/freelancing isn’t for beginners, you’ll need several years of experience and to be somewhere near the top of your game as no clients will pay for you to learn on the job. You need to be confident in yourself and in your skill set, be able to talk prices, negotiate and bargain. Barren periods are inevitable; how are you fixed to cope financially with all your obligations if the phone doesn’t ring for a couple of months?

And then there’s the small matter of the work.

Once you’ve set yourself up, got yourself a memorable name and put up a nice web site… then what? Where’s the work going to come from? You can try marketing, pay per click advertising but they don’t come cheap .The bottom line is that the main source of work for freelance/contract forensic people is through word-of-mouth, which takes a lot of hard work and getting the right breaks to achieve.

So, it’s tough to get established and there’s an ever-present element of risk but for me the potential rewards and work-life balance have been worth it. As I touched on before, there are a very few people in forensics that have chosen to take this route, which goes against the grain of the IT industry as a whole. Using contractors has obvious advantages for companies; they are available from a few days upwards, they hit the ground running, companies don’t need to pay their National Insurance or give them any of the other rights associated with employing someone, they provide a high skill-set, they are out to impress (being eager for repeat work) and they come with their own software licenses and forensic hardware. A bargain!

It begs the question as to why the forensic market for contractors is so small. At first I thought it may be due to the security clearance issue, but there are plenty of contractors in other IT markets who require and are granted clearance. The only reason I could come up with is the ‘vicious circle’ effect; most forensic providers aren’t aware of the supply of contractors, so they don’t tend to use them, meaning that the low demand is matched by low supply. It’d be interesting to hear any other thoughts on this unusual state of affairs.

If anyone’s interested in the contracting or freelancing route I’d be happy to share my experience in the comments section below.

Jonathan Krause

http://twitter.com/JonathanKrause
http://forensiccontrol.blogspot.com
http://forensiccontrol.com

Post-Interview Strategy

2011-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

So, you didn’t get the job.

Sometimes this is a relief, of course, as it is often only when you meet the people who work for an organisation that you get the real feel of company culture. I spend a lot of time in different forensics/edisclosure companies and although they carry out the same work as other organisations in the sector, that is often where the similarity ends.

Have you ever had that experience when you walk into a room and know that you just don’t fit in – oh...just me then!? You know what I mean, the feeling Nick Clegg must have whenever he is invited to a gathering of politicians with convictions and policies. Well, if you are not happy in an organisational culture then that organisation just isn’t going to make you happy and you won’t stay.

But at this interview you felt that the culture was right and the job was an incredibly exciting opportunity. When you were told you had been unsuccessful what was your initial reaction:

Burn down the building?
Machete attack on the misguided Hiring Manager?

Understandable and we have all done both – just a little unfunny joke, of course - but long-term there are probably a few minor repercussions.

Instead, why not send the Hiring Manager an email expressing your disappointment at this result but emphasising your continuing interest in joining the Team if the opportunity arises. Reinforce this action by sending the Manager a LinkedIn request and following them on twitter so that if a vacancy does occur in the Team you are likely to know about it!

I have seen numerous people who were initially unsuccessful at interview end up working for the company – on more than one occasion replacing the Hiring Manager! It is all about reacting to disappointment in the way that makes ‘them’ realise that it was a mistake not to recruit you and making it easy to hire you next time.

Essentially, this strategy is back to the basics I have mentioned in this blog so many times - make people like you and then you stand a much better chance of being offered the role.

Of course, if they have the nerve to reject you a second time it then starts getting personal, but that never happens: does it??

Personal Branding in Bristol

2011-02-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

Tell me about your online personal brand. What do you mean you haven't thought about it?

Try Googling your name and see what happens. Now consider that others (prospective employers for instance) do the same. Are you happy with what they see?

When you are looking for a new job, you need to give thought to your personal brand. Make no mistake that employers and recruiters in this area are very interested in your online brand to get a much better idea about you than the one dimensional basics that can be gleaned from a CV.

You need to be clear whether your brand is personal, social or academic – this depends on what you are trying to sell? What do you want to be known for: what is your tag? You need to be aware that everything you ever post online can be found and so everything you ever publish must be looked at in terms of your brand.

There are companies that specialise in developing online personal brands or rectifying negative ones. I suppose this concept isn't new and has been alive for a long time in Hollywood where movie stars and their agents closely protect and develop their brand.

This is one of the points I discussed yesterday with students at the University of the West of England in Bristol. For graduates, I strongly suggest that a blog is a very good idea for promoting a brand. Using this blog to critique text books etc provides students with a great opportunity to build a strong online brand.

Despite suffering from man-flu, I had a lot of fun yesterday at Bristol.

This is one of my favourite Universities where I always feel incredibly welcome. It is the first University I ever spoke at after being approached maybe six years ago by Programme Leader, Julian Webb. Along with his colleague, Toby O'hara, Julian is always extremely enthusuastic and willing to do whatever is needed to give his students every advantage. The course has a very good reputation and has produced some excellent graduates - many of whom we have been fortunate enough to place at various organisations.

As usual, my message was based around the fact that the best people don't get the best jobs in an area as competitive as computer forensics. The key to success is:

Ensure your CV is in excellent shape (and free of spelling errors);
Think carefully about your personal brand and online footprint;
Utilise Linkedin and other social media to build your network and promote your brand;
Make contact with the correct people in the correct way about specific or speculative roles;
Be persistent;
Get lucky!

Unconference - day one

2011-02-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today, I have been at my first recruiting unconference in London. It has been really exciting and we have two more days to go! If you haven't been to an unconference before, essentially, the rules are as follows:

No Powerpoint (no more sitting through a really dull presentation zzzzzzzzzz)
No Dress Code (feel comfortable)
No Name Badges (avoid those people who check your badge and only speak to you if you are 'worthy')
No Pitching (Hurrah)
No Presentations (A quick introduction and then the discussion is opened to the delegates - great)
Freedom to move (If the stream isn't as you had hoped, you are free to move)
Limited numbers (Only 100 spaces so everyone can be heard)

What this means is that rather than have a long presentation followed by a few questions the sessions incorporate a brief overview followed by lots of questions. This ensures that there is plenty of time for genuinely in depth, challenging discussions about what we all really want to know! I will write about the issues raised over the next few weeks but there was one particularly interesting discussion today which I will share right now.

The rather impressive marketing manager from a major job board provided some interesting stats showing that jobseekers still much prefer using job boards to social media as, essentially, we like to use quick and easy routes to finding a new job rather than social media where jobseekers need to be proactive.

The major point I took from this presentation was the rise of the smartphone in searching for a new role - this particular job board has seen site visits from mobile devices rise 200% from January 2010 - January 2011. Interestingly, whereas the normal peaks for looking at job boards via computers is 11am - 12 (midday) on smartphones there are also peaks during the morning and afternoon commuting periods and at around 10pm.

However, the quite brilliant Kevin Wheeler doesn't agree that job boards or CV's have any future in recruitment - his view is that very soon social media is the only way that jobseekers will find new roles (as regular readers of this blog will know I share these views). Interestingly, he also believes that there is no future for internal recruiters and that external recruiters can only survive by taking a more strategic stance and providing Hiring Managers with the tools necessary to carry out tactical recruitment.

Kevin also has some interesting views about the future of the interview which numerous studies have shown is a terrible predictor of career success. In the computer forensics area organisations such as the security services in the UK use scenarios for assessment and Kevin thinks that this is the future. He believes that finally this whole area is going to become much more scientific.

When people disagreed with his points, Kevin gave a wonderful analogy using Henry Ford. Back in the early days of the motor car he said that people loved their horses, felt they were a much better way of travelling than the motor car and they would keep on using their horses! If they had been interviewed for a focus group their views weren't wrong - but Ford was just more right!

Rise of the smartphone

2011-02-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

In his latest excellent blog posting, Eric Huber talks about the emergence of smartphones. Eric is always interesting to read, but in particular, the following paragraph caught my attention:

"This past week I learned that a research group has reported that smart phones are outselling personal computers. It’s further confirmation to me that we’ve moved out of the era of computer forensics and into era of digital forensics. Computer forensics, of course, will continue to play an important part of what we do as a community, but the mobile device era is firmly and undeniably in place. Every now and again I still see examiners comment on some of the digital forensics list servs how they hate working on phones. I have to restrain myself from asking how they feel about obsolescence."

This made me reflect how I have always been puzzled by the attitude to mobile forensics within the community.

Since I have been recruiting in the forensics area I have always been a little confused at the disparity in salaries between computer forensic analysts and those people specialising in mobile phones.

It is undoubtedly the case that computer forensic specialists earn significantly more - in fact, about six months ago I had an interesting conversation with a Mobile Forensics Team Leader who took home a lower salary than any of the computer forensics analysts in his organisation. Based on my experience, I would be astonished if any mobile forensic analyst here in the UK earns more than £40k. Putting this in context, a computer forensic graduate with no experience can start on a basic salary of £30k.

Last week I spoke to a really bright, ambitious mobile analyst with over three years experience who wanted to move into computer forensics as he saw no career progression opportunities within the mobile area. His concern was that he may have to take an entry-level position if he did this which seems ludicrous with all the excellent experience he has gained.

As the smartphones continue to dominate will the situation be reversed by 2014 with computer forensic analysts seen as the poor relations? If so, will salaries and career opportunities reflect this shift?

One day like this....

2011-02-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a bit of a comedy day for me.

Everything went wrong in the morning. Two people pulled out of interviews for next week, an offer came through which was very disappointing and won't be accepted (how can this happen when we have discussed and agreed figures endlessly?) , nearly everyone I tried to call was busy - or avoiding my call (surely not?!) and, well, it just wasn't going my way.

As I have put in very long hours this week (for a recruiter, anyway), I thought there was no point battling life and so yesterday afternoon I went out sailing for the first time this year, taking my phone as I had a call booked at 4:00 with an important new Client. At about 3.50pm my phone decided to lock and whatever I tried to solve the problem wasn't proving terribly successful. This meant that I had to email this senior HR person to say that I couldn't make the call as I was stranded on a boat with no phone.

Would you have believed that story? Nor me. It reminds me of being about 13 when I tried to tell my maths teacher that I hadn't completed my homework as adding the book to my bag would have made the bag too heavy. Joy unconfined.

Today is already much better as I am entertaining at Twickenham as England build on their destruction of Wales last week - well, sort of - with a (hopefully) comfortable victory over Italy. Much as I love Twickenham, I would have loved to have made it to Cardiff last week for the big game. I think the atmosphere at the Milennium Stadium is absolutely amazing, probably the best of any stadium I have visited. Of course, being located just a stroll from the excellent bars and restaurants of Cardiff is never a bad place to be....

How much do you really want it?

2011-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting day at Fortress Elland Road (or as my friend Phil refers to it: The Theatre of Screams) on Saturday, watching The Mighty Leeds United overpower Coventry to record an emphatic 1-0 victory. Whereas I usually take my place with my Leeds supporting pals in the Don Revie stand this weekend I changed seats and sat just by the dugouts.

From this perspective I saw another side to our manager Simon ‘Larry’ Grayson (pictured) which really surprised me. Me and Larry aren’t exactly best mates but I have seen him at numerous social events over the last couple of years and I have always been surprised at just how nice he is – certainly a really decent guy without the arrogance and edge of other professional managers I have met.

Sitting five feet away from him on Saturday I saw another side to the man. Sure, he is committed and focussed but he is also incredibly hard, aggressive (in a good way) and completely in charge – the reaction of the players and staff left me in no doubt that he was fully in control and would accept no nonsense.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, except for the obvious opportunity to post a Leeds United related picture, last week I spoke to students at Sunderland and Teeside Universities. As always, the students were very friendly, receptive and the vast majority were clearly incredibly bright and committed. They would be an asset to any Forensics organisation.

However, last week it also really hit me clearly why a lot of these students aren’t going to secure their dream roles. They are just too nice and lack the focus and aggression needed in terms of securing a job. Do you think I am being harsh? I think not.

Make no mistake that to secure your first role in this area you have to be aggressive and ruthless. You are in direct competition with your fellow students for the very best jobs and there aren’t enough positions to go around. When I talk in this way I reckon the students think I am talking nonsense – hmmm, maybe on a broader level they have a point - and don’t really believe me when I tell them that the best jobs don’t go to the best people.

This isn’t fair but it is certainly true. Some of the best Computer Forensics graduates from 2008 are still working in IT support. The best jobs go to the people who have prepared in the most effective way to make themselves attractive to potential employers and then aggressively pursue opportunities.

Simon ‘Larry’ Grayson wasn’t the best professional footballer. However, watching him at work from such close quarters clearly demonstrates why he is a successful Manager and why he is a winner. He is, frankly, desperate to win and utilises every ounce of his talent and every resource available to him to ensure he stands out from the crowd.

Can you honestly say the same for your job search?

Getting started in Computer Forensics

2011-02-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

This week I head north for my annual visit to Sunderland and Teeside Universities.

I really enjoy speaking with the computer forensics students about career opportunities and what the students need to do NOW to increase their chances of securing a role in this competitive area.

One piece of advice I will certainly give them is to read the following post published this week on www.forensicfocus.com by 'Nathan':

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7153

I first spoke to 'Nathan' maybe two years ago and his success is a clear example to everyone looking to break into this area that if you have the right attitude then everything is possible.

Job Boards are dead: long live the Job Board

2011-02-01T02:55:00.000-08:00

In a previous blog I mentioned that some have suggested that job boards are dying, or indeed dead. I have been thinking about this some more this week, especially in my niche areas of recruitment. We sometimes advertise on a variety of boards including Jobsite, Linkedin, Legal Technology Insider and Forensic Focus - with mixed results.

We do sometimes find people via job boards but compared to, say, five years ago, only a tiny percentage of our people are sourced this way and our levels of advertising have certainly reduced considerably in the last couple of years as a result of this trend.

My view is shifting towards thinking that the day of the job board is over. Objectively, it is an incredibly haphazard and passive way of finding the very best people - who often are unlikley to be browsing the job boards anyway - and I think this form of recruitment is very much a case of finding the best person 'on' the market rather than the best person 'in' the market.

With the growth of social media the best recruiters (whether external or in-house talent acquisition teams) with the most effective sourcing techniques should have no need to advertise - except for branding reasons - as the details of the right person for the job are now freely available.

This poses an interesting challenge for the jobseeker. In the new reality your challenge is, I would suggest, to use social media to make sure that you can be easily found for that 'perfect' opportunity even if you are not actively seeking a new role. Are you doing this? If so, how?

There is, of course, another perspective. One of my friends who works for a job board thinks that all of this is pure nonsense! She says that useless recruiters are doing their best to destroy them with awful adverts - from the cut and pasted job specification (zzzz) to the dreaded, 'Our Client...' (sounds so 1950's), via lots of boring adverts filled with unimaginative text and bad grammar. Hmmm, she does have a point.....

I discussed this over dinner last weekend with a Computer Forensics Director and he reckons that this talk of social media is all very nice and fluffy (he almost choked on a giant prawn when I told him I was going to an unconference this month) but most people and companies aren't ready to move away from job boards - especially in my niches - and are genuinely puzzled by the business case for networking and social media. Lets face it, at the majority of organisations in my area, most social media is blocked at work anyway.

He tells me that most people in my sectors aren't looking for the perfect job, don't have time to network as they are too busy and that the only social media they are interested in is catching up with friends/family on Facebook and maybe a flirt with Linkedin or even Twitter until quicky they tire of it and get on with important stuff.

I told him he is a dinosaur to which he replied,"David, this is the real world!"

What do you think?

Linkedin tips

2011-01-25T00:46:00.000-08:00

Undoubtedly, www.linkedin.com is becoming increasingly important in any jobsearch. Below is an excellent blog post outlining just how you can use Linkedin to your advantage and ensure that your details are found:

http://recruitingunblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/linkedin-is-changing-are-you-keeping-up-in

Do you agree with me that Linkedin is one resource that all jobseekers must utilise?

All change...

2011-01-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

One of the most inspirational conference talks I have ever witnessed was by Wayne Hemmingway, founder of the legendary 'Red or Dead' brand and now successful designer of many things (http://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk).

His message was essentially that with the upheaval of the last few years nothing will ever be the same. You can either accept this and be part of the new reality or else bury your head in the sand pretending it isn't happening as your company slowly loses business.

I was reminded of Wayne Hemmingway this evening when reading a link on www.forensicfocus.com where there was a discussion about using new technology to help with job searching. Reading through the responses I got the distinct impression that this wasn't something that the computer forensics world was ready to embrace and so posted my thoughts which I have copied below:

"In my view - whether we like it or not - this, along with utilising other forms of social media, is the way forward for jobseeking. Jobseekers increasingly tend to be less interested in going to printed media and even job boards (are the days of the job board dead - there are some in recruitment circles who would argue it is heading that way).

If you are a jobseeker it is about utlising these new forms of communication to stand out from the crowd and deliver your message to the right person.

I am no expert in social media recruitment (yet) but if I was actively looking for a new position I would certainly be using innovative sites such as www.branchout.com and www.weedle.com. If you haven't come across Weedle yet it is quick and easy to use as you can simply connect with Facebook or LinkedIn, transferring your career details without needing to complete a lengthy form.

This is the key to these new networking/career sites as who wants to fill in a long, tedious application form duplicating information? Those days are surely gone never to return?"

Do you agree with me that there is no going back?

Finally, I am looking forward to tomorrow as our friends at the number one UK Job board www.jobsite.co.uk (as sponsors of Portsmouth FC) have invited me to Fratton Park to watch the Mighty Leeds United recover from the midweek defeat to take the three points.

Clarity in New York

2011-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Why do we over-complicate recruitment?

I am just back from a retained assignment in New York which reminded me how simple recruitment really should be.

The hiring company is recruiting an ED Director. We initially spent a full day meeting employees at all levels and discussing in great detail exactly what the company needed both in terms of technical and cultural fit. Employees were very open about the difficulties facing the organisation and spoke in very clear terms about the negatives as well as the positives enabling us to gain an excellent understanding of the reality.

Following these meetings we utilised our network to identify the very best candidates and after initial phone interviews flew out to the US for face to face meetings before submitting an excellent shortlist of jobseekers to the hiring manager.

If only all recruitment assignments could be so straightforward. In previous blogs I have ranted about the ridiculous nature of contingency recruitment, but with serious recruitment (ie, retained) I think the key point is the briefing phase. When the recruiter has a really clear view of what is needed and a genuinely clear grasp of the details, then we can easily go out to our niche market and quickly identify and recruit the right people.

Have you ever gone to an interview unsure if the role/organisation was actually for you and then left the meeting enthused? Or even not bothered to attend an interview as you really weren't convinced and the recruiter didn't excite you about the opportunity? Trust me: when a recruiter has been properly briefed and believes in the opportunity they should be able to enthuse you as we believe in it so passionately.

Reading what I have written above it all seems so simple and obvious, but then recruitment should be, shouldn't it?

Cultural issues

2011-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

A new computer forensics graduate we placed almost three months ago was last week told that he hadn't passed his probation at a major consulting firm.

The Company has been excellent about it - as you would expect from a global market leader - and his manager spoke very highly about his ability but it just wasn't quite the right fit at this time. However, of course it feels like the end of the world for the person who has been released and right now a million miles away from the autumn day he moved to London with high hopes of a fantastic forensics career.

The reality is that this sort of experience can often be a blessing, although at the time it can feel like the end of the world. In my recruitment career I have seen so many people leave a role feeling disconsolate and certain that they will never be a success wherever they go - and they were absolutely right!! Not really, just a little joke...of course that isn't the case at all - well, except in very rare examples - and I am a great believer in different people fitting into different cultures, even in a discipline as technical as computer forensics. Many of these people have gone on to develop outstanding careers within forensics with a company where the culture is right for them.

In my experience, one of the most common examples of this is when somebody first leaves Law Enforcement for the private sector. After a couple of months they know the position isn't right but they feel they can't move on so soon as it almost feels like failure. Almost always, they do leave and then settle into the next organisation for a long period of time. It is like personal relationships in a way where after the breakdown of a long relationship there can be a period of experimentation before forming another serious relationship - oh dear, am I of all people really using a relationship analogy? Time to end the post I think before I start to move on to other areas I have no idea about - it could be fashion next!

Anyway, if you do leave your position whether due to your own choice or otherwise, please do try to see it as an opportunity, however bleak it can feel at the time. I would love to hear your stories of how a move that felt terrible at the time turned out to be fantastic for your career....

A better day

2011-01-08T01:44:00.000-08:00

After yesterdays little rant, I was, as always, cheered up by reading the latest blog from the very funny GirlieGeek: http://digitaldetective.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-dickens-of-a-tale

On the subject of amusing CF blogs I also laughed out loud at this very amusing interview with Geoff Fellows here:
http://happyasamonkey.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/an-interview-with-geoff-fellows/

In particular, I love his response when asked about whether the glut of computer forensics courses at Universities is a good thing:

"If a Forensic Computing course is offered by a University and it actually teaches relevant current forensic computing, by which I mean at a technical level, in detail, and on a basis of practicality and real-life forensic computing work now, in 2010 then, Yes, of course that would be a good thing.

If a Forensic Computing course is offered by a University in order to cash in on the word ‘Forensic’ and CSI and that sort of stuff, and it is taught by a motley collection of retired system administrators who used to be really good at Cobol programming or who once understood Slotted Aloha or who used to run the Cambridge Ring and who really have no understanding at all of investigative work of any kind then No, they are an excrescence on the face of the planet – they are “a horror, a proverb and a byword amongst all the peoples” (Deuteronomy 28:37)."

Quite so!

This lunchtime I am visiting the impressive Emirates Stadium (pictured) for the very first time to see The Mighty Leeds United take on Arsenal in the FA Cup.

I am not confident but then again I didn't expect us to knock out our friends from across The Pennines this time last year so who knows.

Whatever the result, it is always fun to catch up with some of my Leeds supporting friends who are making a weekend of it in London - especially the three Norwegian brothers I met at the poker table in Vegas who always fly over for the big games!

Finally, after the triumph in The Ashes have you heard this old joke doing the rounds? What do you call an Australian man with a bottle of champagne? A barman....

Shoot me please....

2011-01-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

I don't get angry too often but today I really do feel like screaming! Mainly at myself I should add: I really should know better...

Luckily, most of my work tends to be retained recruitment. Here, the recruiter has exclusivity on the vacancy and can work logically and systematically to find the best talent in the marketplace. This is the way to find the very best people in any niche, is cost-effective and ensures that a fully briefed recruiter portrays your organisation in the very best light. There is a real partnership - genuine commitment on both sides - and everyone wins.

Most importantly, the recruiter can identify and recruit the very best jobseekers saving time/money for the Client - which, after all, is why you work with recruiters!

Then, there is contingency recruitment. Why on earth do I still sometimes get involved in contingency recruitment assignments?

For those of you not aware of contingency recruitment, it is when a company gives a certain vacancy to a number of recruiters who then go away and find people to submit for the role. If you have ever had four/five recruiters talk to you about the same role this is contingency recruitment (they will also probably call you 'mate' and ask you about your plans for the weekend with the familiarity of a close family member) . For the recruiter, unless you find the person who takes the position you don't get paid.

It is quite frankly the most ridiculous and ineffective way of finding the right person to fill a vacancy and populated with stupid, unprofessional cowboy recruiters involved in a race to send CV's as quickly as possible. It is real pin the tail on the donkey time. However, sometimes, I too join this race...WHY (rhetorical question so please don't even think it) !!!

Today was another example of why I really shouldn't be getting involved in this waste of time. We spoke to a CF professional about a role and as usual gained their written permission before submitting the CV for the role. Simple and straightforward right?

Oh no. Not at all. I found out that another 'recruiter' who hadn't even spoken to the jobseeker submitted the CV a day before us and so has 'ownership' of the person - as they sent the CV first - and so collects the fee. What this means is that a recruiter can, in theory, just submit every CV they possess for a certain role without speaking to anyone let alone performing any kind of selection process. Paying a fee for a CV distribution service - madness!

Surely this sort of recruitment is just an exercise in low-level recruiters submitting speculative CV's as quickly as possible. If you still recruit staff this way I would be very interested to know why as I just don't get it.....

Review of the year. Thoughts on 2011...

2010-12-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

There are a few contenders for the big news stories of 2010. The two obvious ones, of course, are the re-emergence of the Mighty Leeds United and the emphatic sporting victories over our friends from Australia in the cricket and the rugby.

However, away from the sporting triumphs and disasters (the less said about the football world cup the better) it has been a very interesting year professionally which I have attempted to concisely summarise below along with my thoughts on 2011.

2010 overall

After a bleak 2009 this year has seen all our key markets here at Appointments-uk show signs of recovery. In particular, our Fraud Investigation Team had an outstanding year! Maybe in 2011 one of you chaps may actually find the time to make that often promised blog post??! However, I fear there is more chance of Ricky Ponting being voted the best captain in Australian cricket history....

Computer Forensics & Electronic Disclosure

In my personal specialisms of Computer Forensics (CF) and Electronic Discovery (ED) recruitment has really picked up during the second half of the year. The number of roles available – especially at a senior level – have increased but the difficulty has been persuading the very best talent in the market to make a move from stable organisations at this time when people are rightly uncertain about moving jobs. This has meant that in the last quarter of 2010 a number of positions – especially at Manager to Director level - have remained unfilled.

A real positive has been the increased number of appointments at graduate level. Although the number of applicants still far outstrips the number of positions available, 2010 did see a vast increase in hires compared to 2009 with most of this increased activity coming from Big Four organisations. Basic starting salaries in this area have slightly increased and now tend to be around the £27k/28k mark in London.

2011 outlook

The outlook for ED is optimistic. Salaries have continued to increase for experienced people and the opportunities for major salary rises and rapid career progression in this area remain outstanding for talented professionals.

I don’t think the future for CF is anywhere near as positive. I see issues for pure CF people in the next year or so as salaries in this area haven’t increased to anywhere near the same level as ED. This can make senior CF roles hard to fill as predominantly ED orientated potential jobseekers won’t take the pay cut needed to move into a pure CF role.

I also think there are growing difficulties around career opportunities in pure CF. A number of people have spoken to me this year about hitting a career ceiling when at Manager level earning about £60k or so as there really is nowhere else to go (except for the few who progress to Director positions). This has meant professionals in this area have attempted to broaden their portfolio of skills to include ED, wider information security skills or other disciplines just to open up career opportunities.

The other concern for CF (here in the UK) in 2011 is the continuing effect of the Public Sector cuts. This has already had a direct effect on our company as all but two of our CF contractors in the Public Sector had their contracts curtailed during the last quarter of 2010.

It seems clear that recruitment in Law Enforcement is certainly not going to pick up but will there be job losses in this area (in addition to the closure of the FSS)? Also, how is this change in the landscape going to affect the outsourcing companies? With chargeable rates reducing as budgets are squeezed and the successful awarding of contracts apparently being increasingly based on ever lower charges does this mean that forensics professionals in the area, even if they keep their jobs, are unlikely to see their pay increase? This is going to be tricky as some of the practitioners in this area outside London with over five years experience are still earning less than a new graduate in London.

How this is going to play out in 2011 is unclear right now but the future is certainly uncertain in this area.

On a positive note, 2010 has seen an increase in Companies developing their internal CF Teams. Although predominantly in banking and finance, organisations in areas as diverse as pharmaceuticals and internet gaming have recruited CF experts this year and I would suggest this is likely to continue in 2011.

The thoughts above are just my opinions based on my experience: do you agree?

Recruitment

I thought some readers could be interested in the specific pressures facing recruiters in 2011.

Once more, 2010 has been another year when the reputation of recruiters has continued to slide. On the positive side, I think 2011 has the potential to be a time where we will see many more recruiters go out of business. This is no bad thing, of course, as it suggests that those who remain have managed to adapt to the new reality. The old days of recruiters chatting to you on the phone for five minutes before spraying your CV to a number of organisations on a speculative basis have gone – thank goodness – and although some recruiters who work like this are hanging on it cannot last.

The key for successful recruitment in 2011 to my mind has to be successfully utilising social recruiting strategies and this whole area is progressing incredibly quickly. Why should you take time out to look at a variety of different media to find a job that could be suitable? Our job as recruiters is increasingly to bring the relevant content to you where you want to see it.

One of the bloggers who is really up to speed in this area and who has some very interesting views on this subject is Bill Boorman who gives his thoughts on 2011 in the following post: http://recruitingunblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/where-will-social-media-and-socialrecruiting-go-in-2011/

This unstoppable growth of social recruitment does pose some real challenges for recruiters. In his post above, Bill talks about changes at LinkedIn which I think is going to be the major challenge for 2011:

‘With the launch of Linked In referral engine later this year, the alpha launch of the new company pages, the delivery of matched jobs to profiles and other initiatives that the boffins in the Linked In labs will be developing over the coming year will make this channel a real threat to third-party recruiters eroding some market share, as sourcing candidates gets much easier and the prospect of direct sourcing and applying becomes much more attractive, fuelled by a reduced cost of hire. As new Linked In applications prove their worth, they will move to the paid for options and by the end of next year the paid for options may well become a necessity rather than a luxury. How long do you think it will be before the 2′nd degree search loopholes (via Bing) get closed, and names and contacts disappear completely unless you pay?’

Of course this is positive for the jobseeker as it will stop you being bothered so much on LinkedIn by annoying recruiters! Who knows, it may even eventually stop your favourite LinkedIn discussion groups being ruined by recruiters posting irrelevant jobs.

Finally, at the end of this marathon blog, I would just like to wish you all a very happy, successful and peaceful New Year.

New article

2010-12-24T03:13:00.000-08:00

Excting news - well, that is assuming you aren't a fan of cutting-edge, incisive and ground-breaking recruitment articles! If you are then good luck in your search..... If not, you can now read my latest article (offering advice to computer forensics students on how to secure a work placement) which has been published at Forensic Focus: http://www.forensicfocus.com/david-sullivan (other articles I have written can be found here: http://www.appointments-uk.co.uk/articles.php).

As you may know, I spend a lot of time speaking with computer forensics students at various Universities and I hope this article will prove useful in bringing together a lot of the advice out there for this specific discipline. As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this article (or anything I have written in my blog).

If you are travelling somewhere for Christmas today have a safe journey!

I once said something similar to my rather sarcastic friend 'Glum' who looked me in the eyes for a few seconds before slowly replying: 'No David, I am going to drive fast, take chances and set records'. He isn't called Glum for nothing!

Finally, thank you very much to everyone who has taken the time to read this blog and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

The real cost of recruitment

2010-12-22T04:23:00.000-08:00

At 1.30am this morning I was at the poker table as my pal JP won a rare, monster pot, made even sweeter as he had bluffed the usually unbluffable 'Bingo' Bill and 'Joe 90'. What is it about poker players and nicknames? Anyway, the table banter was about how some people hate their jobs about as much as Vince Cable must do today! This subject always makes me think of my cousin.

My cousin works for Google in California. Unsurprisingly, he loves the work and the people but the thing that he talks about the most is that once Google have hired you they make you feel incredibly special and wanted.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently announced that all employees would get a 10% pay rise next year along with $1,000 holiday bonuses. Along with other pay incentives announced I imagine that this helps keep people feeling wanted

I thought of this after my meeting yesterday with a senior computer forensics professional who is looking to make a move. This person loves the work and the people at his company but wasn't at all impressed with the 1% pay rise that was offered after months of hard negotiating to justify any increase. He appreciates times are tough but was able to clearly demonstrate that he is underpaid for the work he does. However, in the end, this whole process made him feel completely unloved which is why he wanted to meet with me.

From here, it is pretty plain to see how events will unfold. With the help of his favourite recruiter (not that he needs one in reality) he will be offered a new job in the New Year for a small pay increase - the one he wanted from his current employer. His old company will then:

unsuccessfully attempt to counter-offer the person with a higher salary than he originally wanted;
recruit someone else to replace him at a higher salary than the current employee;
incur a recruitment fee;
waste maybe 20+ valuable hours interviewing unsuitable candidates;
suffer a few months of reduced productivity whilst the new person gets up to speed;
risk a drop in morale as the current Team react to losing a good person;
potentially develop a negative perception for staff turnover in the tight CF market.

When looked at like this it is clearly madness. Isn't it?

The reality - in my experience - is that this happens all the time. In fact, the deal I was discussing in my last blog post actually collapsed over a tiny salary difference. This company had been looking to fill that role for seven months and are now back to square one.

I appreciate budgets are tough but surely sometimes the bigger picture is what is really important?

How much does salary really matter?

2010-12-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

I woke up in Ipswich marina this morning.

Not literally in the water of course - it was a big night but not that big - but in the beautiful Salthouse Harbour Hotel (pictured - http://www.salthouseharbour.co.uk/) with a major headache. Not just the headache from the party the night before celebrating the brief return of my pal Frosty - currently exiled in Hong Kong - but also pondering how to save a deal I am currently involved in which is falling down on salary.

This deal has made me focus on just how important basic salary really is to people. It sounds obvious of course but, in reality, just how important is basic salary to you at this stage of your career?

In the specific case I am working on the Computer Forensics professional wants a higher - but not unreasonable - salary (and has been clear about this all along) whilst the employer feels that a lower salary with extensive training and other benefits is sufficient. This balance is made even more tricky in an area such as computer forensics as, well, let's just say that not all employers are as keen to offer outstanding training and so it is a massive incentive to join a company with a genuine commitment to training and personal development.

On reflection, I think the real issue here is all about understanding what is important to people at different stages of their careers. Generally, people at the early stages of their career tend to be driven by base salary as this is key for renting/buying houses and instant quality of life whereas in the later stages of a career areas such as pension, shares, and health insurance become more important.

On the subject of salaries, in previous blogs I have talked of my frustration at jobseekers with unrealistic salary expectations. This week I spoke to one very strong Computer Forensics professional currently working in Law Enforcement, based north of Birmingham and earning £35/40k or so. When I asked what he would need to earn to work in Central London his reply was £60k as he would need to rent a flat during the week and had other expenses to cover.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry but astoundingly (to me anyway) these wildly unrealistic salary expectations are more common than you may think. What this chap didn't appreciate is that there are numerous people at his level of experience within commutable distance of London who would take the role for £40k. Why would any employer pay an extra £25k just because he would have to move to take the job?

In my experience people tend not to get a salary increase higher than 20% of their current basic salary when they change jobs (although, of course, there are exceptions). Not everyone agrees with this basic view and some argue that what you are currently earning is absolutely irrelevant as you should turn each interview into a discussion about how much money you can make/save an organisation and negotiate salary from there.

I like the theory but then again I think that world peace is a great idea too. My advice is always to keep the 20% figure in mind!

Finally, I did laugh at this article (http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/12/tom-baldwin-miliband-labour) describing Ed Milliband's new spin doctor as a cross between Alastair Campbell, Hunter S Thompson and Rasputin - just imagine that!

Where are jobs advertised?

2010-12-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

On one of the forums this week a poster asked where Computer Forensics jobs are advertised. Really, this should be an easy question to answer but, in reality, for all our specialist markets (including computer forensics) the answer isn't quite so simple.

Unlike some recruiters who advertise the same/similar jobs endlessly (yawn) as a company we hardly ever advertise our open roles for a number of reasons:

1, Apathy

We aint hot on riting and can't be bothered as we would rather be in a bar with a lager from 11.30 am. This is, of course, just a rather tame little joke (regular readers will know that most of my attempts at humour tend to be as amusing as a Liberal Democrat MP defending their current position on any given issue).

So, moving swiftly on to the serious points:

1, Advertising is hit and miss

Our Consultants and Researchers have worked in our sectors for a number of years and have large networks. This means that we tend to know who works where and based on our market knowledge we can then approach suitable people directly for specific roles. Advertising jobs is a terribly ineffective way of attracting the right applicants for all but the very lowest-level positions - it really is posting an advert and then keeping fingers-crossed for the right response!

The following example illustrates this point. When we first recruited forensics specialists for the Met Police a few years ago they had previously advertised their jobs in the Evening Standard. They then interviewed something like 25 people who all proved unsuitable. Excluding the cost of placing the advert, the cost of four people interviewing the unsuccessful candidates was a tremendous waste of time and money.

There is also the issue of where to advertise online in niche areas as there are just so many different sites.

Out of the generalist boards we use Jobsite for some of our roles and they certainly give us the best response plus, in my experience, they are a pleasure to deal with every time. Also, as sponsors of Portsmouth FC they are kindly entertaining me in their box for the visit of the Mighty Leeds United in January (thanks, Alex)!

Other sites produce a terrible response and are a real pain to deal with on a daily basis. Seriously, dinner with Gillian McKeith starts to look appealing compared to working with these guys! I forget which ones I have vowed never to use again but the thread below about Monster has taken on legendary status in our office (the 'hilarity' begins at the fourth response when the poster is rumbled):

http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=171440&start=80

2, Finding the very best people for the job

People who apply for jobs tend to be unhappy for some reason - sometimes due to less than perfect performance (although, of course, not always) whereas our Clients tend to want to employ people who are performing to an exceptional level. In his fantasic training courses, the outstanding and inspirational recruitment trainer Roy Ripper (his real name, honestly: http://www.royripper.com/about/) described this as 'finding the best people in the market rather than on the market'.

As recruiters the very essence of our existence is that we are supposed to find the very best people for any role. If we can't go beyond sifting advert response then employers may just as well advertise the roles themselves.

3, Time

Although I constantly read from disillusioned jobseekers (presumably) that recruiters advertise jobs just to harvest CV's for most of us that is far from the case. Believe me when I say that I really don't want to waste lots of time filtering through unsuitable responses and providing the necessary feedback.

However, back to the question of Computer Forensics jobs. When we do advertise these roles in addition to our website it is either on Forensic Focus or Linkedin (where the number of job postings are rapidly increasing). I would also advise keeping an eye on the better generalist boards such as CWjobs or Jobsite as occasionally jobs are posted there that you won't find anywhere else. You can also sometimes find gems on the specialist financial sites or legal-orientated boards like the excellent: www.legaltechnology.com.

My advice is to always employ a balanced strategy. Check the job boards above, make enquiries through your own network and, most importantly of course, speak to your favourite specialist recruiter! For those of you who try to avoid recruiters and raised your eyebrows at that last line I suggest you think of it in the following way. Even if you choose not to be represented by a recruiter for specific vacancies why not take advantage of the free market intelligence a recruiter can provide in the form of trends, salary advice etc. In this market what is there to lose?

Finally, good luck the Mighty Leeds United tomorrow as they once more demonstrate their unique brand of 'total football' to the people of Burnley!

Oh Dear Ricky...

2010-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

A very quick post to say how much I enjoyed lunch with my two Australian colleagues today but they didn't seem quite as confident as before that they would regain The Ashes...After a lifetime of watching the English batting attack collapse on a regular basis I have been sitting up through the night unable to quite believe what I have been watching - long may it continue!

Humiliation

2010-12-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a really bad experience with a recruiter?

Hmmm, actually that is probably a rhetorical question and I can almost hear every single person reading this blog (both of you) either shouting ‘yes’ or else laughing hysterically. Well, if you have, here is a great way to gain revenge and make any recruiter look really stupid. It goes something like this:

1, Speak in-depth to recruiter (let’s call this recruiter, say, David Sullivan) about your aspirations and hopes;

2, Let David talk to you about a specific computer forensics role at one of his major Clients in great detail and appear excited about the opportunity;

3, As requested by David (as he is professional in his work), send him an email stating that you are happy for him to represent you on this specific opportunity;

4, But – and this is the beauty of this cunning plan to be carried out with all the transparency of a FIFA Executive - before you give David permission to make an approach you contact the company directly and send them your CV!

5, Sit back and enjoy the hilarious consequences as the company call David saying they have already received the CV directly and in future could he please act professionally and brief candidates fully about any opportunity.

Oh, the joys of recruitment...

Still, this isn't quite as incredible as the scenes at FIFA HQ in Zurich yesterday. My friend Sausage (because he looks like a sausage, obviously) summed it up for me like this: "How can a professional bid like the one produced by England go out in the first round: even Audley Harrison made it to the third". He has a point....

Have a good one!

Christmas thoughts

2010-11-30T08:13:00.000-08:00

On a freezing, snowy day here in Essex my thoughts have wandered to where I would rather be and, the answer, of course, is in fabulous Las Vegas surrounded by beautiful people - well, my buddys JP and Angus anyway - sipping a cold drink at the awesome Voodoo Lounge (pictured) before heading to the Bellagio for a spot of poker.

If not Vegas then maybe in one of the bars lining Las Ramblas in Barcelona watching the world go by....Instead, on Saturday afternoon I found myself on the outskirts of Reading watching the Mighty Leeds United playing out the most tedious 0-0 draw in arctic conditions - not quite living the dream!

I know it is a cliche but here in England it is odd how everything stops when there is bad weather. All three interviews I had scheduled for today have been cancelled which is frustrating as we are rapidly approaching that time of year when recruitment slows right down (in my sectors) for a wide variety of reasons. Incidentally, last year I wrote a short article on when is the best time to look for a new job which can be found here: http://www.appointments-uk.co.uk/articleMarch2009.php

I am particularly irritated by these cancellations today as ideally I would like these deals finalised before the holidays begin as it really is a battle to schedule meetings in December. I am never quite sure why this is the case: is it really because people mentally switch off and move into party mode?

In recruitment there is a saying that 'time kills deals' due to the two sides courting each other cooling off or other complicating factors arising - for example, here in the UK a number of people I know who were offered Computer Forensic roles in the Public Sector earlier this year had these posts withdrawn following the Public Sector cuts introduced in George Osborne's budget. A more extreme example is my Venture Capitalist friend who lost all his prospective deals immediately after the terrible events of 11 September 2001.

The Christmas period can also have some very odd effects on jobseekers. I recall one Fraud Investigator who was at final interview stage for a Big Four Company and was incredibly excited about the opportunity before Christmas. After spending the holiday with her rather dull husband (seriously, half an hour with this guy makes a Nick Clegg speech look strangely exciting) she finally decided to divorce and so cancelled all her plans to change jobs.

Finally, a note of humour (well, arguably - it made me chuckle anyway) on this miserable evening. Did you hear the joke about what Audley Harrison and Michael Jackson had in common? They both wore a glove for no apparent reason....

Fun in Glasgow

2010-11-25T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have been working in Scotland for most of this week and the travelling between meetings has given me a chance to catch up with some reading. I am currently half way through the excellent second volume of the diaries of Chris Mullin: ‘Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010’. If, like me, you have a fascination with UK politics and are interested in reading the ruefully honest thoughts of that rare creature – an independent-minded MP whose career was not as important as his politics – I highly recommend it (and the first volume: A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin).

Whilst in Scotland, I had a lot of fun speaking to the students on the Computer Forensics and E-Discovery degree at the University of Glasgow. The Course Leader, Brad Glisson, was impressive as was the quality of the students who appeared to be very bright and enthusiastic. Maybe the habitual moaners on some of the forums who criticise the quality of current undergraduates could break away from tedious stereotyping and learn a little about the reality by spending some time in Glasgow with this bunch of students?

One question that came up during my talk was whether or not it was worthwhile for students to gain an advantage by taking extra certifications. Lee Whitfield, founder of: http://forensic4cast.com, in one of his excellent articles (http://forensic4cast.com/category/uncategorized/, talks about this point:

“The problem is making yourself more appealing to a potential employer. My best advice is to get some training. Finish your degree but don’t just stop there. Find a way to pay for an EnCase passport and attend their courses. If you do that it means that you know how to use the software and can go straight in to a job and start working right away without the company having to spend money training you. Anything you can do to help a potential employer save money will be in your favour and, if you can do the work you already have won half the battle.”

It is rare I disagree with Lee as I think he offers outstanding advice. However, my view is that if you are studying for a Bsc or Msc at a decent University there is absolutely no point taking the extra certifications. To my mind, it is just wasting money and for most students in the real world already in debt it won’t make enough of a difference to justify the expense. On saying that, if you can afford to do so it won't do any harm.

I certainly do agree entirely with Lee's next piece of advice:

“I would even suggest going to a local forensic company or police force and asking if you can volunteer your time there for free while you finish university. If you offer to work for free I don’t know many people that would turn you down and it would give you some much needed experience. Also, if you prove yourself to be good at the job they’ll be more likely to hire you once your degree is over”.

If the organisation doesn’t seem too keen for you to spend time with them – they often try to tell you that you can’t spend time with them for confidentiality/security reasons – then offer to make the tea, do the filing or even wash the cars! Although you should never lie on your CV (the consequences are too severe and you will get caught) you can certainly exaggerate your experience and half a day at a forensics company can legitimately be added as work experience. This will certainly give a new graduate an edge over others for no financial outlay and will increase your chances of being interviewed. At the interview, you can then use the experience in a light-hearted way and show your human, fun side – as I have said in numerous articles, it will help make the interviewer like you as a person which is the whole point!

As always, I would be interested in knowing whether or not you agree.

Finally, as someone with a broken boiler and no heating/hot water for the coldest weekend of the year I will leave you with the following which still made me smile earlier today. In his note of commiseration to Valerie Profumo after the downfall of her husband, Noel Coward wrote: ‘Do remember that nothing ever matters quite as much as one thinks it does.’ Quite!

Reality of the Big Four

2010-11-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Big Four firms have recruited extensively (here in the UK) within the Computer Forensics/eDiscovery area over the last few months, especially at new graduate level. Undoubtedly, both the quality of work and opportunities for progression are excellent at these companies for the right people. However, just in the last week I have been approached by a number of recent graduates who joined a Big Four organisation in 2010 and have already realised that the work isn't for them and they are now looking for a new opportunity in a different forensics enviroment.

Following on from this, I thought it could be useful to readers of this blog to see the piece below about working for a Big Four organisation which was submitted to me by a very strong graduate who spent some time in a Big Four environment before moving to Law Enforcement this summer:

"I enjoyed my time working in computer forensics at a 'Big Four' accountancy firm. The team was great and the people that I worked with were very intelligent, capable individuals from various backgrounds. For the graduate positions no experience or a forensic qualification was required, and in some cases they took those without computer science-related degrees - indeed, the selection process was much more about general aptitude and attitude than specific technical or industry knowledge.

One of the major benefits was the opportunity to visit different clients and work on a wide variety of projects, and I took part in several high-profile national and international assignments for both public and private sector clients. However, for those expecting to be home every night at a reasonable hour, or indeed home during week-nights for months at a time, then this type of role is not for you. Flexibility is by far the largest commitment of the job, with a requirement to be literally anywhere for an unspecified period of time with not a lot of notice, which is to be expected with the spontaneous nature of corporate investigations. This said, the uncertainty can sometimes be exciting, with the pressure to 'hit the ground running' and get on with the job when you get there - and the flights and hotels were always nice!

eDiscovery is the corporate flavour of computer forensics practised by the Big Four firms. It is battery-farm forensics, sucking terabytes of data from a firm's servers and/or a multitude of PCs, getting the e-mails/Word documents/Excel spreadsheets out, and pumping them into a review environment for trainee lawyers or paralegals to run keyword searches over. At a graduate level expect to be working in a team performing one of these roles on one project for long periods of time. Data Analytics is the other major area of the corporate forensic technology world, which at a graduate level is essentially running SQL queries over large sets of structured data - usually financial. As time progresses it gets a bit more interesting, and with some good in-house training you will be able to reconcile financial systems to check for fraudulent activity.

I have recently moved from a Big Four firm to the law enforcement world purely to embark on a different type of work. Whilst I enjoyed the pressure and the variety of projects at the firm, my individual responsibility in these projects was very small, and understandably so due to the volume of data captured. Although I am now only dealing with the examination of one computer, not ten, I am responsible for this from acquisition, to report, and to court if necessary, and this is very fulfilling."

If you have experience working for a Big Four firm in this sector I would be very interested to know whether you agree with these thoughts?

Is an IT degree any use in 2010?

2010-11-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

I am speaking to the Computer Forensic undergraduates at Glasgow University next week and generally spend a lot of time at Universities outlining the career opportunities available to students. Even from my brief snapshot of an annual visit I have reached the view – which is, I think, pretty accepted in the uk computer forensics community - that the quality of computer forensics courses varies tremendously from excellent to pretty pointless (in terms of content rather than other skills gained).

There is often debate on the forums about whether a potential computer forensics practitioner benefits more from a general IT degree or a specific one in forensics. However, could it be that this argument is too short-sighted?

Maybe the question we should be asking is whether an IT based degree is actually of any use? The CIO panel at Silicon.com certainly didn’t think so in the following article published this week:

http://www.silicon.com/management/hr/2010/11/12/it-degrees-you-dont-need-one-to-succeed-in-it-say-cios-39746611/

I spoke to one very talented, experienced computer forensics analyst to ask his opinion on the article:

“As someone who dropped out of University after becoming disillusioned by what the course was offering - I have to agree with this article.

I was studying Electronics at University and I was awarded a scholarship from a major organisation where I spent two summers working at the forefront of the electronics industry. I would say that hardly any of my university course was relevant to what I experienced in industry. The course was outdated, expanding on basic principles that I had learnt at A’ level and far behind where the electronics industry was heading.

Of my peers who did graduate, a significant number have returned to further their studies in other areas as they were unable to find work in the electronics industry for one reason or another. In my biased opinion, experience counts for far more than any qualification.”

I tend to agree: do you?

What day is it?

2010-11-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

We all have professional pride – even recruiters - and nobody wants to be the Audley Harrison of their profession. Luckily, in recruitment when we get it wrong nobody dies and we aren’t humiliated in front of thousands of people to the same level as poor old Audley last night. However, I was reminded of my most embarrassing recruitment error just this weekend.

It was just before midnight on Friday night and I was happily playing poker at the excellent new Fox Poker Club on Shaftesbury Avenue (http://www.foxpokerclub.com/) – a poker club with windows, whatever next – when a burly figure approached, moved his head very close to mine and whispered ominously: “Oy, David – what day is it you muppet’.

Oh dear, it was Steve. Now, I enjoy bumping into Steve as much as people look forward to major surgery.

Steve is an outstanding Fraud Investigator who was based in Germany a few years ago. We had been working together on securing him a role with a major Consultancy based in London but arranging the final meeting had been a complete nightmare as his diary was incredibly full and the hiring MD he had to meet was always out of the country. Finally, a meeting was arranged for a Thursday and all was set for the conclusion of a deal that had been simmering for around four months.

There was just one slight problem as I had got a little confused with dates and had booked Steve’s flights two days early when the MD wasn’t around and Steve couldn’t stay. The deal collapsed, the champagne was never drunk and by the time I had finished apologising and refunded all travel costs and compensated Steve for his time nobody was happy - I have always treble checked interview times/dates since!

This is probably my worst recruitment mistake but it is not as bad as the catastrophic recruiter error that is unforgivable – sending a CV to the company where somebody currently works. I think you would be surprised just how often this happens, especially with some of the contingency recruiters out there who just scatter-gun CV’s to as many organisations as possible on a speculative basis in the hope that there could be interest. These recruiters often aren’t even aware that one company can be a subsidiary or otherwise related to another which is one of the reasons it is vital for any jobseeker to emphasise to recruiters that they can only approach organisations with written permission.

Gaining written permission and keeping thorough notes on every call/email made during the recruitment process also helps prevent the loss of control often experienced by jobseekers. When dealing with recruiters, I am astonished when quite senior people are actually unaware whether an organisation has been approached on their behalf. I would always advise a jobseeker to ask a recruiter about their relationship with an organisation before they give the recruiter permission to contact a company on their behalf - try the following questions:

· - How long have you worked with the organisation?

· - How many people have you placed there in the last 12 months?

· - Do you work with HR or the Hiring Manager?

· - Why should you represent me with this organisation?

Recruiters are supposed to facilitate the hiring process and if you don’t have confidence that you are going to be represented professionally then walk away....

What a day on Saturday! The Mighty Leeds United continue their meteoric rise crashing into the play-off spots and the Australians thumped at Twickenham! What next: surely not victory in The Ashes?

Not Welcome!

2010-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

I have sailed for most of my life. Through this wonderful sport I have literally travelled around the world to compete at events and met some of my very best friends from all walks of life and of all ages.

Unfortunately, sailing still has an elitist reputation in some quarters. Those who still hold this view should visit my home club – The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club – to see just how far from the truth this is (in fact, let me know when you are at either of the club houses in Cowes or Burnham-on-Crouch and if I am free I will happily buy you a drink or four and introduce you to some of my pals). Every weekend sees parents giving up their time to encourage the thriving youth fleets and although there are some very wealthy members (funnily enough, none in recruitment) everyone mixes in a very casual atmosphere on the balcony on a summers evening – it is inclusive and all are welcome. I like this attitude and actively refuse to attend any sailing event at a snotty club with ‘members only’ on the door.

I mention this inclusiveness as very rarely for me I am in ‘Billy's Bar’ at Elland Road – home of the Mighty Leeds United (Billy’s Bar is in memory of the late, great Billy Bremner, sadly missed in both Leeds and Scotland) as they prepare to destroy Hull City this evening – and yet would rather be elsewhere. I adore being in Leeds so it could be a lot worse especially after our recent couple of startling victories.

However, the point is that I want to be at the F3 conference with a lot of my friends in the computer forensics sector but I am not welcome. My name isn’t Dave and I’m not getting in – although ironically it is, but I still am not getting in.....(dodgy 90’s music reference – apologies)!

For those of you not in the computer forensics sector, F3 (http://www.f3.org.uk) ‘exists to provide an open forum for all forensic computing practitioners, to enable them to share their collective knowledge through discussion and training’. I have tremendous respect for the numerous members of the committee whom I have known for years and the organisation no doubt does a great job for the members. However, F3 have an annual conference which begins today where, as a recruiter, I am not welcome. I pay to advertise in the brochure but I am not able to attend the conference as I am not a practitioner. I have tried to argue the case in previous years that I wish to attend as I am a member of the community but I have had no success.

Yes, it is ‘members only’ and sadly I am as welcome as Phil Woolas at the christening of Ed Millibands newborn child.

My colleagues here tell me to not get so irate about this as it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things and that there is no point in me attending anyway. I think that misses the point: the reason I attend Infosec every year is that I am able to hear speakers discuss trends/issues and by understanding these points I am more informed and credible when I am discussing the industry with my network. Ok, forget that worthy reason, I just want to spend a couple of nights in the bar with some of my friends!

As I see it:

I am active on numerous forums where I think I am a part of the community who is able to actually contribute above the tedious recruiter level of purely posting current vacancies;
I lecture extensively to the computer forensics students at Universities;
I speak at events attended by experienced members of the computer forensics sector and so far, I don’t think there have been any complaints that I am bothering people (well, except for the unfortunate case involving a case of vodka, three packets of wine gums and the Russian gymnasts which we will skip over as that was a simple misunderstanding).

But still, I am not welcome at the biggest UK computer forensics event of the year. Is this fair?

If you help run a club, community or forum of any description that bars people for no clear, valid reasons please do reconsider. Some of the snotty ‘members only’ sailing clubs I have shunned in the past are now desperate for new members to ensure their survival but they have woken up to the new world order too late and the future isn’t bright.

Oh, and if you are at the F3 conference and sober enough to read this, do please have a beer for us recruiters stranded at the door....

Be very afraid....

2010-11-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

Today I waited outside a school and stole the dinner money from the cutest, smallest children. I then committed a number of armed robberies before finishing off the day with a random killing spree.

That is bad enough, but even worse, I am a recruiter! I know you could accept all of the above and still be seen with me in public but well, when you know what I do for work I quite understand that you will shun me if we ever meet at a party.

I was prompted to write the above as on Forensic Focus yesterday, someone called ‘4rensics’ posted the following about recruiters:

“Dont get me started! Completely useless... but thats a different rant for another day
If I never rang back any of the people I've done jobs for, both forensic and before I joined this I would have been saked a thousand times over... yet when they don't call back, it’s the norm... sounds like a cushy number, get CVs... End! Go home. OK I've started....
Walk away from the keyboard!!!”

Clearly ‘4rensics’ rather tediously falls into the arrogant trap of thinking that others have easy jobs. However, sadly the basic views of ‘4rensics’ are shared by many jobseekers and due to the number of terrible recruiters around I have to accept these are widely held for valid reasons.

This is a major problem. The perception of recruiters isn’t changing – in the fifteen years I have been in recruitment I would say it has got worse. I think the basic problem is that as recruiters our fees come from Clients which means there is a tendency to neglect jobseekers unless we can clearly see how they are going to make us money. As I work in niche markets I can spend a lot of time helping people with their CV’s and discussing the market as although this doesn’t earn me money in the short-term over a longer period of time it is invaluable, but generalists aren’t able to do this. Surely, however, the model has to change so that we can use our industry expertise (especially those of us in niche areas – I think the generalists are doomed) to help people effectively manage their careers over a long period of time?

As an amusing aside (well, maybe not amusing at all), I did hear one excruciatingly bad story in the computer forensics area about a real cowboy recruiter who made a ‘headhunting’ call to ‘sell’ an Analyst role to the Computer Forensics Legend Professor Tony Sammes. To get through to him he told people he was a friend and, well, just came across as a complete idiot. It is a bit like me calling David Cameron and offering him a role managing parking regulations for a local council.

It is increasingly clear that recruiters don’t just provide a patchy service to jobseekers but also to Clients. In his excellent blog an HR Manager (http://myhellisotherpeople.com/2010/10/26/listen-to-the%C2%A0music/) compares the slow death of the recruitment industry to the decline of the music industry for a number of reasons but mainly due to arrogance and a reluctance to accept inevitable change.

On the whole, recruiters still expect to work to a percentage fee structure regardless of the actual work involved and there is usually no follow-up after a person has been recruited. In the rapidly changing environment in which we work and with the huge growth of social media this just cannot continue. In particular, I agree with one commenter on the above blog who says that the big organisations and many medium-sized ones are embracing resourcing as part of a wider talent strategy and as a minimum now have the tools and the ability to eliminate all but the very niche recruiters from the process. As a niche recruiter it really must now be all about how we can genuinely add real value.

Moving on......

Today, I am entertaining at Twickenham as England see off the All Blacks whilst of course keeping an eye on events at Coventry as the Mighty Leeds United bring their unique brand of silky football skills to another stadium of admirers......Have a good one!

Ask the question?

2010-11-02T02:29:00.000-07:00

One of the recruitment newsletters I subscribe to is ‘Ask the Headhunter’ which is written by Nick Corcidilos (http://corcodilos.com/blog). This week he discusses whether at interview you should explicitly ask for the job to clearly demonstrate your interest to the hiring manager. Nick strongly believes that the answer is a resounding yes, essentially because most people aren’t entirely sure they want a job until they have heard much more about the position and company at the interview. Therefore, at the end of the meeting you should let the interviewer know that you have made up your mind positively about the position.

I am not sure about this advice. I appreciate that in some sales interviews it is standard for the jobseeker to ask whether the interviewer has any concerns so that they can then presumably overcome all objections whilst still in the interview. However, can this more aggressive style really be successful in the sectors for which I recruit or will it actually put off hiring managers? In fact, is it actually aggression at all or just that as we become adults we develop emotions such as embarrassment, pride and self-consciousness which prevent us from asking for what we want?

Maybe in our sector there are other ways of making it clear that you are interested in the position without actually directly asking for the job. For example, summarising what the company is looking for and how you have demonstrated this during the interview can make it easy for the interviewer to see how you clearly you fit the role – or is this just over-complication? I would be interested to hear what has/hasn’t worked for you.

As an aside, I received an amusing CV this week from somebody in their late 20’s who felt it was important to record details of their paper round fourteen years ago, including (bizarrely) the name of the newsagent which was, I think, of paramount importance....Mind you, that is not quite as ‘hilarious’ as the person who sent me a CV through the post earlier this year in an envelope filled with confetti to ensure that their application stood out. On my knees picking up confetti for ten minutes I admired this strategy greatly which is right up there with comedy email addresses – in 2010 I have actually received job applications from ‘x-ratedstud@’ ,‘beer-monster86@’ and ‘sweatygirl72@’. Why?!!!

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

2010-10-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to say that I spend way too much time in Vegas (if that is possible). If you haven’t spent time in this amazing City then you may not understand but if you have been there you will know why I am so pleased that we do lots of work with Clients on the US west coast as it gives me a great excuse to base myself in Vegas for extended periods of time.

Last December I was sitting at a Poker game in the Bellagio Hotel at 4am on the morning of the Vegas marathon which also coincided with the National Rodeo Finals and a tattoo convention. At the table were four hard-core cowboys, a couple of tattoo superstars (I had never realised that these guys are like rock stars constantly being approached for photos/autographs – a bit like recruiters in many ways) and a few of the poker degenerates that you tend to play poker with in Vegas when you really should be asleep. The free drinks were flowing and the banter was lively (as always) when suddenly all these well-rested, fit marathon runners started to trail past ready for the big race. One middle-aged Vegas local who had spent most of the night somewhat drunkenly arguing with a man from Dallas that David Grey was a bigger name in world music than Frank Zappa suddenly announced that he was going to lose five stone in weight and run the marathon next year. Well, this seemed highly unlikely as this man didn’t look as though he was shy at the buffet to say the very least and after a few minutes of laughter the conversation moved on.

I was back in Vegas a few weeks ago and bumped into the same Vegas local and guess what? Yes, you know what I am going to say....he was about three stone heavier, denied ever having said such a stupid thing and offered me the following words of wisdom which is, I think, a Sinatra quote :"I feel sorry for those who do not drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day” before heading off to the poker table! He has less chance of running the marathon this year than Gorillaz being asked to headline at Glastonbury again....

I was reminded of this today when I spoke to a Computer Forensics Investigator who we shall call Steve. We first spoke just over a year ago when he was working on a short-term contract for a public sector organisation and not enjoying it one bit as he was desperate to get into a large Consultancy where felt his Client- Facing skills would really be utilised.

Unlike our Vegas friend, Steve put together a real plan. He called Line Managers from maybe fifteen of the organisations he had identified as where he wanted to work and although some of them weren’t helpful initially his persistence paid off and with regular calls/emails he slowly started to build relationships. In my opinion, this networking is the absolute key to the job search. Steve called me regularly becoming a real person rather than just a CV and because of that I really wanted to help him and when I was on a long car journey I would often call him just to chat about how things were going.

Steve accepted a fantastic role at a major Consultancy today. This role wasn’t advertised (for all those people who don’t contact a company if there is no job advertised on their web site, trust me here, most roles in this area aren’t actively advertised) and the first step to securing this job was when he was invited to an informal meeting with one of the line managers he had identified a year ago. Once he got to interview stage, he was able to make it very clear that he had targeted this company a long time ago and with this clear commitment it is no surprise he was offered the role!

I think this short story clearly demonstrates how important it is to differentiate yourself – whatever your level of experience – and take the time to build genuine relationships with people who are able to assist you in your job search. If not, there is always the easy way to make your millions in fabulous Las Vegas whilst at the same time discussing the big issues of our time such as the relative merits of Frank Zappa and David Grey....

Something for the weekend

2010-10-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

My first ever boss was a big fan of weekend work and he was full of wise, detailed advice such as that if you do a good job and work hard that you may get a job with a better company someday. Mind you, looking back I think we can discount most of his views as this is the guy who felt that making Steve McLaren manager of the England team was a stroke of genius....

I am currently at the research stage of a major Search Assignment and so worked for most of the weekend that has just gone and actually quite enjoy working at the weekend with the music turned up and no phone ringing or imminent deadlines to hit. The nature of my business involves a lot of working with US Clients and also talking to genuinely busy people who can’t take calls during the day so I am used to taking/making calls outside traditional working hours. Mind you, one of my US Clients - who has now moved on - did take it a little far expecting me to regularly participate in conference calls on a Sunday afternoon that could stretch as long as four hours! However, in the scheme of things, even that wasn’t too bad compared to some of the other things I could have been doing such as:

· - Watching a compilation of Nick Clegg speeches (Charlie Brooker has posted an amusing article about him today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/25/charlie-brooker-nick-clegg);

· - Listening to an entire ‘Slip Knot’ album on repeat;

· - Reading Wayne Rooney’s autobiography;

· - Watching either of the Sex in the City Films.

Luckily, in the specialist markets in which I recruit most of the people I need to talk with are online at some stage over the weekend so we often converse via email but I still struggle with making phone calls. When is an acceptable time to call somebody and why do I always feel the need to apologise for calling at the weekend? I try to only call people I know at weekends as we then can usually get straight to the point of the call rather than taking extra time to develop some rapport.

Actually, this rapport building is another issue that I spend way too long thinking about and is a common criticism of recruiters who are sometimes perceived as far too bright and bubbly on the phone which sounds fake. Don’t you just hate that – I know I do? I get a lot of sales calls and I really dislike it when someone I don’t know asks me how my weekend was or whether I have anything nice planned for the coming weekend. I have to constantly resist the temptation to go on a twenty minute rant about how awful my weekend was or how I am due to have some horrendous surgical procedure next week.

No work for me this evening though as I am at Elland Road for a night out with some of my friends from Cardiff as we renew our ‘friendly rivalry’ with the welsh club. For those of you not lucky enough to be at the stadium to watch low quality football in sub-zero temperatures, you will be delighted to know that you can still follow the latest victory for the Mighty Leeds United live on Sky.....

Keep it interesting

2010-10-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Like you, I have sat at numerous conferences (occasionally even presenting when the organisers are really struggling) and have often been bored to tears by most of the presentations. At INFOSEC this year, one particular presenter was well dressed, successful (bewilderingly), and quite possibly the first walking, talking, human sedative who just kept plugging his product in a monotone voice for what seemed like hours. Ok, so I hadn’t paid to listen but it was still 45 minutes of my life that I wasn’t going to get back and if he had droned on for much longer there was a genuine possibility that my life was going to shortly end – well it was either going to be mine or his and from a utilitarian viewpoint I think I almost had justification!

I was reminded of this presentation today when a really outstanding Computer Forensics candidate was unsuccessful at interview due to being, well, just too boring. As I have said in numerous articles, in my experience recruiting in this sector, the reason most Computer Forensics people fail to be successful at interview is because their personality goes out of the window and they become just like the Infosec presenter – a robot just answering technical questions in a tedious manner.

I do appreciate that when an interview has a strong technical content it is hard to avoid this but being aware that it can be an issue has to be the first step to countering it along with ensuring you keep smiling ( but not in that weird way employed by most MP’s), and making lots of eye contact.

As some very wise person once said (probably after a few drinks): ‘knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.’

How much do you earn?

2010-10-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today really has just been one of those days.

Mind you, it is not quite in the same league as when one of my candidates turned up for an eDiscovery Director role in a Homer Simpson tie (yes, you have guessed it no happy ending here) or when another jobseeker was physically sick all over the desk during the interview (my shocked Client sent me an email titled ‘sweetcorn everywhere’ – nice). Neither of these are as bad as an ex-colleague of mine who told me the story of one of her candidates who during the interview was asked to draw a picture that best described him. He drew a clown with blood pouring from its eyes, ears and nose. What on earth is that all about? Would you have employed him (or even have risked travelling to reception with him alone in a lift)?

As a recruiter one of the things we spend a lot of time doing is talking about salary. Even now, after all these years in recruitment, I still sometimes find it odd when I have just met somebody and within minutes I am asking what they earn. Imagine meeting a new person for the first time in a bar and after making small talk about the weather you then ask them about their salary and even more remarkably they are happy to tell you! Actually, if I kept a straight face I wonder what else I could get away with asking (suggestions in the comments section, please)??!

Anyway, the reason we do so is that because however senior you are salary is still always a big deal and if we cannot come to an understanding on this there is little point proceeding. If your salary expectations are in my view unrealistic then I - as with most recruiters – will tell you very clearly that we cannot help you and will wish you well in your search for a new job.

In my experience, as a general rule, it is pretty rare to secure a salary increase of more than 20% of your current basic salary. There are exceptions such as the Computer Forensics Manager we placed in 2008 who went from a basic salary of £64k to £100k but trust me, this sort of salary hike is very much the exception.

In a discipline such as Computer Forensics, one difficulty I experience is that sometimes people currently working in the Public Sector have unrealistic views about what salary they can secure in the Private Sector. On a number of occasions people earning around the £40k mark have told me they would need £70k to move roles due to pension constraints and other issues. Whilst I understand their thinking it is also – in my view - wildly unrealistic. A similar situation I find difficult is when someone is based in, say Scotland, where the CF opportunities are limited, and they are looking to move to London. They could be earning £35k and need to earn £50k in London to cover their increased living costs. However, for the employer based in London why would they pay a a basic salary of £50k when they could secure a local person currently earning £35k for £38k?

So, this is why we talk about salaries so much to ensure there are no misunderstandings. However, sometimes when somebody is actually in an interview all the discussions we have had previously go out of the window. Why is this: nerves, ego? Whatever the reason, this brings me back to my bad day today when someone I had spoken to maybe ten times and agreed each time that they were looking for a salary of £60k told the interviewer they needed to earn £80k......joy unconfined! End result:

1, Annoyed interviewer. ‘David, we were quite clear we couldn’t pay more than £60k and ‘x’ told us he was looking for a basic of £80k. Please don’t waste our time with unsuitable people.’ Recruiter apologises and looks unprofessional.

2, Annoyed jobseeker, ‘I took a day off for this interview – I trust you will pay my expenses’. Recruiter bites tongue and resists inclination to resort to physical violence as we agreed salary expectations so many times then writes it off as a bad job and authorises expenses.

3, Annoyed recruiter who after having apologised to both (1) and (2) resolves to talk about salary expectations even more often and with even more clarity in future! Recruiter then ponders drinking a bottle of absinthe...

So, when your recruiter annoys you by talking endlessly about salary expectations please do understand why they are doing so and do tell them what you REALLY think to avoid wasting time at a later date.....

New article

2010-10-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Are you a fan of cutting edge, insightful, thought-provoking recruitment articles? Nor me but apparently there are some out there! In the meantime, why not look at my latest article 'How to seduce potential employers - or even your recruiter' which has just been published at Forensic Focus: http://www.forensicfocus.com/david-sullivan.

A selection of previous articles/interviews from 2005 onwards can be found on our website: http://www.appointments-uk.co.uk/articles.php

Another great result for the Mighty Leeds United as we swept Middlesbrough aside this evening but I hope this doesn't mean the end for the 'boro manager and Leeds Legend Gordon Strachan as his interviews are pure comedy! For those of you who don't follow UK football an example of Strachan's 'wit' was last week when he was grilled by irate local media on how he dealt with the pressure at the club where he has won just 13 times in 45 games."Take drugs, and drink, and smoke," was Strachan's reply! Unfortunately for the manager not everyone saw the funny side....

Don't miss out....

2010-10-15T01:30:00.000-07:00

I have just read an interesting thread on the excellent www.forensicfocus.com about when graduates should start to apply for jobs. Although most of my active work is now senior level recruitment I am still surprisingly often asked to source computer forensics / ediscovery graduates for some of my Clients. With the large number of computer forensics courses that have started in recent years and the surplus of supply over demand you would think that recruiting graduates is straightforward? Sadly not. The standard of course ranges from excellent to very poor and unfortunately the quality of the graduates is variable which means that if graduates are invited to interview just based on their CV a lot of time can be wasted.

Still, this is great news for me as it means I can still continue to accept invitations to speak at Universities running courses in this area. I have been speaking at some Universities for over five years and it is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job as the students are almost without exception incredibly passionate about their subject and eager to learn about the opportunities available to them upon graduation. Also, a trip to campus always takes me back to those carefree University days and often gives me a chance to catch up with old friends/contacts in different parts of the UK...

When reading the Forensic Focus thread today I wasn’t really surprised that some students aren’t being advised early on about when to apply for specific roles. When I speak at Universities I am usually shocked at just how unaware students are about the actual roles they are likely to take and how they intend to secure these positions. I do appreciate that it is difficult for University Careers Officers to offer specific advice about these niche career paths but still, surely a student studying Computer Forensics should at least have some idea about the very real differences between working for a High Tech Crime Unit as opposed to Big 4 organisation? I guess the key is for the students to be proactive about their future career from a very early stage in their University life so they don’t miss out on opportunities – or to ensure their favourite recruiter is invited to campus to speak not just to final year students but the new intake too!

I trust that like me you will all be glued to the TV screen tomorrow evening to watch the Mighty Leeds United take the three points from Middlesbrough. Have a great weekend.

Too many cooks....

2010-10-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with recruitment is that most people have experienced it in some form and that objectively it is incredibly easy – and it is of course, or rather it should be – but this very simplicity causes a large number of people to 'offer' recruitment advice. The problem is that a lot of this advice although well-intentioned is just incredibly unhelpful to the unsuspecting jobseeker.

I was reminded of this today when on one of the forums where I am active a new graduate was asking for advice about telephone interviewing. I have probably been involved in over 100 telephone interviews in 2010 (it is a necessary first step for many of our US Clients) so I have sat in on a lot of calls, heard the feedback and so think I have a pretty good feel for what contributes to a successful call. I certainly have a clear understanding on what makes a bad telephone interview! Most of the advice on the forum was the standard stuff you would expect about being in the right environment, preparing properly etc but then one senior person (who when discussing his area of expertise is outstanding) suggested asking about the benefits package including healthcare, pensions and transport costs. Oh dear...

If you are ever asked to take a telephone interview it really isn’t advisable to ask questions related to the colour scheme in the office, the texture of your keyboard, popular bars for a lunchtime beer or the quality of coffee. Ok, so you can probably get away with any of the above but I would suggest that the cardinal rule is don’t ever ask about the benefits package before you have even met anyone from the company for a face to face interview!!

There is some amazing interview advice available out there - use it carefully!