Attracting Cybersecurity Talent in a Competitive Job Market

Ransomware attacks, data breaches and other cyber-attacks happen every day—even more now that so many of us are working from virtual offices. Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand, but hiring one isn’t always easy.  

On any given day, there are 8,000 to 10,000 cybersecurity jobs available in Canada, according to data from CareerFinder, an AI tool TECHNATION developed to collect and analyze job data in real time. Simply put, there are far more cybersecurity jobs available in Canada than people with the skills necessary to fill them. 

If you’re an employer looking to recruit cybersecurity talent, TECHNATION has tools and resources that can help you weather the talent shortage. 

Finding Talent for Hybrid Roles 

Many Canadian companies are small- or medium-sized enterprises that are looking for talent with cybersecurity and another tech (or tech-adjacent) skill set. For example, there are analyst jobs that require cybersecurity expertise, or roles that blend cybersecurity with project management. But the CareerFinder tool provides labour market insights that can help you refine your job postings and attract the right candidates. 

You can see how many cybersecurity jobs are open nationwide or in a province or territory, giving you an idea of how much competition you’re facing. On the flip side, if you’re hiring for a remote role, you can use this information to target recruitment in provinces with fewer job openings.  

The Job Title Heatmap can also reveal a lot of useful data that you can use to build your own job posting. Let’s say you want to hire a data privacy specialist. Selecting that job title will reveal how many job openings there are for that title, as well as the median salary across the country or in any province or territory allowing you to make informed decisions about your job offering. When you click on a province, you’ll also see a breakdown of the cities with matching open jobs, which can help you get a sense of how much competition there is no matter where your business is located. The tool also shows an aggregate list of the top skill trends for each role, including skills required by employers, as well as emerging skills and those on the decline skills. 

Your company can use this data to build compelling job postings and offer competitive salaries to help attract top tech talent. 

Employ Students to Fill Talent Gaps 

One way you can fill a talent gap in the short term is to hire a post-secondary student. In a recent sponsored article on InnovatingCanada.ca, Angela Mondou, TECHNATION’s President and CEO, discussed how the Career Ready Program, funded by the Government of Canada’s Student Work Placement Program, is helping students build careers in cybersecurity.  

“TECHNATION’s Career Ready Program plays a huge role in helping youth to realize pathways into careers in tech,” she explains, “particularly in cybersecurity, where there’s a lack of understanding as to what positions in that field might include.” 

Students who go back to school for reskilling or upskilling often have unique job experiences to offer employers. Some may have a background in IT and need to update their skills, while others may come from project management, marketing or any number of other fields that may be useful to your organization. Building connections with post-secondary schools that offer programs aimed at upskilling and reskilling can help you find uniquely talented professionals with fresh cybersecurity skills.  

Best of all, the Career Ready program covers up to 70 per cent of the student’s work placement wages, so it’s a very affordable option for companies recovering from the effects of the pandemic. 

Learn more about TECHNATION’s CareerFinder Tool and how the Career Ready Program can work for you.