21 Oct 2013
The online event includes full access to SANS CyberTalent Assessment tool for assessing skill levels of job applicants

The SANS Institute will be running a Virtual Careers Fair over 29th & 30th of November aimed at connecting organisations and recruiters from across the UK to a vast pool of fully validated InfoSec professionals. The online event includes full access to SANS CyberTalent Assessments, a web-based skill evaluation tool to help rapidly and accurately assess the skill levels of job applicants and benchmark candidates against each other.

The CyberTalent Virtual Careers Fair is split across four areas and includes a ‘Conference Hall’ with virtual stands from top employers and agencies which includes job descriptions, related webcasts, CV upload and web chat facilities. In the ‘Virtual Networking Lounge’, candidates and InfoSec experts can meet, share career advice and chat while browsing through a library of InfoSec training and industry led webinars. The ‘Jobs Board’ lists all vacancies across participating sponsors while the ‘Career Roadmap and Training’ section allows visitors to examine skills and career development opportunities with advice on training courses.

All job applicants will be pre-screened using CyberTalent Assessments allowing internal recruiters, human resources departments, and information security managers to contrast applicants’ technical skill levels to easily create a shortlist of suitable candidates.

“The event will allow employers to interact with the right calibre of candidates and in a professional and effective manner that equates to the cost of one recruitment agency fee without the hassle and staffing issues associated with a traditional jobs fair,” explains Tom Carver, Director – SANS CyberTalent. “The CyberTalent Assessment provides an objective analysis and detailed reporting to help quickly separate candidates with a good ‘theoretical’ CV from the individuals that have active and appropriate skills needed for the role.”

As a Virtual event, the CyberTalent Careers Fair is designed to attract many more attendees than a traditional careers fair as attendees have no travel costs, do not need to book time off work and are guaranteed anonymity in the job search. Ease of use is further enhanced by access through an individual’s mobile phone, tablet and pc.

"SANS now offer 50+ training courses that increase the depth of knowledge of InfoSec staff, as well as supporting initiatives such as the Cyber Security Challenge UK"

Powered by the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) exam engine and Real SkillTest questions, SANS CyberTalent Assessments can provide benchmarks across many information security areas such as audit, management, operations, software security, forensics and legal. Over 52,000 students have gained GIAC certifications worldwide and CyberTalent is able to draw on thousands of reference questions from an assessment framework that is continually evolving in line with the security and regulatory landscape.

“Over the weeks running up to the event, we will be working with our media partner SC Magazine and a number of media outlets to generate awareness and drive sign-ups for what we hope will be the first of many such fairs,” Carver says.

Tom Carver adds, “It is well documented that there is a global skills shortage in the Information Security industry. SANS now offer 50+ training courses that increase the depth of knowledge of InfoSec staff, as well as supporting initiatives such as the Cyber Security Challenge UK to increase the number of new entrants into the industry. We have been asked by many clients to assist in their ability to attract and assess job applicants, and we are excited that the CyberTalent Careers Fair in conjunction with the CyberTalent Skills Assessments will do exactly this.”