Job Reconnaissance: Using Hacking Skills to Win the Job Hunt Game

There is considerably more skill in the IT and security communities than is reflected in the jobs people are able to attain. Most people’s limiting factor in their ability to get better jobs is not technical skills or even the soft skills necessary to do well in a new job. It is that getting a job is a completely different skill set and one that most people only practice every few years.

Job Reconnaissance: Using Hacking Skills to Win the Job Hunt Game

explains the job hunting process, why the most commonly followed models fail and how to better approach the search. It covers the entire job hunt process from when to decide to leave your current job, research new possible job opportunities, targeting your new boss, controlling the job interview process and negotiating your new compensation and the departure from your current job.

This is not a complete all-in-one job-hunting book. This book assumes that the reader is reasonably competent and has already heard most of the “standard” advice, but is having difficulty putting the advice into practice. The goal is to fill in the gaps of the other books and to help the readers use their technical skills to their advantage in a different context.

The emphasis in Job Reconnaissance is for infosec and IT job seekers to leverage the same skills they use in penetration testing and recon toward job-hunting success. These skills include targeting, reconnaissance and profiling combined with a technical look at skills other career search books commonly miss.

• Covers the entire job hunt process from when to decide to leave your current job to the departure of your current job
• Suggests how to research new possible job opportunities
• Shows how to target your new boss, controlling the job interview process and negotiating your new compensation

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Foundations: What You Ought to Have Done before Buying This Book
Chapter 2. Time to Leave: How to Know When You Should Move On
Chapter 3. Résumés and Cover Letters: Why the Common Approach Only Works against You
Chapter 4. Talking about Yourself: The Fine Lines around Boasting, Bragging, Belittling, and Begrudging
Chapter 5. Targeting: Cyclical Filtering to Choose Targets with High Likelihoods of Success
Chapter 6. Initial Reconnaissance: Uncovering Seeds
Chapter 7. Deeper Reconnaissance: Uncovering Hidden Data
Chapter 8. Metaphor Mapping: Adjusting to Your Target
Chapter 9. Repositioning: How to Make You Stand Out
Chapter 10. The Phone Interview: Dial M for Meeting
Chapter 11. The Portfolio: Items to Leave Behind
Chapter 12. Thinking about Money: Making the Most of Change
Chapter 13. Before the Interview: Plan to Succeed
Chapter 14. Interview: Take Control
Chapter 15. Post-Interview: The End of the Interview Is Not the End of the Interview
Chapter 16. Salary Negotiation: Everything Can Be Flexible
Chapter 17. Giving Notice: Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Chapter 18. Conclusion

Appendix A. Resources
Appendix B. Interview Questions
Appendix C. Emotional Concerns