You have a good vacancy text, a decent salary, and a great team. Yet that
security role has been open for four months. Sound familiar? You're not the
only one — and it's usually not your organization's fault.
The market has flipped
Today's security professional doesn't need to apply. Anyone who's even
slightly visible on LinkedIn gets weekly messages from recruiters. The
result: the people you're looking for simply never read your vacancy. Not
because it isn't good, but because they're not looking.
Five reasons it isn't working
- You're fishing where everyone fishes. A vacancy on the well-known platforms mostly reaches active seekers — a small part of the market, and rarely the best part.
- The role is too broad. "Security Engineer who also does GRC and picks up awareness" — to a specialist, that reads as three jobs for one salary.
- The process takes too long. Good candidates have multiple conversations running within two weeks. Four rounds and an assessment? Then they've already started somewhere else.
- The story is missing. Security people choose on substance: which environment, what maturity, how much room to build? A list of requirements doesn't tell that story.
- Nobody calls. The best people are won over in a conversation, not by a text. If nobody picks up the phone on your behalf, nothing happens.
What does work
Start with the story, not the list of requirements. Make the role sharp —
better narrow and attractive than broad and vague. Keep the process short:
two good conversations say more than four mediocre ones. And make sure
someone who knows the market picks up the phone with intent, because that's
where the difference is made.
That last part happens to be exactly what we do. We know the security people
of the Netherlands personally and know who's ready for a next step — including
the people who will never respond to a vacancy. Tell us what you're looking
for, and we'll be honest about your chances.