Q1: Please can you describe your current role / responsibility?
I run the EMEA business and am responsible for building and re-building our teams across the regions we operate in within EMEA, such as the UK, Southern Europe, DACH and the Middle East.
My focus is to ensure I build the right team and then provide the right environment and leadership to ensure we deliver on our go-to-market strategy in those key regions
Q2: What was it that originally drew you to this market?
Prior to working in cybersecurity, I specialised in infrastructure, specifically helping customers build virtual desktop platforms. I changed jobs to a company that specialised in both infrastructure and cyber.
After a few months, I worked out that the cybersecurity side of the business was a lot more interesting and much faster moving so I immersed myself in it and have never looked back.
Q3: What challenges are you facing currently / what impact has the pandemic had?
The biggest challenge we face is ensuring we concentrate our efforts on the areas where we can get best results in terms of generating customer wins and revenue for the business.
The pandemic has meant that budgets have often been redirected to mission critical areas such as remote working and securely enabling employees to embrace that remote work. Qualifying business opportunities strongly is key in today’s market, to ensure that you focus efforts on the right prospects.
Q4: How has this impacted people / talent sourcing?
The last 18 months have created a unique set of pressures on people. Working from home has been a benefit, but it’s also meant you are ‘always-on’ in a work context. It’s changed the dynamic of the working world and we have to be more aware than ever around areas such as mental health.
From a talent sourcing perspective, it’s made it really challenging, as we have seen many companies let people go through the pandemic and lots of people hitting the market but often these were not the top performing people from that business, of course. Therefore, trying to attract top level talent has been as hard as I can remember for many years, due to a relative lack or quality in the market and also due to it getting harder to access top talent, who employers are working harder than ever to retain.
Q5: How would you describe your experience working with Henderson Scott / Why did you chose to partner with Henderson Scott?
Very positive!
Henderson Scott had been working with my previous company prior to me joining, but for me personally it was a brand-new relationship. Despite that, we quickly built up a trusted partnership.
When you partner with recruiters, you need constant communication, but it also needs to be quality communication – I have definitely had that from Henderson Scott and Nathan has been a good ‘counsel’ around how to do things in terms of processes and how to best ensure we secure the specific people we wanted to hire.
It’s felt like Nathan is an extension to my team, rather than just another recruiter who is sending CV’s to us, hoping some will be relevant. I really feel that he has earned his fees and not put a single poor candidate in front of us, which, to me, is so valuable.
Q6: What’s next for the Market?
The market will continue to grow and economically speaking, the future looks very positive for the cyber vendor space. The number of Cyber-attacks is still increasing, as well as the size and complexity of those attacks.
Cyber is much more commonly reported nowadays in the mainstream media too and that increases the need for companies to ensure they are pro-active in protecting their systems and their customers information. I also think we may see increased regulation in the future. Those elements all combine to create an increased need for the technology that vendors are selling.
In a talent hiring context, I don’t see things getting any easier, so working with a trusted recruitment partner that can access top talent for me is going to continue to be key - for us and for the wider industry.
Are you hiring commercial professionals in Cyber Security but struggling to secure the talent you need? Contact Nathan and find out how he and his team can help.
Or are you working in Cyber Security and are looking for a new opportunity? Click here to begin your search within Henderson Scott.