Recruiting the top of the class

Dec 1, 2000 12:00 PM, JAMES STEVENS

In today's tight labor market, security managers struggle to recruit good trainees, and top students have many options. An `A' student, however, is not a one-size-fits-all employee. Managers frequently use exit interviews to gain insight about internal matters, but entrance interviews are normally less candid. This article provides a candid "entrance interview" look at recruiting the top of the class, based on the experiences of a graduate student who researched many jobs for a full year before choosing one.

In the range of areas covered by security, it is important to pick people with skills that match needs. Hiring and training recent graduates - only later to discover a mismatch - is costly to the company and a disservice to the employee. Young, ambitious students desire opportunities to succeed and, when fully informed, normally choose career paths that fit them. Managers should use interviews to clarify the nature of the work, discover the appropriateness of the educational background, and ensure that the candidate accepts the conflicts between theory and application.

The nature of the work often varies greatly, even for jobs with similar job descriptions. Our test-study graduate interviewed at three large organizations for a position posted as "security engineer." The interviews revealed stark contrasts. Pinkerton Systems Integration sought a technical sales representative, the U.S. State Department sought an instrument technician, and Lockwood Greene Technologies sought a systems designer - yet all three were advertised as "security engineer." The potential for a mismatch is obvious. A computer security student is likely to be ill-suited for interrogation duties and a graduate with a degree in criminal justice is probably not trained to develop integrated systems for national critical assets protection. The interviews averted potentially poor career choices. The recruiting process can ensure the right candidate is chosen. The interview should reveal a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, which can be compared with the services needed for the position.

Many schools provide security-related curricula. Having a background in security does not necessarily make a student qualified because all security engineer positions are not the same. A military school might produce a qualified guard force candidate. Liberal arts colleges teach criminal justice for future investigators and researchers. The Southwest Surety Institute, for example, in cooperation with the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories, works with colleges such as New Mexico Tech and Arizona State University to prepare security engineers to protect national critical assets. Degrees leading to technical security careers range from an associate degree to a masters in security engineering technology.

Top students work hard for their class ranking and like to talk about their more rewarding assignments. Applicants can provide course syllabi, program descriptions, and sample projects to demonstrate how their education relates to the job requirements. Ensuring that the educational background matches the job is important to both parties involved. An employer will no more pay a salary for unneeded advanced degrees than an employee will remain happy in a position where his/her abilities remain unused. The closer the curriculum theory matches the work application, the better prepared the applicant will be in supporting local security objectives.

Ambitious students appreciate a candid discussion of what a job realistically entails. Ensuring that the candidate accepts the occasional conflict between theory and application preempts a lot of disillusionment. The discussion may also reveal information about the candidate's maturity and his/her conviction to idealism (good traits for people in positions of trust). Security applications benefit from appropriately applied theory. Especially in the more technical disciplines of security, theory enables pro-active decisions. The consistency of the results is evidence of the adherence to the theory. A bright, idealistic student understands the importance of theory application and endeavors to develop the most cost-effective security design. A mature applicant accepts that client expectations, budgeting, operational constraints and local politics may require the ideal system be implemented incrementally. Discussing conflicts between application and theory provides insight into the candidate's philosophy and avoids possible misunderstandings.

Schools prepare students for the general job market. Practices specific to an office require training beyond a generic education. The right candidate should have the proper grounding to comprehend the big picture of an organization's security objectives. The new employee will still need time to learn local norms, standards, and projects. In school, every experience is a textbook case and so, the sterile educational experience must be compensated with mentoring and independent study.

Students graduating at the top of the class have many career options for earning a living, but few that entice them to invest their future. Beyond a competitive salary, graduates seek compatible jobs that promise opportunities for personal success. Employers need the kind of team cohesiveness that repeatedly produces results. Simply hiring an `A' student from a resume or accepting a job from the posted description frequently fails to serve either party. Effective security requires that employees believe in and support the organizational objectives. Use the interview process to recruit graduates with the intellectual collateral and personal conviction needed to fully invest themselves in your organization.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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