IT security hiring often stumbles at the gate: HR screens, vague prompts, and a missing grip on the actual skills. Here’s how to fix it.
You’ve probably heard that IT security hiring is a merit-based process where your real skills win out in the end. The truth is messier. In my experience, the gatekeeper in many cases is HR or Talent Acquisition, not the technical interview panel. I keep getting phone screens with recruiters who ask about things that barely relate to incident response, forensic analysis, or threat hunting, and they do so without a clear frame for what a real candidate should know. This article isn’t a rant; it’s a practical look at the gaps I’ve seen, plus a concrete call to action for both candidates and teams who actually hire security talent. If you’re in the trenches of incident response, forensics, or SOC work, you’ve probably faced a similar scenario: a recruiter asks about SQL injection or a vague notion of “command line” without pinning down what those terms mean in your day-to-day work. The core problem isn’t the candidate’s abilities; it’s the hiring process that treats security each as a generic tech skill rather than a concrete, job-relevant capability. And yes, this is IT security hiring in its messy, human-optimized form. The good news? You can reframe the conversation and push the process toward real skill assessment. The first step is acknowledging the gap and committing to a structured, transparent process for evaluating security talent.
The main keyphrase to focus on is IT security hiring, and you’ll see that phrase appear throughout this post as we unpack what’s broken and what to do about it.
From here, we’ll walk through the problems, offer concrete fixes for HR and managers, and give you a practical playbook for navigating these conversations without sacrificing speed or quality. You’ll also find a few hard-earned tips from real-world IR work that you can apply in your next interview or recruitment cycle.
Important note: I’m not here to demonize recruiters. I’m here to describe what’s often happening, why it’s a problem for serious security work, and how to fix it in a way that respects both the candidate’s time and the company’s risk posture. The truth is, IT security hiring should be a collaboration between technical interview teams and HR, not a battle of vague questions and gut feel.
If you want to check the broader landscape, industry reporting from outlets like WIRED describes how post-pandemic interviews have grown more grueling, which only amplifies the problem for security roles that require deep, applied skills. It’s not just you—this is a systemic challenge that needs a practical remedy. citeturn0news9