In past articles I have discussed a wide range of topics dealing with competencies, professional skills and strategies for marketing yourself to find your perfect job.

It’s your first day in your new enterprise and your new job as the security executive.

I am frequently asked by candidates if I can help them to either find a position or be placed into one.

Every year, Security magazine is pleased to honor top security executives and leaders who positively impact the security industry, their organization, their colleagues and peers, as well as the national and global security landscape.

Your resume is a marketing document. Too much information presented as a career biography may not achieve the results you are hoping for. A recruiter or hiring manager, who has never met you, will judge you by its content and appearance alone, and decide whether you deserve further consideration for the role in which you have expressed interest. A brief, clear, attractive resume will recommend you more highly to a recruiter than a long-winded, poorly designed one will – even if the content is the same. The time investment is significant, even if produced with the assistance of a professional writer.

Do you ever stop to think about what you need to know to be at the top of your game?

In early April, Wall Street’s oversight committee announced that bank’s oversight of cybersecurity measures at outside firms it does business with remains a work in progress, at best. It cited a survey of 40 banks that found that only about a third require their outside vendors to notify them of any breach to their own networks, which could in turn compromise confidential information of the bank and its customers.

What does leadership mean to you? We all have our own ideas about what it means to be a good leader. For example, some people think leadership means guiding others to complete a particular task, while others believe it means motivating the members of your team to be their best selves. But while the definitions may vary, the general sentiments remain the same: leaders are people who know how to achieve goals and inspire people along the way.

Does your organization have an active program that conducts reference checking on employees before they are hired? Ownership of the pre-employment vetting process does not often reside with the security function within the organization. Some companies outsource background checks to third party organizations to share the task. Many of these policies are impacted by legislation, and limitations can be imposed on the use of various vetting methods.