The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is reassessing its cyber recruitment approach by prioritizing an applicant’s skills over professional experience, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.
Christopher Krebs, director of CISA and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the agency is focusing on younger applicants with hands-on cybersecurity experience, including college graduates and those undergoing post-graduate programs.
“I’m getting 17 [and] 18 year-olds that apply for jobs that have six years of practical, operational experience in security research because they’ve been online white-hat hackers since they could turn on a computer,” Krebs said. “What we’ve got to do is reconfigure the way that we think about hiring talent pool and maximize those approaches.”
Krebs noted that hiring managers should consider graduates from vocational and trade schools as part of efforts to overhaul the federal cyber hiring process.
This news comes almost two months following an executive order from President Trump to modify the federal government’s hiring practices so that a job applicants’ skills will be given priority over a college degree, ExecutiveGov reported on June 26th.
