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What do cybersecurity professionals look for when they accept a new offer?

Writer: Angel Rossio Millán
Angel Rossio Millán
11 hours ago
3 min read

What we hear in interviews versus what the studies say.

In the previous article we looked at why cybersecurity professionals leave their jobs. The next question is the one that matters most to anyone hiring: what makes them say yes to a new offer?

In our interviews with cybersecurity professionals in Mexico, this is what they were looking for when they accepted:

  • 40%: more scope and authority

  • 27%: compensation

  • 13%: learning

  • 20%: other reasons

The percentages are calculated over those who talked about this topic in the interview. These are working conversations, not a representative survey, so they are useful for raising questions and comparing them, not for settling them. That is why we compared them with published studies.

More scope and authority (40%)

This was the most mentioned reason, and it connects with the previous article: the top reason for leaving was that the role had hit its ceiling. People who leave because of a ceiling accept where they can see that ceiling moving.

The studies point in the same direction, although they don't use the word "authority." In an ISC2 survey of 250 cybersecurity professionals in the United States and Canada (2018), 68% said they want to work where their opinions are taken seriously and 62% where responsibility for cybersecurity is clearly defined. In addition, a study published in Central European Business Review (2024) found that people with more autonomy to make decisions and to choose how they work report higher job satisfaction.

Takeaway: more scope is not just a higher title. It means knowing which decisions the person will make, what responsibility they will have, and who they report to.

Compensation (27%)

In the interviews, compensation weighed little when people talked about why they leave (7%) and considerably more when choosing the new offer (27%). This difference should be read with care, because these are percentages over those who talked about each topic, but it suggests that money is not usually what starts a job search and does count when deciding.

The studies place it somewhere in the middle. In ISC2, salary mattered to 49% for personal fulfillment, but it was not the top priority. In a Skillsoft survey of nearly 8,000 people in IT, better compensation appears among the main reasons for changing jobs, alongside a lack of training and work-life balance. And a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on job ads in Norway found that non-pay attributes predict how attractive an employer is almost as well as pay-related ones.

Takeaway: salary competes, but rarely wins on its own.

Learning (13%)

This was the least mentioned, but the literature gives it more weight than that number suggests. A study published in the Journal of Workplace Learning, with IT and engineering professionals, found that more learning and growth opportunities are associated with lower intention to change jobs. In the Skillsoft survey, 49% of those who changed roles within their company did so looking for greater growth and development.

It may be that in our interviews "learning" was included within "more scope," because expanding scope usually involves learning. That is a hypothesis, not a finding.

What hiring teams can do to attract cybersecurity professionals

  1. Define the scope in the offer. Which decisions the role will make, what responsibility it carries, and who it reports to. If the offer doesn't say, candidates assume less.

  2. Don't compete on salary alone. Bring a competitive range, but put what the role allows people to do and learn on the same level.

  3. Show the ceiling and how it moves. If the role has a growth path, describe it. It is what prevents repeating the most common reason for leaving.

  4. Think about who their manager will be. A change of leadership was the second reason for leaving; the person who joins is also choosing who they will work with.

A note on sources

The ISC2 and Skillsoft figures come from surveys by industry associations and vendors, not academic studies, and the ISC2 one is from 2018 with a sample of 250 people in North America. We use them as a point of comparison, not as proof. Beethon's interviews are conversations with professionals in Mexico and are reported only as general percentages, without identifying anyone.

Sources

At Beethon we recruit cybersecurity and IT profiles. If you are putting together an offer and want to review its scope before publishing it, tell us what profile you need.

 
 
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