Commentaries

Times tough for info security guards

Eric Auchard

Jul 15, 2009 17:55 UTC

With all the cyberscare stories about North Korea making headlines these days, the last place you might expect to see job losses is among information security workers.

However, a survey by UK recruiters Barclay Simpson says the number of IT security professionals looking for work has risen 17 percent so far this year, even as the number of new positions has fallen by 57 percent.

“The market has been swollen by candidates whose contracts have come to an end and permanent staff who have been made redundant and are making themselves available for both permanent and contract work,” the report finds. 

Hardest hit are more senior and managerial roles, the survey finds, while junior roles are less affected.

Humbug watch: Lord Levene on “fair pay”

Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyds of London, the insurance market that offers a berth for those who fluff their job interviews at the City investment banks, offered the following sage remarks about pay to the British Bankers’ Association dinner on Monday 29th June:

At Lloyd’s we held a conference a few months back in New York discussing the origins of world wide risk and, in particular, the current problems of the banking industry.  Speaking at the conference was one of the most successful and best known investment bankers in New York.  One remark he made sticks very much in my memory.  He said that when he got his first job on leaving business school at a New York investment bank, he was paid $30,000 per year.  At that time, the CEO of the bank was paid $300,000 a year.  He thought that that was a sensible multiple.  Perhaps we might reflect on the highest paid individuals in some of our institutions and ask whether they are paid more than 10 times the amount of a new joiner.  I would leave that thought with you.