Hiring Report: Mu Security Seeks Collaborative Security Experts

Company: Mu Security, Inc. Company description: Security Analyzer platform for service providers, large enterprises and their product vendor suppliers Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California Office Locations: US, Europe, Korea, Japan and Australia Web site: Mu Security Founded: March, 2005 IT Employees: 30 Looking to hire: Five to seven by the end of 2007 including senior software & systems engineer, senior security engineer, security engineer and a senior software engineer. The Company: Mu Security offers a new class of security analysis system. Using Mu Security's Mu-4000 platform, service providers, their product developers and large enterprises diagnose service availability or security flaws before they become problematic. Founded in March 2005 by pioneers of intrusion detection and prevention technology, Mu Security is backed by preeminent venture capital firms including Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures. Hiring Leaders: Robert Geiger, VP of Engineering Robert was previously Senior Director of Engineering at Symantec Corp., where he led the group that built Symantec's award winning SNS Intrusion Protection product for four years. Prior to Symantec, Robert was with Recourse Technologies as Director of Engineering before Symantec acquired the company. While at Recourse, Robert worked as an engineering contributor, manager, and finally Director of Engineering. Prior to Recourse, Robert spent 10 years at Motorola Labs working on wireless data systems, mobile security and e-commerce. Robert holds several U.S. patents in the areas of mobile data, wireless security and e-commerce. Robert has a Masters of Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana and a Bachelors degree in EE from the State University of New York.

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Are you looking to hire on more IT staff this year, and if so, how many and in what skill areas? Yes. Between five and seven new hires expected by the end of 2007 including senior software & systems engineer, senior security engineer, security engineer and a senior software engineer. Key skills include developing attacks over a wide range of networking protocols. Security engineers analyze protocols, model them, and incorporate attacks to exploit the robustness or security flaws within systems implementing the protocols. Senior level security engineers also help mentor other engineers with understanding protocols and concepts, develop new exploitation methods and work with customers to better understand real-world deployment issues. Given all the news about the talent crunch, have you or are you finding it more difficult to find qualified IT professionals? If so, is any particular skill set in big demand or very scarce? Hiring talent into a new market space has given Mu Security a distinct advantage in hiring the best IT professionals. These experienced and innovative hires are solving a unique problem by delivering the industry's first systematic and repeatable process to ensure optimal product quality, service availability of any IP-based system, application or network device without requiring access to source code. What are your primary recruiting strategies? Do you work with recruiters, post jobs online, etc. Selectively, Mu Security works with recruiters but the vast majority of Mu Security hires come through internal referrals. The company also posts positions online at their Web site. Finally, recruiting from IT-leading universities has been another source of successful hiring. What is the hiring process? How many interviews, with whom and any testing involved? 360 degree hiring at Mu Security typically involves the group manager, VP Engineering, QA team and one or more business/operations interviews. Typically there are two to three rounds of interviews along with background and reference checks completed before an offer is provided. The majority of hires do come through internal referrals that provide more detailed feedback than typically received in conventional references or background checks. What should candidates know before they interview at Mu Security? Come prepared, do research before showing up. The Internet provides an amazing opportunity to do a thorough background analysis on Mu Security and our diverse market space. Candidates should also be able to map their IT skill sets to Mu Security's product offerings. What makes for an outstanding potential hire? Vision of the near-infinite number of use cases for the Mu-4000 platform as it stands today and what applications it gains as the workbench of choice tomorrow. An ability to work in a strongly collaborative environment. Candidates who are willing to learn new skills also are strong contenders since much of Mu Security's intellectual property is proprietary. What are red flags you look for when reviewing resumes, doing interviews—what are some issues that thwart candidates? String of positions lasting shorter than two years in too many industries. During interviews, maintaining eye contact and ability to think instinctively to questions they may not fully understand. Typical issues that reduce candidate attractiveness include showing up late to scheduled interviews, missing screening calls, poor follow up to initial meetings and lack of prior relevant experience. What kind of non-IT skills do your IT team members need, if any? Collaboration and ability to learn new skills. How important is the cover letter in job queries? Any tips or advice to job seekers on what to do or not to do? For IT staff, experience and ability to succinctly explain how it's relevant to Mu Security are top priorities. Is the IT organization looking for certified skills, is that a must have or is there any other qualification that is a must have? There are a number of computer programming skills typically required and hands-on experience in networking products (hardware and software) as well as security is ideal. Does the organization hire 'newbies' and invest in training and how well does that work, and if not, why not? Yes, typically skilled new hires that have a minimum of hands-on experience are hired initially as Interns and paired with more skilled engineers for training. What characteristics or personality traits do you want in a hire, and don't want? Ability to think independently, strong technical grounding in a number of programming environments and a definite thirst for learning new skills and a new market space What does your company offer IT specialists as an employer? Mu Security offers an extremely motivated workplace with some of the more experienced IT staff in the industry. The company's management team also has an average of 20+ years experience " one the leading reasons Mu Security's two-year birthday was celebrated with dozens of systems deployed at leading service providers, product vendors and larger critical infrastructure enterprises. Additional benefits include company supplied lunch 2x weekly, Friday p.m. management staff recap, paid holidays, holiday party and health/dental care benefits. Other recent articles from TechCareers Career Profile: Managing Director, Global Financial Services & Insurance/Keane, Inc. Career Profile: Sr. Director Of Global IT/Interwoven Inc.

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