TL;DR We are hiring consultants at various levels. The job posting can be found under the Consultant opening here: https://specterops.io/careers/#careers
Hey, it’s me again! The last time we spoke back in August 2024, I told you all about life and some of the intangible benefits of working as a consultant at SpecterOps. In that blog post, I also promised a follow-up that outlines the interview process. So, here we are…
My goal for this blog is to provide a high level overview of our recruiting process for consultants. I’ll explain what each step entails but I will not provide specific technical details or hints for any challenges. I want to demystify our recruiting process and make it less intimidating and hopefully encourage those of you who have considered taking that next step but haven’t yet.
This step may seem obvious. The first thing we do after receiving your application is review your resume and the questions you answered on the submission form. Our recruiters are excellent and will determine if an application meets the requisite criteria to advance (depending on the position and level). Everyone has a unique story, background, and experience; therefore, we give the application a holistic review. Thoughtful responses to the application questions will receive extra attention compared to applications that ignore them.
The requisite criteria for each level is outlined in the respective job postings. On a broader level, we’re looking for prior technical (offensive or defensive, depending on the role) security and consulting experience. Do you have security experience but no consulting experience? That’s OK, but it may affect the level at which we interview you (e.g., Associate, Consultant, or Senior). Sometimes we target specific levels, such as Consultant or Senior Consultant. During such periods, we may reject Associate-level applications or hold onto them until we hire Associates again in the future.
We like to see community involvement and sharing. We’re looking for candidates that share our commitment to transparency. Do you publish blogs, research, and/or tools? What has your learning and development journey been like through your career? That does not mean you have to write the next Rubeus or BloodHound. Any level of contribution goes a long way. Contributions can be blog posts, walkthroughs, notes from a course, PoC or helper scripts from a training, experimental tools, or contributions to other people’s repos. Make sure to include links to your contributions and accomplishments on your resume!
Note: Be prepared to discuss your resume content and community contributions.
We liked your resume and application and want to get to know you better.
The next step is a scripting challenge, where you will enter a challenge on a coding platform and solve a solution in a language of your choice. The environment is recorded but we do not set a strict time limit (e.g., one hour). We encourage you to take your time, pay attention to detail, and consult appropriate references. It is pass/fail and the solution must be exactly correct.
The challenge should be doable for anyone with fundamental scripting skills. If you’ve written automation, PoC scripts, or open-source contributions, you should be able to pass this challenge. If you are a clear senior-level candidate and have extensive open-source software contributions, we may waive the scripting challenge.
Basic scripting/programming ability is a requirement to be a successful red team operator. Therefore, this challenge identifies those that meet that minimum requirement.
Great! You passed the scripting challenge and made it through to the next phase. Now our recruiters will get to know you better on a video conference where they will talk about your background, experience, career aspirations, salary expectations, etc. This is also an opportunity for you to ask the recruiters questions about the position and company. This step is fairly straightforward and where the real interview process begins.
All of our interviews will be conducted virtually via video conference and we expect you to be on camera.
After the preliminary interview, you’ll receive the prompt for a technical challenge that varies based on the role. The primary goal of the challenge is to gauge your technical depth, writing ability, and creativity. Rather than taking a pass/fail approach to assessing your response, we gauge where your submission is on a capability spectrum. We’re looking to see how deep you can go and how well you convey technical information in a clear and concise manner.
Disclaimer: Of course, there is a minimum bar. Not all submissions will advance past this round, especially when we’re seeking only more senior candidates.
The technical challenge will inform us on where your technical capabilities are in preparation for the technical interview. If your submission reads like Senior-level work, then your technical interview will be anchored at that level. There is no hard timeline on the technical challenge but you should submit it within approximately one week.
If we like your technical challenge submission, we’ll advance to the technical interview. This interview is 60 minutes and will be conducted by three senior members of our consulting staff. Similar to the previous round, we’re not looking to stump you. We will ask you about experiences and seed some topics with questions and see how deep you can go.
It is absolutely okay to say you don’t know something. It is also encouraged to talk through your thought process so the interviewers get a glimpse of how you think. Please don’t try to cover up a knowledge gap. It will be obvious. No one knows everything, and we understand that. It’s OK. Be humble and keep it real!
We’ll leave some time at the end of the interview for you to ask us questions. After all, a job interview is as much about you interviewing us as it is the converse.
Congratulations! You’ve survived the technical portions of the process. Now, you’ll meet with three of your potential Specter peers. At this stage, we want to get to know you as a person. Do you match our core values? Will you get along with the team? Will the team enjoy traveling with you for several weeks at a time? There’s no script here and not much to prepare for. Bring your genuine self, have a conversation, and have fun!
At this point, you’ve almost made it. You would not have made it this far if you weren’t a good fit. Now, management will meet with you for 60 minutes to discuss your experience, professional development, career growth, etc. This is not a technical interview. If we ask how you did something or how you handled a situation, we’re not looking for technical depth. As always, we’re gauging your alignment with our core values and at what level you should be hired.
As with every previous step, bring your genuine self. Dishonesty and resume discrepancies are commonly identified at this stage.
The interview process may seem like a lot, and it is, but we pride ourselves on building the right teams with the right people. As much as we want to welcome you into our ranks, we also want to focus on candidates that want to be here. Those candidates will understand the seven steps and work through them to earn their spot on the team.
We’re not looking to stump you or fail you out of the process. We take a holistic view of you as a person, red team operator, and consultant. Inherently, this requires more steps.
You’re interviewing us too. Choosing a company to work with is not a decision to be taken lightly. You spend eight hours per day, five days per week with your colleagues. Through our process, you’ll directly interface with at least 10 Specters, which should help you gain a solid understanding of who we are and what we’re all about.
We strive to complete the entire process in less than four weeks and we’ve completed it in as little as two weeks. However, we understand life happens and we are flexible with scheduling.
Don’t think you’re “ready” to join the SpecterOps team? To be honest, a lot of us felt the same way before applying. We all suffer from imposter syndrome and we empathize with you. We will keep this in mind throughout the interviews and will do our best to alleviate those concerns. As you progress through the process, just remember: you’ve made it that far for a reason. To quote an excellent talk from Billy Boatright (and Babe Ruth) at the Social Engineering Village several years ago, “If you’re good enough to have a bat in your hands, you’re good enough to swing it.” So, swing for the fences!
We will help you reach your technical goals. What’s most important to us is aptitude, attitude, and alignment with our core values. Don’t wait for the “right time.” We want to talk to you now!
We will grow steadily throughout 2025 and we’d love to have you apply!
We are hiring consultants at various levels. The job posting (including salary bands) can be found under the Consultant openings here: https://specterops.io/careers/#careers
Please feel free to reach out to me on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, or BloodHound Slack if you have any questions about SpecterOps or the role, or directly to careers@specterops.io.
Life at SpecterOps Part II: From Dream to Reality was originally published in Posts By SpecterOps Team Members on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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