Data Privacy Pros: Know What You Want Before Entering the Job Market

Recently Punit Bhatia, CEO of Fit4Privacy, featured Jared Coseglia, founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners on his Fit4Privacy podcast. The two had a wide-ranging discussion focused on topics relating to TRU’s recently published 2022 Data Privacy Jobs Report. Part four of their conversation covered how privacy professionals should prepare before entering the job market. And yes, they talked about salary metrics, too!

Recommendations for data privacy job-seekers

Punit Bhatia: Jared, what advice would you give a person who is looking for a new data privacy role right now? What is going on in the market? Would you recommend that they stay where they are? Or would you recommend they start looking for a lateral move or try to move up?

Jared Coseglia: I would start by asking a question – one that I ask every person before we take them on as a candidate. What do you want? I come from a theater background; I majored in theater at NYU. I fell into this business in a roundabout way, like a lot of other people. But I fell in love with data privacy and made it one of my niches. Every candidate I work with is asked: What’s your motivation? If you don’t know why you are changing jobs or if you are ready to enter the job market, you have to figure that out first before you can get what you want.

If you want more money, it’s out there. If you want to work for a more mature program, it’s out there. If you’re working at a really mature program or if you are working for Big Tech, and would love to work somewhere smaller, it’s out there. If you want to work for pre-IPO companies, they are starting to be out there. If you want to work at Fortune 1000, it’s out there.

You know, the advice I would give you is to really think about what you want to get out of the job, especially if you are going to work with an agency like TRU. The more prepared you are, the more open-minded you are about possibilities, the better your search process will be. You don’t want to start interviewing before you know what you are looking for.

Determining data privacy salary metrics

PB: How should people go about settling on a salary package?

JC: When it comes to data privacy professionals, if you’ve got more than six months of experience, you really should be represented by an agency. There is no standardization in the industry right now that helps you understand the whole salary process: either in terms of geography or titling. People have no idea how a job fits into the ecosystem to know what to ask for in terms of pay, and hiring managers are not posting salaries in their job postings.

When writing our 2022 Data Privacy Jobs Report, TRU recruiters determined that the average increase of base compensation at the point of hire in 2021 for midmarket privacy pros was 22%. So, someone making $110K in salary is now likely making around $141K base compensation. Add inflationary awareness to the job seekers’ self-valuation and companies can expect data privacy professionals to command — and get — upwards of 25-30% increases from their current compensation in 2022. You can find a detailed breakdown of compensation metrics in the Data Privacy Jobs Report on page 11.

Getting started

PB: How should candidates start the search when they are ready? What should they do, what should they not do?

JC: One of the most damaging things a candidate can do for their job search is go online, see hundreds of different privacy jobs posted and just start sending their resumes out. That’s the worst thing you can do. What happens when you do that is that you usually go into some kind of artificial intelligence (AI) portal where some technology is sifting through and parsing your resume among hundreds of other people, who may or may not be data privacy professionals. You won’t necessarily get a human eye on your qualifications.

It's best to seek agency representation. At TRU, there are human eyeballs on every resume. Yes, we use machine learning to curate a better learning experience, but at the end of the day, if you send us your resume, you are going to get at least two or three people looking at your resume. A TRU recruiter will contact you and talk to you about your career, open roles and the opportunities out there. We’ll review your resume and suggest minor changes that make a huge impact with our clients. And we help prepare you to get what you want. We consult with you and advise you how to ask the right questions and help you articulate your personal value proposition in an interview.

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