Cybersecurity Mentors Podcast · Cybersecurity Mentors

Why You’re Not Getting Cybersecurity Interviews (Resume & LinkedIn Fixes for 2026)

·38 min·2 clips

A study of 125,000 resumes found only 26% included measurable results.

1. Cybersecurity Mentors Podcast focuses on why cybersecurity applicants are not getting interviews and how to fix resumes and LinkedIn profiles for 2026. 2. The hosts are John Hoyt and Steve Higuretta, who describe themselves as active cybersecurity hiring managers, directors, and leaders. 3. The episode asks what resumes and LinkedIn pages need to show so hiring managers want to call someone back. 4. Steve says resumes should lead with impact, not responsibility, and uses “monitored SIM alerts” versus “triage 30 to 50 daily SIM alerts” as the example. 5. He argues that entry-level candidates should usually stay to one page because resume space is limited. 6. John brings in a Resimatch.io study that reviewed over 125,000 resumes and identified top takeaways from the data. 7. That study found only 26% of resumes included measurable results, which John says is a major gap. 8. John also says fewer than half of the resumes included a LinkedIn link, which he treats as a basic requirement. 9. He cites a second test with around 25,000 results that compared filled-out LinkedIn profiles, bare-bones profiles, and no profile. 10. The filled-out LinkedIn profiles received more callbacks than bare-bones profiles, according to the discussion. 11. Steve says resumes should be aligned to the role, whether that is SOC, cloud, or GRC. 12. He gives Splunk as an example of a tool that should be highlighted differently depending on the job description. 13. John adds that keyword matching matters, and the study showed candidates included only 51% of relevant keywords. 14. John also shares that the study reported a 60% match rate for hard skills and a 28% match rate for soft skills. 15. Steve describes using AI and job-description data to find patterns across hundreds of jobs, including security clearance, intrusion detection, incident response, Penetration testing, SOC, SIEM, Python, PowerShell, AWS, and Azure. 16. The hosts say that the goal is to build a roadmap from the market data and put the most relevant skills on the resume. 17. Their tone is direct and practical, with repeated back-and-forth corrections and examples. 18. The format mixes hiring-manager advice, study references, and live coaching for listeners. 19. People applying for entry-level cybersecurity roles would get the most from this episode. 20. People wanting broad career stories rather than resume tactics may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical look at cybersecurity hiring signals and the resume keywords entry-level candidates can credibly support.

Cybersecurity hiring comes through as a sorting problem, with the hosts looking at why some resumes get skipped when recruiters are facing large applicant pools.

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Why you'd press play

You want your resume and LinkedIn to survive the first hiring-manager glance when 100-plus cybersecurity applications crowd the same opening.

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