Security Recruiter - Founder of Hampton North

Founder of Hampton North.

Hampton North are a Cyber Security specialist search firm that are built solely with the cyber security industry in mind.

We provide multiple solutions for a multitude of clients including retained/exec search, large headcount hiring sprints, contact and contract-to-hire services and SOW engagements for firms looking for a strategic execution specialist.

It's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I started writing a post about all the stuff I'm thankful for and realized I sounded a bit like a self-serving prick.  I'm happy with my life, and it's because of a lot of great people, and I'll tell them all personally (or I'll try).

What I did reflect on was the years that I didn't feel particularly thankful or grateful or just in truth very happy at this time of year. Years after breakups, family losses, challenging work years etc. What I remember fondly is the people who went out of their way to make me feel special and invite me to their table, opened up their home, reached out for a phone call or a coffee.

If you can be that person to someone this holiday season, you are a damn hero in my eyes.

Happy Thanskgiving. Hug your parents, let go of some grudges and be sure to go back for a second plate of food.

Stuart Mitchell

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it hit me how much I owe to the cybersecurity community.

Hampton North exists because this industry gave me a shot. My team, the business we’ve built, and the life I’ve created for my family; none of it happens without the support, trust, and kindness of the people in this space.

To the leaders who took my calls when I was just getting started, to the founders, CISO's and talent teams who bet on us early, and to the candidates who’ve trusted us with their careers: thank you. 

Hope everyone gets a minute next week to breathe, reset, and spend time with the people who matter.

Hampton North keeps growing.

Our 2025 plan to dive more into the cybersecurity product world has yielded tremendous results, and we want to double down on that.

We are looking for 2 key folks to join the business in Q1 of 2026;

- Head of Engineering Recruitment - As we grow in this space, we are looking for someone who can own the engineering team. You'll be commercially focused, customer facing, but with an eye on growing out the practice over the coming years.

- Senior GTM Recruiter - Off the great work of Mike Campagna, we need someone who wants to double up with Mike and take this practice into the next stratosphere. 

Why would you join us...

- The caliber of your colleague is second to none
- High end compensation packages - we're a US business, not a UK one, we get that life over here is expensive
- Access to rooms other company's simply don't get; VC's, Advisory Board's, Private Community's
- Work from anywhere (within the US), we want the best people, not the best people in a certain  geography
- We get together though; Nashville, London, Miami, Austin, SF, LA, Boston, NYC; we've hosted meetups in all of these places
- Elite swag; Owala Water Bottles, Frank Green Coffee Cups, Peter Millar Q Zips
- We aren't gearing to sell. This might be an anti-selling point for some, but this drives the behaviors of retention and wanting people to be here and happy for a long period, because I'm not sailing into the sunset in 5 years

Hit up myself or Greg Anderson if you want to know more. There will be a limited amount of seats on the Hampton North bus; don't miss it.

‘Trust is at an all-time low for both job seekers and recruiters’: Greenhouse Software CEO says talent acquisition is in an ‘AI doom loop'. (Fortune link in comments)

Essentially, AI is making the entire hiring process, way worse than it was before. All these new products, efficiencies, shortcuts and we're worse off than when we started.

Companies are tired. Candidates are tired. We’ve created a system that feels rigged in nobody’s favor except the vendors selling 'AI-powered shortcuts' or 'ATS-proof resumes'.

It might honestly be the best time since the internet started to be a specialist recruiter (headhunter if you want to sound fancy).  You've already built the networks, pre-validated people, can call out BS if someone's fluffing what they've done at certain companies as you know teammates in that team etc.

Almost every new client we’re working with thought they were set; “great pipeline,” “perfect candidate,” “we’ve got this handled.” And every time? It’s a false economy. Eventually they throw their hands up and pass the baton to us...

I don't have the answer to fix the overall problem, and I imagine this will get worse before it gets any better if I'm brutally honest, but in the meantime Hampton North (and plenty of other recruiting companies) are going to ride the 'AI Doom Loop' wave.

If you want somebody to start the first week of January and you haven't got anyone in the pipeline to interview next week.

You're probably toast.

You have a very short window to have Hampton North fix that.

stuart.mitchell@hamptonnorth.com

CISO's trying to sleep after reading today's Anthropic report...

We're in the market for a Senior ML Engineer for a company I am incredibly bullish on. This is a seed stage cyber player who are rethinking how we look at the threat and detection landscape.

Backed by some of the best VC's in the space, incredible founder, world class team.

Role is remote (east coast) with a little travel, $170-220k base plus meaningful equity. 

Aimee Clemson is running point on the search. Reach out to her for more info.

"AI has lowered the barrier to entry for sophisticated attacks..."

"The line between nation state hacker and script kiddy has become blended..."

Last week, Conor Sherman and I were fortunate enough to have Damien Lewke, Founder and CEO of Nebulock, Inc. on the Zero Signal Podcast. We talked all things Threat Hunting in the new AI led world...

If you haven't been following Damien, you absolutely should be. Damien founded Nebulock to democratize threat hunting, making it accessible to all enterprises, not just those who can afford it or have the requisite talent in-house. This is a company and founder I'm incredibly bullish on.

Links to the episode in the comments. Like, subscribe, tell your friends, and as we round out season one of Zero Signal, we truly welcome all feedback.

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