TY - GEN
T1 - Understanding the personality characteristics of cybersecurity competition participants to improve the effectiveness of competitions as recruitment tools
AU - Wee, Colin
AU - Bashir, Masooda
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016,
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This paper reports on the results of a survey designed to study the psychological characteristics of a sample of cybersecurity competition participants from Cybersecurity Awareness Week (one of the largest cybersecurity competitions in the USA). By comparing the personality, vocational interests, culture, decision-making style and attachment style between participants who reported their intention to enter cybersecurity careers post-competition and those who did not, we evaluated the effectiveness of cybersecurity competitions as a recruitment tool. Overall, most cybersecurity competition participants tended to be high in openness, rational decision-making style, and investigative interests. Conversely, participants scored lower on neuroticism, intuitive decision-making style, and realistic interests. Individuals’ scores on investigative interests, openness to experience, rational decision-making, and self-efficacy were good predictors of their intention to enter cybersecurity careers post-competition. To increase the influx of people into cybersecurity careers, cybersecurity competitions can be designed to attract more people with these characteristics.
AB - This paper reports on the results of a survey designed to study the psychological characteristics of a sample of cybersecurity competition participants from Cybersecurity Awareness Week (one of the largest cybersecurity competitions in the USA). By comparing the personality, vocational interests, culture, decision-making style and attachment style between participants who reported their intention to enter cybersecurity careers post-competition and those who did not, we evaluated the effectiveness of cybersecurity competitions as a recruitment tool. Overall, most cybersecurity competition participants tended to be high in openness, rational decision-making style, and investigative interests. Conversely, participants scored lower on neuroticism, intuitive decision-making style, and realistic interests. Individuals’ scores on investigative interests, openness to experience, rational decision-making, and self-efficacy were good predictors of their intention to enter cybersecurity careers post-competition. To increase the influx of people into cybersecurity careers, cybersecurity competitions can be designed to attract more people with these characteristics.
KW - Career choice
KW - Cybersecurity
KW - Cybersecurity competitions
KW - Human factors
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U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-41932-9_10
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-41932-9_10
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84986267322
SN - 9783319419312
T3 - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
SP - 111
EP - 121
BT - Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity - Proceedings of the AHFE International Conference on Human Factors in Cybersecurity, 2016
A2 - Nicholson, Denise
PB - Springer
T2 - International Conference on Human Factors in Cybersecurity, 2016
Y2 - 27 July 2016 through 31 July 2016
ER -