Italy is not known for information security and finding a job in this area, or any other really, in this country is not as easy as it seems. It as now been a year I am in Milan and I would like to share what would have been useful for me before I arrived.
The following is a mix of facts and opinions, so do not take it too straightforward and adapt it to your particular case.
A bit of context
Economically, the country is still wounded by 2008 economic crisis, you can feel it very well on the market as there is not a lot of job offers and sectors of work are limited. It is ranked one of the wealthiest countries of the European Union but I did not feel it that way at all. Jobs offers are limited and salaries are rather low compared to other european countries. However, price of life is also quite low so it balances that. Concurrence is high, but not in information security.
Historically, Italy has not been focused on high technologies, another reason why number of jobs is not big. Main work and export sectors are machines and vehicules industry, food, clothing and of course, luxury.
Sectors
A list of main recruiting sectors (including outside of infosec) is necessary to understands who is likely to have the money and the will to hire you. Decline this list with main companies by sector.
As an example, here is a little list I made for myself. List is not exhaustive but it gives you an idea of where you can look for in general:
- Luxury: Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada
- Clothing: Armani, Benetton, Diesel, Fendi, La Sportiva
- Food: Autogrill, Barilla, Mulino Bianco, Moretti, Martini, Ichnusa, De Cecco, Esselunga, Illy, Lavazza
- Vehicules and mechanic: Fiat, Ferrari, Pirelli
- Machinery industry: Fincantieri (ships)
- Pharmaceutical: Luxottica
- Bank & insurance: Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, UBI Banca, Assicurazzioni Generali
- Energy: Eni, Enel, Edison, Snam
- Telecoms: Fastweb, TIM
- Aerospace and defense: Leonardo, Beretta, Piaggio Aerospace
- Holdings: Exor
- Logistics: Poste Italiane
- Airlines: Alitalia
Prerequisites
I will take personnal experience here, as what comes after is totally dependent on what you want to do and where you want to do it. The method used however can be applied to other kind of jobs.
I wanted to work either as a penetration tester or reverse engineer (so red team) or in detection and/or incident response (so blue team) in Milan.
Targeting
Probably the best online ressource for finding a job in Italy. Look for your interesting keywords and put up “alerts” when new offers comes out.
Mine were: “penetration testing”, “pentest”, “security engineer”, “reverse-engineer”.
Other recruitment websites
Glassdoor and indeed mainly. There is no “Italian only” equivalent website, everyone uses one or more of these three.
Look for companies offering the services you want to apply for. Even ones that do not advertise recruitment. Often, the HR department of companies do not post up-to-date offers but in the facts, they are looking for people.
Mine were: “penetration testing + Milan”, “Security engineer + Milan”…
Headhunters
Contact headhunters. They have insight on companies, have a network and their job is to look for people like you so they will not make you pay their service and will be happy to have someone facilitating their task by coming towards them.
I did not do it and that was a big mistake. I thus do not have names to provide :(.
Sorting
By looking for who offers this services on Google, on Linkedin, Glassdoor and others I came to the below shortlist of selected companies. I commented out what happened for each:
- Secure Network: two interviews, they finally did not take me and did not tell me why but I am pretty sure it was because I did not speak Italian back then
- Alberto Giorgio forensics: applied and never got an answer
- TXT E-solutions: applied and never got an answer
- lantechlongwave: applied twice and never got an answer
- BlueIT: applied twice and never got an answer
- ECIT: applied and they refused
- Begear: applied and never got an answer
- Idata: applied twice and never got an answer
- Secmentis: applied and never got an answer
- CryptoNetLabs: applied and never got an answer
- Business competence srl: applied and never got an answer
- CEFRIEL: applied twice, got a very nice answer the second time saying they do not recruit non-Italian speaking people and wishing me luck
- e-work: applied and never got an answer
- technet learning: applied and never got an answer
- BV-tech s.p.a.: applied and never got an answer
- sogetel: applied and never got an answer
- fineco bank: applied and never got an answer
- Unicredit: applied, got an answer after a week or two then three interview and finally got an offer that I accepted
What is important to understand here is that:
- I was refused two position because I did not speak Italian (one is not described up there).
- Companies are very slow to answer and disorganized in their candidates' follow-up (even for the ones that wanted to interview me).
- Often, people will just not answer you.
- It took me 3 months remotely to find a job and I had to go there twice for interviews
Salary
Do not expect a big salary in Italy. The more North you go, the better the salary, Milan being the economic center of the country. An average IT person earns 30-40k gross in Milan. Specific security people with experience can ask for more, highest salary I have seen from an Milan infosec Italian guy was 50k gross.
Speaking Italian
Just necessary. Do not expect people to speak English.
A level of B2 is what you need to be comfortable to speak at work and to do presentations. Take classes.
I went to Scuola Leonardo for more than a month lessons, it was useful and helped me a lot. I do not know about other schools but in big cities like Rome, Milan, Florence, Trieste etc. there is always at least one.
Prices of language lessons is expensive, wherever you go in Europe, so do not be surprised.
Conclusion
Finding a job in Italy is no easy task and if you are looking for it I strongly advise you the following:
- Learn Italian before coming
- Put your CV in Italian
- Call headhunters
- Try out Linkedin Premium free trial, it gives a lot of visibility
I am having a great time in Milan apart from the Covid restrictions and I will say that Italian people is one of the most welcoming I have ever encounter in my life.
Hope it helped you if you are looking to go to Italy, feedback is welcome :).