Benjamin Corll – Take Advantage of What’s Out There
“Study, pick up a book, read that book and educate yourself.”
Today, a massive amount of self-study material is available in the cybersecurity field. Take advantage of that to learn the fundamentals and build the skills and knowledge that you need for the job.
Charles Blauner – Cybersecurity is Part of the Business
“Put it into the context of what the business is trying to do.”
Cybersecurity isn’t a standalone function, it’s a core part of how the business works. Learn the needs of the business and its main drivers. Then, think about how technology and cybersecurity can help to reach those goals.
Chris Carlson – Expertise Requires Hard Work
“I always thought that becoming an expert was a thing that happened to you rather than a thing that you do, but I’ve come to realize it’s a choice that you make to work towards.”
You don’t become an expert by putting in a certain number of hours. You become an expert by finding something that interests you and using all of the resources available to learn everything that there is to know about that thing.
Tim Tillman – Learn Through Reading
“And one of the easiest ways to do that in technology is to read. You will climb the ladder faster than you ever thought possible. They will think of you as someone who knows what they’re doing and that they can rely on.”
Everything in cybersecurity is written down somewhere in vulnerability reports, academic articles, and on the Internet. If you read these publications and can reference them when needed, that demonstrates that you’ve put in the time in improving yourself and people start thinking of you as the expert.
Larry Trittschuh – Take the Hard Jobs
“One of the things I’ve always been told is take the hard jobs.”
The cybersecurity field is constantly evolving, and the hard and undesirable jobs of today are the sought-after skills of tomorrow. Taking those jobs helps you to stay up to date and prepares you for tomorrow.
Leon Ravenna – Go the Extra Mile
“Show up to work on time, work the whole day and every once in a while ask for something else to do.”
Showing up on time and working the whole day demonstrates that you’re willing and able to do your job. However, if you ask for something else to do, that is what is remembered and what makes you stand out from the rest.
Benjamin Corll – Go Beyond the Basics
“Nobody’s going to invite you in. You’re going to have to just get in. You have to work a little bit in the trenches and the other technologies before you try to shift into security.”
Cybersecurity requires a lot of foundational knowledge. You need to understand how all of the underlying systems work before you’re ready to learn to secure them. To make it in security, you need to have the drive to educate yourself.
Max Tumarinson – Build Security Into the Business
“Invest in the business drivers. Understand the business drivers. Lay on top of them security, and then you have a holistic understanding of the situation and the problem that you’re trying to solve.”
Cybersecurity is an integral part of how a business operates and achieves its goals. It isn’t a standalone function. Learn about the business’s core drivers, then add on the need to accomplish these goals securely. The role of cybersecurity in the business is to determine how to secure these core business processes.
