When I was in college, I was elected chair for my local Association for Computing Machinery Chapter. One of our members suggested we organize a hackathon, and of course we said yes. From there, my interest in cybersecurity grew as I worked in the college’s Entrepreneurship Technology Innovation Center. During this time, I enrolled in courses that aligned to a cybersecurity concentration, and I was absolutely hooked. Outside of class I started doing my own studying and began playing with penetration testing tools.

I accepted an internship with IBM to work within the Chief Information Security Office. A few months later, I received a call asking me to apply for a full time position. Since then I have transitioned into a more technical role, using my software development skill set, and my security background to contribute to security by design in our internal offerings. Our most prevalent offering tracks compliance for all managed devices across the enterprise, and with such a broad reach, keeping this application secure from threat actors is critical to the security posture of the company.

Recently I was given the opportunity to collaborate with two senior staff members at my organization on a paper about agile practices. It’s my first published paper in a recognized business journal, and I’m really grateful for the knowledge this experience afforded me.

Most importantly I think this role requires the ability to listen and understand. There is a lot of information at times that can feel overwhelming, but being able to slow down and understand the situation in front of you helps to get perspective and to best assess threats within a situation.

My best advice is to network and never stop learning. Take some time to research and review current technologies and advancements in security - knowing the field is incredibly important. Making connections is valuable in any career, but especially in this one.