Career Notes CyberWire Inc.

Anna Belak, Director of Thought Leadership at Sysdig, shares her story from physics to cyber. Anna explains how she went into college with the thinking of getting a physics degree and then for her PhD decided to switch to material science and engineering. Both were not something she enjoyed and ultimately decided to go into cyber. She shares some advice on how you should never limit yourself to your degree, as well as always learning new skills and honing in on skills you already have. She say's by doing these things it will make you into a unicorn, meaning if you are good at one thing and teach yourself to be good at something else, you will become that much more valuable. Anna hopes she makes an impact with the people she works with, she hopes they will want to work with her even long after she leaves a company. We thank Anna for sharing her story.

Larry Cashdollar, Principal Security Intelligence Response Engineer at Akamai Technologies, sits down with Dave Bittner to discuss his life leading up to working at Akamai. He shares his story from his beginnings to now, describing what college life was like as a young computer enthusiast. He says "If you look at my 1986 yearbook, I think it was my sixth grade class, it says computer scientist for my career path. So I had a love of computers when I was really young. I guess I knew what field I wanted to get into right off the bat." He describes different career paths that all led him to his current position. He also shares his love for computers and technology through the decades of his youth, and how he is learning, even now. We thank Larry for sharing his story.

Mary Writz, Vice President of Product Strategy at ForgeRock, shares how each career path she has taken has led her to where she is now. Mary describes how she has been a woman working in a male dominated field for most of her career and how she had to take charge, and she had to get the men to take charge with her. She says "I was often leading people, mostly men older than me, potentially smarter than me, more well paid than me. So I had to learn how to think about galvanizing this group to charge forward with me, even though I was a bit of a minority in that way." She also states that she tells herself to always make a positive out of a negative by showing people how you can respond to what's happening with a lot of energy, focus, and care and that's what got her to where she is today.

Mike Arrowsmith, Chief Trust Officer at NinjaOne, leads the organization’s IT, security, and support infrastructure to ensure they meet customers’ security and data privacy demands as it scales. Mike discusses how his career path has led him to the position he currently holds and how exciting the world of cybersecurity can be. He mentioned how he mentored students in college thinking of going into the field, and he used a metaphor to help describe the industry, saying "We are working against adversaries that are always typically one step ahead. Figuratively, if you could imagine, you're trying to chase a ball, but you never can quite get your hands on it." He shares how he loves the evolving field and that he thrives in a situation where things are constantly changing. We thank Mike for sharing his story.

Simone Petrella, CEO of cybersecurity training workforce firm CyberVista, spent her career in the Department of Defense as a threat intelligence analyst before founding CyberVista. She says that running a company has a new set of challenges each day thrown at you. She explains that the way she finds the most success is by letting her team contribute to each matter, and having a say in the decisions made as they pertain to each department. Simone says "I would say is I am a firm firm believer in the idea of empowering people to really own and kind of run with the things that they're passionate about." She notes that people will do amazing things when they are passionate and that faking it until you make it is true, because you will get where you're going by having that passion and that inspiration. We thank Simone for sharing her story.

Richard Melick, Director of Threat Reporting for Zimperium, talks about his journey, from working in the military to moving up to the big screens. He shares that he's been in the business of solving unique cybersecurity problems for so long that he has found his own path that works very well for him. He says, "if I go to a unique problem and try to solve it, I find that I'm solving it the same way that I would've solved it five years ago, because I found my pattern." Richard reflects on his time working in the industry, from moving away from the military and into different roles over the years. He notes that giving credit where credit is due, to those who deserve it, is how you keep the audience engaged as a storyteller. We thank Richard for sharing his story.