Leveling Up your Cybersecurity Career by Hacking Your Mental Programming by Jennifer Roman

[Music] from Lake Nona Orlando and I need to bring all the energy I can because last weekend I met David gogin if you don't know who he is look him up he's Navy SEAL and he brought this amazing energy that I hope I can bring the same level of energy to you so the title of my talk is leveling up your cybercity career by hacking your mental programming um throughout the talk I'm going to speak in a lot of cyber security metaphors that I think um all the Nerds would uh really appreciate oh I got to stay in the middle okay well let's start off with a joke someone gave me this keychain I don't know who watches soccer but he

said life can get a little messy literally right um and that's where I want to start is with my messy my messy story so October 2nd 2023 6 months ago I was logging in for work like any other day um you know logged into slack logged into my work MacBook and I get this slack message and it's like hey I need you to jump on the zoom right now and I have no idea I know that the guy that messaged me is the the VP for engineering but I have no idea why he's messaging me and he's telling me to jump on a zoom so I'm thinking it's like something engineering related I'm like okay fine I jump on the zoom

and come to find out HR is with him on the zoom call and he just says uh hey Jennifer I'm really sorry to tell you but you're being let go you and your entire team including the vice president your jobs have been eliminated uh due to automation I recorded the phone call because I wanted to make sure I wanted to get clarification like is something I did no you and your team were excellent you and your team were awesome you're just being eliminated due to Automation and I said wow I didn't realize humans their value could be reduced down to automation right so I have a Steve Jobs quote up there I love this quote this

one of my favorites there's going to be a lot of Steve Jobs quotes but you can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards so you have to trust that the dots will connect in your future so you know after I got off the phone call I'm in a State of Shock and I'm like wow this is insane I can't believe you know working for a huge company like that with all these crazy benefits making six figures you know and wow just like that I have been eliminated due to automation right so instead of looking at that as my worst day I started looking at that as the first day of the rest of my

life and what do I mean by that because life gets a little m and when it does you have a choice you have a choice whether are you going to let that them letting you go be the end of it be the end of your career or are you going to let that be the beginning of something new so in a really strange way I you know got off the zoom call and there and by the way in the zoom call they said your accesses will be terminated yeah cuz Crow strike is good like that your accesses will be terminated immediately after this call so ask whatever questions you want cuz you're losing access to all systems

immediately so I'm like I I was you know asking them all the questions I hung up the call and literally like they said everything vanished credentials vanish I got locked out immediately they're like we're going to be sending you a FedEx box so you could send back the MacBook and I'm like I don't know I may keep this MacBook after this um but okay okay fine I don't want to do anything IL legal I don't want to be on your bad list so you know I send send back the MacBook and in a really strange way I felt this sense of relief that I cannot explain and maybe some of you guys could relate to this but when you're working

at a when you're working amongst the elites right at a company like that it's a lot of pressure it's a lot of pressure I remember taking the dcfa exam three times and I'm like I cannot get this this is difficult and I just always dealt with this crazy impostor syndrome working there like it was crippling I had so much insecurity and when they said the words you're being let go a small part of me was like yes I'm so happy I'm so excited but you know I had to keep my game face on I'm like oh that's unfortunate uh how much is my S oh two okay I'll be um so I had to act devastated but deep

down inside I was not entirely devastated I was actually relieved and you know the first 18 years of my career I spent in the military uh working for government agencies oh so many three-letter ones DHS FBI treasury so many other ones but DOD and I said man I spent the first half of my career working for everyone else but maybe this is is a sign that this is my time to do the things that I've been wanting to do you know and it is truly ironic the irony is not lost on me I got laid off then became a career coach the irony there is truly um truly hilarious because I did not expect that

would happen I really didn't I didn't know what to expect all I knew was my life today looks nothing like it did six months ago and if you did get get laid off in this room I'm here to tell you no matter what happened no matter what setback you have gone through it doesn't have to be the last day it could be the first day of something new and you know like in cyber security we we're always talking about malware but I like to think that there are malicious programs running in the back of our minds right and they're slowing us down they're slowing our performance you know it's draining resources I remember when I would I when

I worked for you know from home for that company I dreaded waking up in the morning I dreaded waking up like I would wake up at 8:59 barely like with my eyes open just log into slack and just like stumble over to my laptop the next day after I got laid off I woke up at 4:00 a.m. I have no idea what got into me but something about not waking up for someone else I realized I wasn't lazy okay so when you hear all these Navy Seals like Joo saying wake up at 4:30 get after it it's like well if you're not looking forward to what you're getting after after you're not really going to want to wake up in the

morning but the next day I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and I didn't wake up for anyone else but myself and that really was a huge game changer because I'm like wait a minute you know malware of the Mind malware mindsets it's stealing your personal data it's stealing your identity deep down I know I'm not a huge programmer I'm not the best at scripting I'm not good at any of those things but I had to kind of make myself into that and I remember just a piece of me dying inside doing that you know it a piece of me would die every time and what I mean by mare mindsets is if you have a notebook and a piece of

paper or just take mental note take a picture of this and fill it out when you're alone but this is what I mean about malare mindsets it's about I'm not blank enough I'm not smart enough I'm not pretty enough I'm not thin enough I'm not young enough I'm too old I'm too young when is it ever a good time um I'm not I'll never be as good as Steve Jobs I'll never be as good as Elon Musk um I'm not ready I'll just wait until my boss leaves I'll just wait until someone else gets fired and I'll apply for their position I'm too blank right we all have these malware mindsets that we program ourselves with and

I love talking about impostor syndrome because I struggle with it and like the timeline you don't really realize how the dots connect but when I coach people I don't coach um because I got some certification I you know Mark Twain has this quote that says never let schooling interfere with your education and what he means by that is the real education of life you're going to you're going to learn outside the classroom and life get what you take the exam first then you get the lesson later and don't worry if you don't pass you'll you'll just take the exam again and you take it again and again and again right so 70% of people deal with imposter syndrome You are not

alone in this you're not alone in this I was like so insecure I would literally tremble before logging into Zoom calls and they were be like okay Jennifer you have to to brief this thing and everybody on my team I'm not they must have had IQs of40 um they were just so smart remember how I said that my job got eliminated due to automation one of the 140 IQ people developed the program to automate us out of our job so do yourself a favor for those of you that are really good and like you're a you know you're a guru at programming don't program yourself out of a job because listen he blew us out of the

water but the company was like oh I see that you did something that eliminated 80% of the entire team that's interesting what should we do with these people yeah let's you know let's replace them that's what we should do and so that is literally if you're an engineer don't engineer yourself out of a job I mean that you gotta you got to think smart play 3D chess think strategically think the next five six moves ahead don't just think about oh I'm going to look good for this project yeah what about you what about the rest of your team right now I know that I don't know what he said about certifications and all that but this is the truth about

certifications um I love telling this story I I wrote um a blog post about this but I no lie I was at a Sans conference I met this dude that has 17 Sans certification I didn't even realize Sans had 17 certifications but you know nowadays it's like they're just there's a lot out there right but this dude had every single certification under the sun he had an MS um in cyber security and I asked him hey man um I was like what's your dream I want to be a sizzo and I was like all right great I I'll go send you some jobs that I found on inde for Sizzle positions in your area I sent it over to

him I'm like next day I come back did you apply no no I can't I I don't feel ready and he said how do you not feel I feel like you've been training your whole life for this what do you mean you don't feel ready yeah I just need one more certification there's like this one thing I'm trying to get and I was like but you have 17 what are you talking about so the truth about certifications is it will not give you the confidence you need okay so if you think that that degree you know that that certificate is going to give you that selfworth is not news flash is not the truth is your

selfworth your self-confidence have nothing to do with little pieces of paper and I love this meme this is one of my favorite memes of all time I laugh so hard because it always seems like you know this is you and you're like oh I just need the next thing and then these bodies are like oh wait but hold on you know in a way it pushes you forward but in a way it's never good enough and that's why I I love talking about mental health I love talking about how people in this industry were always chasing this NeverEnding carrot right of just when you learn something something else has developed and you're behind just when you take two steps

forward to you know get that degree oh it's obsolete so it's no wonder people in this industry feel so like I'm not good enough I'm not smart enough because the the goal poost is always moving right when you you know get to the 10 yard line it's like nope sorry 50 yards now and you're like okay I'll I'll go run and then it's always moving so it's not just you this is the reality of certifications okay so maybe some of you guys are students and you're like okay I'm about to finish my degree or I got my degree I'm working on you know I got more degrees than a thermometer what do I do what do I do now you know I have a

whole alphabet after my name uh you know Jennifer K Ro um C says see you blah blah ABC WTF it's like I got all these alphabets after my name and you know the one that I see is wtm wait how much are the fees do you know how much it is to maintain I got two sand sech and that's it cuz they get enough money from me okay um it's like $350 last time I checked every three years that's just for one of my sech you know I have like five I don't remember five or six but it's a lot of money to maintain these things so before you jump into the next certification just choose one or two you

do not need to be paying all these people all this money you know cuz that is not what's going to make you feel worthy that is not what's going to make you feel confident getting rid of the malware in your mind is what is going to make you feel confident reprogramming your mind with some new programs that says yes I am enough yes I can do it yes I am capable yes I'm not defined by my past but I get to choose my own future you need to download new programs and get rid of the bad ones if you want to succeed okay it is not about all these certification bodies you know IC Square doesn't get to

dictate my selfworth uh EC Council doesn't dictate my selfworth okay I show up I dictate my salary because I will not you know I know what I'm worth and you get what you pay for I'm just saying okay so um this is this is where I okay I'm gonna flash through all the Practical stuff because I know y'all came to hear the Practical stuff um this is I I never went to this Meadow like I never put on that dress I never put on those earrings this is the picture that I use for bsides I don't look that good like I really don't half of me was like should I submit this picture because I don't look

that fine but hey whatever let's see if they could catch if uh AI created that I use something called tried on AI $21 upload some photos next thing you know I have these crazy you know I'm looking all fine in these photos like oh okay it's like some good uh thirst trap photos right here um so you know and I never went to that Meadow I I never put on those clothes I didn't get dressed like that you know I'm usually in jeans or yoga pants like I don't dress up like that and that's just one they will give you $120 photos for $21 like by all means go get your photo taken in the resume room but I guarantee

you ain't going to look that good as AI will make you right cuz cuz look I'm like wait I don't hey like okay um but 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn now and you only have 10 milliseconds to make a first impression 10 milliseconds that's it so if they look on your LinkedIn I tell my clients you need to change your LinkedIn picture and they're like why I like it it's a selfie of me in my bathroom I'm like maybe that's why you being paid like that you know maybe that's why you're being paid like uh you took a selfie in the bathroom um or you know you want to present yourself and you want to use AI

to your advantage okay cuz like I said automation will either use you but in the meantime use it right use everything you have use headshot Pro that one is I think $29 but seriously it is the easiest thing you don't have to get dressed you don't have to go nowhere just upload some half de selfies of yourself and they'll do the rest um and that's really important another thing is you know I work on resumés too right and um I remember one time someone sent me um this their resume and it was a JPEG and I was like why why no wonder you haven't been getting any calls girl like no wonder because you have to have your

resume formatted in a very specific way it has to be PDF embedded with ATS formatting or it has to be a dock oh a docx you cannot be sending people no jpegs like this is so sad but I don't think people know which is why I'm sharing the information news flash you have to have your resume ATS formatted okay this this is how you get past the HR firewalls listen think like a hacker okay put your hacker mindset on how do I get past the firewalls okay how do I get past their layers of defense this is one of the layers of defense is ATS okay they don't care how awesome you are they care the resumés that float to

the top you got to get out of the people Pile in order to get out of the people pile you have to have your resume ATS format it this is just a fact now on LinkedIn make sure your dates on LinkedIn your whole timeline of your expertise matches up with your resume because if you send your resume and a recruiter call he's like you know I noticed some inconsistencies see that is what I call a credibility problem then they go why does your resume not match your LinkedIn you're like well you know the thing is I didn't update I didn't get a check nobody cares about your excuses like literally nobody cares so you you have to have it match

and you have to have the right skills um if you looked at my LinkedIn I have like every single skill Under the Sun I'm like all right basket weaving um like literally I just have every skill because you never know what key words will pop up right and always keep your resume updated while you're on the job I can't even tell you how many clients I speak to and they're like I did this project I said okay what did you do something about um lab uh configurations oh man it was like five years ago you know where uh I created users and we simulated this thing oh something red team and I said do me a favor have a

notepad on your desktop at work and every time you finish something write in the notepad every time you receive a Kudos put in the notepad put it you know everything just keep track of it while you're on the job because if you don't you're going to forget there's no way you're going to remember all the fine details okay um and then email it to yourself once a month okay that's my Pro tip cuz never know when you're going to lose access good thing I always had my resume updated um now see this is another part that other people that they underestimate but see everybody focuses here knowledge right everybody goes I just need that certification if I just you know take

this I need to learn about this thing I need to take this course but nobody like you know us nerds we don't like to focus down here but if you read the book emotional intelligence it says I think in Chapter 2 and please read the book order on Amazon but it says the biggest predictor of success in the workplace has nothing to do with your hard skills has to do with your level of emotional intelligence and I was like what that's crazy cuz I was working for the government at that time and I'm like well no wonder I'm not getting ahead no wonder everybody else is getting promoted ahead of me I really need to so

there's a quiz at the end of the book that says it tests your people skills but also your self-awareness and I took that quiz and I was really shocked to find the results and I'm like okay now I kind of see in the areas where I scored low I really need to work on that it's like a mirror numbers don't lie people do but numbers don't and for the skills people's skills is so important I I really cannot you know you got to learn how to hack people okay you you got to learn how to you know like I said think like a hacker you got to understand how to how to social engineer yourself into a

position okay what do I mean by by that it means you have to you know not be an a-hole you have to be kind you have to be a team player it's not all about you sometime you got to let the team win you you got to show up and even if you don't you're not the best looking like I'm telling you the smartest people with the 140 IQs that I worked with they barely had any shirts I think they had two but they were smart they were good at their job and they were so humble and people like that people really like that and you know when we all got laid off we started a a slack

Channel and it was like a support group we were like man this sucks you know posting memes and stuff and um we all like helped each other and I remember in the slack Channel because I knew I didn't want to go back to cyber security um it I in the slack Channel I said hey anybody need help with your resume like I can help I'll do it for free I don't care so I started helping people with their resumes and you know the people that uh the company laid off they we all ended up in better positions than we did when if we would have stayed like um my manager he became vice president the vice president he got

into like another SVP position a lot of us ended up with better pay better salaries and better companies and me my journey is a little bit different I I burn the boats I um I was like I ain't going back to 9 to5 you know I'll crash and burn but I rather burn on my own on this island because I went all in and if you're going to do something do it all out don't don't do things you know halfway just do it all out are you going to work for somebody then do the best you can working for that person if you're going to work for yourself do the best you can like don't be dibbly you

know just like oh well I'll just see no just commit and that's what I did I burned my boat and I got offered many jobs after I was like no thank you no thank you because I really my passion is coaching my passion is writing my passion is real estate investing uh day trading like that's my passion I don't really want to go back to things that are not my passion and I could have taken a very safe road but I said I've already done that I've already done that for 18 years and I'm not going back um so hey you're either going to see me on the stage or you're going to see me

on a street corner either way I'm all in and uh in closing I will start and and I end with Steve Jobs you know your time is limited and the reason why I went all in is because I said I don't want to let me read the quote because the words are just so powerful it gets me every time your time is limited so don't waste it living some someone else's life don't be trapped by Dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your your own inner voice and most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition they somehow already know what

you truly want to become and deep inside you know you know you know what you need to do just like when I got laid off I said I know exactly what I've been wanting to do and I'm going to go do it you know and nobody else can tell you but you know you know what that thing is so this um that's my website if you want to scan it and then that QR code has nothing to do with the LinkedIn that's my actual website if you want to contact me and then this is my LinkedIn if you want to find me on LinkedIn but I'll leave the last 10 minutes for questions anybody got any interesting

questions what are from your personal experiences what are like certain symptoms that you would say are like definite signs that somebody is suffering from a potential burnout coming along what are things that people can self examine and be like okay I need to do like a health check okay the biggest like red flag for me was when I started getting really sick um back when I was working for the government I got really sick I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia and they couldn't understand what caused it so with chronic diseases that's like your check engine light you're driving right and then your check engine light goes on and that means hey you actually have to go get that checked

out by a mechanic to figure out what is the underlying cause and when you start taking more sick days and as you're taking those sick days you're not like going to the doctor but you just don't get out of bed that's a sign you're like I'm really edging close to burnout um and when you start snapping at people when you don't have as much patience and you're just you know easily triggered by things that's a sign hey take a mental health day go to the beach go do something you love go play video games to just recharge because you're not going to show up right but yeah that's it the check engine light two one the head shot website

photograph that photos of course I mean it's your competition though um but as someone who's transitioning from a sales background looking to get into cyber security yeah what would you say would be the best you know that's why that's why I'm a career coach because there's not a simple answer right and for it's not linear because it depends who do you know is there someone that you know that could hook you up I okay I have a pretty good Network okay then that's the first thing you want to do use your existing what you have now your existing Network your existing resources and ask them you ask and you shall receive but it takes humility to ask which is why a lot of

people don't ask right so you gota be like hey I need help do you think that you could just help me get you know whatever like and you just dictate what that is and when they open that door for you go through the door yeah run through the door because sometimes I have done this for people where I have gone through the help the whole pain of opening the door for someone only find out they're like I'm good and I'm like really why did you waste my time knowing that you were never going to walk through that door please don't waste my time you know I I have three kids don't waste my time um so yeah that's my

advice anyone else what's your opinion J Market you think the tented get the JS right now yeah so so here's the thing there's um I really want to go back to this part

diversify diversify diversify diversify your assets divers well this is my alarm clock I love Rocky um but diversify your skills get in understand at least have one skill that you could use as freelance work at least one whether it's a photographer hey don't give up on photography you know what I'm saying just leave it on the side or or whatever it is have something that you can use for freelancing because if you really read about the future of of work and the transition is already happening and I'll explain how so the company I work for is a publicly traded company because they are beholden to shareholders they need to boost profits right it's all about profits and um they

laid one senior off and then I noticed that we noticed that they reposted our jobs as three positions so what they're doing is and this is a trend that's going on right now as we speak and that's why you hear about all these Tech layoffs right they're taking one job and not only are they breaking it down sorry to tell you but I I really feel like a moral OB obligation to tell people they're sending those jobs overseas they're they're hiring people overseas um and they could get seven workers for the price of one senior analyst and this just facts like this is the way it is and that's why I say you have to diversify your skills

you have to have skills that are AI Recession Proof okay you cannot just rely on one skill right now I have so many commas after what I do now like I I call it there's a book called one woman multiple careers that's me I have like a slash of careers because I don't want to do one thing but I also very intentionally kind of saw this happening so when they laid me off I actually had already like six months of savings cuz I don't know why but an intuition was like something's going to happen and I started saving like six months before that happened and when you get those gut feelings where you're like I don't know why but I feel

like I'm supposed to do this yeah listen to those gut feelings it's right and do everything you can to prepare now um and I don't know the Heyday of these crazy salaries in Tech are over you saw that with chat GPT how many Engineers got off after that they don't want to pay somebody 260 are you kidding me why would they do that makes no sense no errors in code why would they hire someone that has a ton of errors and is so slow and um but that's what's coming that's really what's coming and nobody may tell you that today but I feel like I have a moral obligation it would not be right for me to walk out of this room and

paint this Rosy picture it is not Rosy it's a dirt road so get ready okay hand guys thank you Peter thank you [Music]