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The human element of cybersecurity careers

Cheryl Kerrigan, Vice President of People at BlueCat, discusses the importance of communication, soft skills and healthy employee cultures in modern cybersecurity companies.

In the podcast, Kerrigan and host Chris Sienko discuss:

– How did you move from standard HR positions to this more tech-focused career? (1:24)
– What is “Vice President of People”? How does it differ from a Human Resources position? What are your primary responsibilities and requirements, and how are they different from Human Resources? (4:52)
– Do you feel that this type of position is necessary because this type of employee advocacy isn’t being provided by managers? (6:27)
– What are some concrete examples of things you do on a day-to-day basis with regards to retaining talent? (7:41)
– Walk us through your average day as VP of People at BlueCat. What time do you get to work? What is your optimal routine? (10:18)
– What are your most common tasks? Do you take work home? What are your most favorite and least favorite parts of your job? (12:09)
– We talked previously about issues of uncommon communication skills that are necessary to advance one’s career in security and tech. Based on your experience, what skill deficiencies hold cybersecurity professionals back? (14:07)
– What I’m hearing is that there’s a disconnect between workers who do the job mechanically versus workers who do the job with an eye on advancing the aims of the company. Is that correct? (17:35)
– How does one go about learning these types of soft skills? What are some practical ways to help people acquire, learn and reinforce these skills in their day-to-day life? (18:30)
– One concept you mentioned in our previous conversation (Read more...)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Infosec Resources authored by Hunter Reed. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosecResources/~3/WSoE4AqlY90/