Career Nav #60: Empowering Women in Cybersecurity: Journey of Customer Success Managers
Written by WWCode Team August 28, 2023
Neha Singh, Customer Success Manager at Palo Alto Networks, shares her talk, “Empowering Women in Cybersecurity: Journey of Customer Success Managers.” She shares tips on starting your cybersecurity career, the incentives to join the industry, and how companies are trying to diversify their teams.
Cybersecurity is the art of protecting our networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access. Cyber attacks and cyber threats could be of various types that you can fall prey to, for example, phishing, malware attacks, DOS attacks, network attacks, and many more. Cybersecurity and cyber attacks are evolving every day. Even the big players in the market who already have all the resources at their disposal and have already implemented various preventive controls cannot avoid cyber attacks. This is why there is a great demand for professionals who can implement cybersecurity and safeguard an organization’s data.
Cybersecurity has almost a 0% unemployment rate because we don’t have enough people in the market. They don’t have enough skills in the market. However, in reality, when we talk about women in this field, surprisingly, the percentage of women in cybersecurity is only about 24%. We are unaware of our opportunities in this field, and there is a perception issue. I have female friends who think this industry is very competitive, and it’s only for nerdy males. They also think because it’s a male-oriented industry, maybe there would be a gender pay gap, but that’s not the case. If you have the skills, you will get paid.
There are incentives that I see as part of the cybersecurity industry. Job security is one. Because we don’t have enough people in the field, there is no way you will remain without a job if you have the skills. Develop your skills, and you will be with a job, and it will be a well-paid job. The companies are also realizing that our workforce is not diverse enough. For example, I’m the only female on my team. Hiring managers also realize we need more people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, or genders. As more and more women join this industry, we will be able to break down the stereotypes and all the perception issues that we have currently. It will help to motivate and encourage other women to join us.
My biggest incentive is the impact on individual, corporate, and national security, depending on what kind of organization you’re working for. There are some prerequisites to start your career in this industry. You will have an edge if you have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or information technology and have coding language knowledge like C++, Java, and everything. You will be preferred, but it’s not like if you don’t know this, you can’t start your career in cybersecurity. There are different roles available for different kinds of skills. Some non-negotiable skills are knowledge of network security, basic networking, firewalls, and endpoint security… Read the full story.
Originally published at https://www.womenwhocode.com.
