Many of us at JSCM Group have been asked the same question repeatedly over the years:
Why Cyber Security?
It’s something I personally have been asked more times than I can count. Family and friends alike, when I tell someone the field I work in, one of them will inevitably ask how I ended up here. When I really think about the answer, the honest truth is that it was an accident. My career path up until the start of my first position with JSCM Group was in I.T., but nowhere near the realm of security. I worked in a school as an I.T. assistant. While the people I worked with every day were enjoyable to be around, the work itself was lacking in any complexity or challenge. I quickly grew disheartened with my choice to work in I.T. and so decided to find another career. As many of us have done, I went online and applied for any job in my area that seemed somewhat appealing. It just so happened that one of those jobs was at a cyber security company.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have ended up where I did. But the facts are that cyber security was never something that ever crossed my mind because women are not pushed to go into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. When I was in 1st grade I decided I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, and nobody questioned it. By the time I got to high school and it was time to pick my college and choice of degree, nobody thought to ask if I might want to do something else.
The interesting thing about my ending up working in cyber security is that it is exactly where a person like me thrives. I love challenges, thinking outside of the box, and solving problems. And as it turns out, LOTS of people, men and women alike, are like that. Which begs the question: Why am I a minority in my field? I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately. So, in honor of Women’s History Month, I have decided to take it upon myself to explain exactly why working in cyber security is so great. During this month we will be posting blog posts from the perspectives of the women in our organization about why we love this field. Our goal is to shed light on what we do every day, and hopefully make someone out there see that this might just be the place for them. We are nothing if not passionate about what we do, and we want to share that with anyone that will listen. And just maybe, we can be the catalyst to someone deciding this is the field for them, too.
Madison Slater
General Manager