Antoine Middleton

Earlier in my career, I struggled in many roles because I waited for someone to guide me through the wildness of information technology. My expectation was that if I showed up willing to learn, I would be taught by others. In hindsight, this was never the case and very naive of me. In reality, I had to become proficient at doing research, improving my soft skills, learning the unpopular processes, and excelling at the fundamentals.

You may think this sounds great, but it certainly requires an enormous amount of effort, sacrifice, and persistence to be successful. So what does this look like in practice? At one organization I worked for, I intentionally asked for access to the development environments and deployed every job-related tool possible. I saw this as my playground to learn, make mistakes, and grow. I was able to learn to code in Python using this method by expanding the internal toolset capabilities. This is not an overnight change. Consistency is the key. The shift to the cloud has also leveled the playing field in IT. Each cloud platform offers a free tier to gain the necessary experience whether currently employed or looking to gain employment. Taking control of your own career journey is one of the most powerful things you can do.

“The greats are the greatest because of their excellence in the fundamentals.”

Have you ever experienced being in the room with those IT “superstars’’? Do you question whether or not you can be like them? Despite the many posts, newsletters, or social media commentary, no one individual has all the answers. Truth be told, many of them and those same people that work beside you have no idea as well. Yet they are afraid to ask for help or questions and give the appearance of not knowing. In my opinion, nothing gets done effectively or efficiently in isolated environments, so ask questions and learn daily the foundational principles. Also network with others to create a community of like-minded individuals to hold you and them accountable for growth.

I’m reminded of a story about a music store owner who stocked shelves in a particular order to force the consumer to ask for help in finding what they were looking for. I thought that was excellent. Human connections! I relate this to my experience working in DevSecOps. I was a part of a company that failed an audit and stress levels increased due to limited or no effective communication between the various departments. Communication is always a vital foundational principle, especially in InfoSec. The most difficult security engineer role for me to succeed in was not due to the technical nature of the role but noncommunicative individuals.

One of the greatest “tools” I’ve gained working with other internal departments is to be flexible. Sure I could easily say we can’t do that because of security requirements or principles but what does that lead to? Departments doing shadow IT. Enjoy a little gray as everything is not black and white with technology. Being flexible has helped me to be involved in projects early and advise on security best practices before becoming a checkbox.

So to summarize how to take control of your journey or TLDR:

1. Do research

2. Take advantage of free opportunities

3. Become great at the fundamentals and build up from there

4. Be an effective communicator

5. Be flexible

This will work in InfoSec and in life.