This week, I found myself reflecting on something that had very little to do with technology.
Different people, different backgrounds, and different careers. Yet they all began with almost the same sentence.
“I don’t think my experience counts.”
As I listened, I realised none of them were talking about a lack of ability. They were talking about a lack of belief. That made me pause.
Because throughout my career in cybersecurity, I’ve met people with remarkable technical knowledge who struggled to influence a room. I’ve also met leaders from completely different industries who instinctively knew how to build trust, communicate under pressure and make thoughtful decisions.
Both are valuable. But only one group usually believes they belong.
That made me question something.
When did we start measuring potential by job titles rather than by the way people think?
The more people I mentor, the more convinced I become that career transitions are rarely about learning from scratch.
They’re about translation.
Helping someone recognise that the strengths they’ve developed over years didn’t disappear when they chose a different path.
Leadership doesn’t reset because you move industries…
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As our industry continues to grow, I hope we become better at recognising talent that doesn’t always arrive in familiar packaging. Because the future of cybersecurity won’t only be shaped by people who started in cybersecurity. It will also be shaped by people who bring different experiences, different perspectives and different ways of thinking. And perhaps that’s exactly what the profession needs.
So I’ll leave you with the question I’ve been asking myself this week.
What story are you telling yourself about your career?
And if someone else wrote it, would they describe you the same way?
