Advancing Cybersecurity Careers w/ Christophe Foulon

In this episode, host and CISO Allan Alford interviews his friend Chris Foulon, Sr. Manager of Cybersecurity at a leading fintech compnay, and co-host of the "Breaking into Cybersecurity" podcast. Chris has 15 years in information security, having started at the helpdesk years ago. His biggest desire in infosec is helping others. In his day job Chris gets to work with every part of the business. On the subject of the personnel shortage in cybersecurity, Chris believes that there is no shortage. Rather, he suggests that hiring managers limit their choices by holding out for too high an experience level, and by neglecting diversity and inclusion. His advice for those who are entering the profession is to combine experience, certifications and education as suited to themselves and the roles they are applying for. He suggests reserach and listening to podcasts like this one. Chris suggests finding a mentor has well. Chris and Allan discuss diversity, inclusion and allyship at length, going into such details as how job descriptions can discourage diverse candidates. Chris' motivation in cybersecurity is the fact that the industry is ever-evolving and always presents opportunities for creative problem solving. Key Takeaways 1:18 - Chris shares his history with cybersecurity 3:20 - Chris describes why he thinks there is no infosec personnel shortage 4:43 - Chris describes how to write a job description to generate more candidates 6:28 - Chris tells people with other backgrounds not to start over in cyber but to move in laterally and learnd the tech 8:02 - Chris explains how to get experience and subject matter expertise before you start you first job 12:35 - Chris talks about certifications 16:11 - Chris talks about including neurodiverse candidates 17:52 - Chris describes how hiring managers can clean their job descriptions to encourage diverse candidates 24:24 - Chris describes the benefits of mentoring 25:24 - Chris describes what motivates him in infosec 26:24 - Chris describes what he is looking forward to in infosec Links: Learn more about Chris Foulon on LinkedIn and Twitter. Chris' coaching site is CPF Coaching Follow Allan Alford on LinkedIn and Twitter Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio and The Cyber Ranch Podcast Sponsored by our good friends at Axonius