Navigating the Cybersecurity Career Path

CHAPTER 10How Can I Succeed as a Minority?

Summary

• Know yourself: Consider how vocal and visible you want to be in promoting issues of equity and inclusion.
• Network: Join internal and external networking groups that identify with your status and use them for support and guidance
• Be intentional: If you find yourself flexing your personality to stay in a role, team, or company, consider what you will do to improve the situation — up to and including leaving.

The security profession has a problem. It is both an image problem and a systemic functional problem. The workforce is way too homogeneous. It is made up primarily of men, and in most countries, it is made up of cisgender men who are white and straight, which to a degree is far out of step with the proportions of the general population. Security workers who are not cis-male, white, and straight must take additional actions to ensure that they are hired, trained, included, promoted, and valued because of their work, not because of or despite their nonmajority attributes.

The impact of this imbalance is significant. When young people don't see themselves as a potential member of a technology tribe in middle school, they opt out of taking classes that would lead them to a traditional security career route. When working women hear stories of male-dominated security jobs, they choose a different career option. When minority people working in security don't see themselves reflected in the leadership team, they leave ...