Lesley Carhart Sep 29, 2023
I had a mentoring session last night with a poc I’ve been working with who went to his first local cybersecurity con, recently. He had such a bad experience with people being cliquey there and ignoring him that he’s ready to stop trying to get into the industry. 😥😰 I knew there are some cultural issues at that con and area but had no idea they were so bad, and encouraged him to maybe look at other cities in the US and their cons. Pitch your city’s infosec community and scene and I’ll share with him?
Show threadChristie DudleySep 29, 2023

@hacks4pancakes I have experienced this cliquey behavior in a lot of unexpected places. I have looked at it as a kind of gatekeeping that insecure people do to try to improve their experience.

Probably the best thing is for someone in that situation to have prior arrangements to hang out with different people in advance. It’s a little contrived, but people who aren’t like what they expect are going to be more skeptical. As they make more connections, they will begin to get recognized.

Show threadLesley Carhart Sep 29, 2023
@longobord this is really important. I too get busy and cannot necessarily talk to everyone, but gatekeeping is usually something people do due to a lack of personal self confidence in their skills, in combination with ego, racism, sexism, etc
Show threadChristie DudleySep 29, 2023
@hacks4pancakes I like to take that step back from racism and sexism and say "not what they expect" in generic terms. People who do that kind of gatekeeping mostly do not consider themselves sexist or racist and are often very supportive, they just are using bad signifiers as to who it is meaningful to pay attention to.
Show threadLesley Carhart 
@longobord that’s a legit point for sure, though many people who don’t think they are sexist or racist are…
Sep 29, 2023 at 6:27pmWeb
Show threadChristie DudleySep 29, 2023
@hacks4pancakes You won't win that battle though. It's not worth fighting if you can remove their foundation.