Mastodawn

Jun 16, 2024

Two controversial pieces of cybersecurity career advice I give to a lot of people I talk to on mentorship calls:

1) Don't become a manager unless you genuinely want to be a servant leader and devote yourself to people and program management for the joy and fulfillment of it.

2) Don't become a red teamer unless you genuinely in your heart of hearts want to be a red teamer, you understand what the role entails (even the boring parts), and you are willing to very deeply commit extra time and effort. They're generally much more competitive roles.

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Christof Sack Jun 16, 2024

@hacks4pancakes to your first point. What I learned since I transitioned to manager is that most people in cyber don't need to be "managed" but either need to be coached or enabled. You can't be a classic manager type since you need the technical skills and understanding to gain respect by the team and also need to be a part of it to give them what they need from you. At the same time, you need to understand that you won't touch a command line much at all anymore or you will burn out in no time.

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Adam Barnett

@InFy @hacks4pancakes I was nodding along until near the end, thought to myself “aha! I’m a manager, but I’m still in a shell every day without fail doing all sorts of things to lead from the front!” and then I read the final bit about burnout and… yeah.