THE FIRST EPISODE

Kip Boyle:   

Hi everyone. This is your Cyber Path, the podcast that helps you get your first cybersecurity job. I’m Kip Boyle. I’m a husband, I’m a dad and I am an experienced hiring manager of cybersecurity professionals. If you want to give me feedback on the show, or if you want me to answer your question on a future episode, please visit the show page at anchor.fm/yourcyberpath. when you get there, just click on the message button and start talking.

Now I’d like to tell you why I’m doing this podcast, and I want to tell you about the other thing I’m doing to help you get your first cybersecurity job. I currently work as a virtual chief information security officer, and previously I was a CSO for seven years. And before that, when I was on active duty in the Air Force, I was the director of wide area network security for the F22 Raptor program. You probably know there are millions of funded, but unfilled, cybersecurity jobs around the world. As a result of that, lots of people have asked me, “How do I get into cyber security?” And for a long time, I tried to provide the best answers I could on my own, usually pretty quickly. But after a while, I looked around for an online resource that I felt confident sending people to. I just didn’t feel like I was doing a good enough job of answering that question for them. And as I looked around, I saw lots of opinions online about how to break into cybersecurity.

But here’s what I noticed. The hiring manager’s perspective is underrepresented in this conversation. And in most cases, it was completely missing. So as an experienced hiring manager, I decided to do something about that. So on this podcast, we’re going to take the hiring managers perspective. And I believe you’re just one path away from your dream cybersecurity job. And when you get that job, you’re going to help lead your organization through very risky times for anyone trying to do business on the open internet. It’s dangerous now, and I think it’s going to get even more dangerous in the future, which is why all those jobs exist. But when you listen to this podcast, you’ll align yourself with the hiring managers perspective, which I believe will increase your chances of landing a great cybersecurity role, one that fits who you are and plays to your strengths.

So, okay. A podcast is a good way for me to help. And after all, I co-host another podcast right now, so I have an idea kind of how podcasts work and what they’re good at, and what they’re not so great at. So I think this can help, but I want to go further for you. So the other thing I’m going to do is I’m going to publish an online course that’s going to help you get your first cybersecurity job. Now to do that, I have to ask you for some help. Will you let me know your number one question about getting your first cybersecurity job? If you do that through my online survey, then you’ll get free access to my first four week online class that’s going to start on April 6, 2020. And you also get a free copy of my Amazon selling book, Fire Doesn’t Innovate: The Executives Practical Guide to Thriving in the Face of Evolving Cyber Risks.

So here’s how you can get to the survey. Open up your web browser and go to b.link/cyberpath. Okay, so that’s the b.link/cyberpath, all one word. And do us all a favor, after you finish the survey, forward the link to anyone you know who might be interested. The more, the better.

Okay. So I think that’s enough information for this kickoff episode. Next time I’m going to tell you how I got into cyber security, what was the path that I took? And I’m also going to tell you a little bit about why I stayed in cybersecurity, despite all the stress and the constant threat of burning out. So until next time remember, you’re just one path away!