The Diana Initiative 2021

Feeling insecure about your technical background? I’ve put together my first talk ever for you. Well, really for everyone who wants to help tame the negative mind chatter of impostor syndrome. Either for themselves, or as mentors to others - especially career changers. I've been in a technical role in information security for six years now, but I will always identify as a career changer who moved across continents and cultures while pivoting from a non-technical career into information security. I am here to admit I have personally battled with the question: "What value could I possibly bring to security???" But you know what? I always prepared, showed up, and was present. And I'm here to help inspire others with my lessons learned.

In this talk, I will share how I tackled the amplified noise of the imposter syndrome, how I sifted through the truth from the myths, how I handled the rolling of the eyes and ridicule from the “techies”, and how I was able to use my previous career background, understanding of cultures and human behaviour to “think like a hacker”. In fact, having a diverse perspective helped me solve challenging security problems and bring unique and valuable contributions to the field.