On Friday 19 February, Rayna Stamboliyska, VP Governance & Public Affairs at YesWeHack, lecturer at Sciences Po and member of the W4C Council, gave a masterclass in our monthly W4C Masterclass with a Role Model Series.
During the 4th W4C Masterclass, Rayna Stamboliyska talked about the unconscious bias and difficulties that women face in cybersecurity and how to tackle them. Because according to Rayna… Yes, girls outperform boys at school. Yes, women managers outperform their men counterparts at work. Plenty of initiatives exist to encourage more entry-level diversity. But how many tackle the leaky career pipeline?
Career paths are fast evolving in cybersecurity. We have made progress in addressing diversity. However, for an equally fast change to happen, we need inclusion and flexibility in career paths. Women are as much C-level material as men. We must act accordingly.
Rayna shared the advice she hoped someone had shared with her at the beginning of her career, she talked about how to navigate a career in cybersecurity, and how to transform a job into a career.
“You must know what you are good at and what you are bad at, and be honest about it with yourself and others”
One of the biggest takeaways from Rayna’s Masterclass was how to move forward in a career by taking decisions. Taking decisions is often hard, especially the important ones.
Rayna takes decisions based on values, which according to her at the same time shape one’s career. She identifies six main values:
- Gaining knowledge
- Having fun
- Getting power
- Creating human connections
- Helping people
- Making money
She recommends ordering them by what matters the most to you and based on that order evaluate which of your options gets you closer to what you want.
“Obstacles can be turned into opportunities”
Rayna’s presentation was followed by a fruitful exchange full of advice and recommendations along the lines of how to grow in the field and what to do as an employer to attract and keep women in your organisation, and so on.
You can watch the full masterclass and the exchange, more advice and recommendations following this link
