Security Talk: A Bedtime Story for my Son

13 years ago, I was a wide-eyed kid trying to make it in the big city. I started my career in professional services – meaning I was a sales guy who specialized in placing network engineers into full time permanent positions in the Washington DC Metro Area.

That’s where I first met Cisco as I helped to place your CCNA, CCNP, CCIE types into professional roles – and I loved it! More so, I loved Cisco and all they had to offer their employees. So much in fact, that it became a dream of mine to someday work for them too.

Eight years later, that dream would come true as I would officially become a Cisco employee and nearly every day since I’ve been proud to say that I #LoveWhereYouWork.

If that kid from 13 years ago could see me now, he’d be floored as I support one of the fastest moving, most heavily invested in, hottest, and diverse security portfolios in the world – Cisco’s Security Business Group.

We employ the brightest and best security professionals in the world who work on industry leading products like AMP, our Advance Malware Protection SaaS based offering, our Network Security Team – which is a dominant force in the firewall space, and other SaaS based products like Umbrella – which uses the internet’s infrastructure to block a malicious destination before a connection is ever established.

These teams aren’t just driving the security landscape – they’re shaping the entire industry, and I’m excited to be along for the ride.

What’s a day in the life look like for me? It may not be ALL security, ALL the time – one of the greatest benefits of working at Cisco is that they realize you’re a HUMAN too.

4:30PM is always the best part of my day – the daily daycare pick up – as a rambunctious 3-year-old boy runs over and throws me into the largest bear hug and plants an even bigger kiss on my cheek. I’m glad I never have to miss picking up my son from school, and it’s all thanks to the incredible culture Cisco Security has instilled in all its employees – family first.

Flexible hours. Telecommuting options. The ability to work from anywhere – which, for me, means from my home office on snow days in particular – all are a result of how Cisco trusts its employees to get the job done, and how our technology has enabled us not only to keep up with our work, but our lives – and the people that matter most, too. Because of Cisco, I never miss a moment of my son’s life.

Speaking of which, as our afternoon progresses, we roll into my SECOND favorite part of the day – Security Talk!

You see, while I may be the Talent Acquisition Lead for America’s Engineering at Cisco Security – I am also a daddy trying to teach his son about the hottest technical industry. I want him to know how awesome my job is in being able to support our security teams, and how I’m having a direct impact on making the world a better – safer – place. Because at the end of the day, that’s our mission here at Cisco Security – we’re here to protect.

Security Talk is when evening hits in our household, just a little before my son’s bedtime – part data time for me, and a form of homeschooling and bed time story for him as he gets to help me “click some buttons”, break down some excel spread sheets, and look through some security hiring reports.

As names pop up I tell him, “There’s one – this is one of daddy’s work friends who is helping to protect us from Malware.” He’s three, maybe he doesn’t know everything yet about Malware, but that’s why Security Talk is so important.

I tell him how this friend oversees our Security Research Team to include areas like Malware Research, and how Malware is something that hurts people – it’s bad. He nods his head, as I tell him not to worry though because I help to fight the bad guys by recruiting the good people of the world (the ethical hackers of the world, if you will) to be daddy’s friends at Talos, who helped to teach me all about security and why it’s important.

Our friends at Talos are there to do one thing – keep mommy, daddy and all our family and friends safe. They are there to protect us.

You and I may know Talos as one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams in the world. They’re the ones tasked with keeping the world safe by disrupting the malicious activity and reporting in on new and emerging threats to our product teams and greater security community.

My son knows Talos to be a superhero, and his daddy is one of those superheroes too.

After all, that’s who we are here at Cisco Security – the technology superheroes of the 21st century.

We’re the largest security firm in the world. We’re one team with one dream. We’re the defenders of the online innocent, thwarting the bad guys who want to impose harm on us.

Every day at Cisco Security is an adventure, and every day I am thankful to be here helping to fight the good fight. Even more so, I am glad that I get to have my family along with me on this adventure – and that, as I tuck him into bed, he knows that Talos, Cisco Security, and daddy will always be there to protect him.

Want to join Cisco Security? We’re hiring. Apply now.