Made to secure our digital future

The education at McGill equipped me with the interdisciplinary skills to pivot into the jobs of the future. Studying sociology and political sciences, cybersecurity was not in my vocabulary at the time. Yet when it was introduced to me, my social sciences background allowed me to immediately see cybersecurity from the lens of the people and interpersonal connectivity, rather than just the technology.

Between the hundreds of pages of readings (per night!) and essay-based assignments at McGill, I developed the verbal and written communications skills that eventually allowed me to become a ‘translator’ between business, policy and technical teams in cybersecurity. Today, I work in a cross-functional role in Digital Sovereignty at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is an emerging field in cloud computing.

However, many technology fields do not seek to hire non-tech backgrounds. By limiting where we look for talent, we do not allow diverse voices to challenge assumptions and find blind spots in our digital future. That’s why in 2018, I founded Inclusive Cyber through the Global Shapers Community, to build a cyber talent pipeline as diverse as the challenges we will face.

During 2020, I ran a series of McGill workshops titled ‘Mapping the Possibilities’, working with students across the entire Arts faculty to reframe and reimagine their existing transferable skills for roles in cybersecurity and emerging technology. I have spoken and written about the value of a diverse cyber talent at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the UK Cyber Security Council, and the Canadian Security magazine.

I do what I do because I want to encourage the next generation to see cybersecurity as a purposeful field to safeguard our digital future, and to believe that while the jobs of the future may not exist today, the interdisciplinary skills we develop are what will future-proof us for them.