Episodes

  • Jaya Baloo: Don't be afraid to bounce ideas off your teammates. [CISO]
    Apr 19 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Jaya Baloo, a Chief Information Security Officer from Avast sits down to share her story, sharing how she got into the technology field at a younger age with being introduced to computers and games on her PS 24. She started off going to college for political science and after not knowing what to do after that, she got her first start in cybersecurity. After falling in love with cybersecurity she kept moving up the ranks in different organizations before finding herself at Avast. She shares that at Avast she leans on her team quite a bit and you should never be afraid to bounce ideas off of your teammates. She says "The best ideas come from like bouncing ideas off of each other, sharing within the group and then if I can't figure it out myself, that's why I hire these amazing individuals it's to help me figure it out." We thank Jaya for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    11 mins
  • Mark Logan: March towards your goals. [CEO]
    Apr 12 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Mark Logan, CEO of One Identity, sits down to share his story, explaining how he fit into different roles growing up in different companies. Mark has nearly two decades of C-Suite experience at an array of different organizations, finally landing on his current position as the CEO at One Identity. Sharing his different roles, he also gives a quote from Steve Jobs, saying "it's not what I say yes to, it's what I say no to." He believes that's a key area for his workers because when he is able to make up his mind, his team and his customers have someone they can rely on. Mark says that as a CEO he wants to share the advice of always marching towards your goals, and identifying that different people have different goals because they work in different fields, but that's what makes a company work best. He says "I've found that the more you can delegate, provided you've got the right folks in place the better." We thank Mark for sharing his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    11 mins
  • Anjali Hansen: Cross team collaboration works best. [Privacy Counsel]
    Apr 5 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Anjali Hansen, a Senior Privacy Counselor from Noname Security shares her story as she climbed through the ranks to get to where she is today. When Anjali started, she wanted to do international law. She started working for the International Trade Commission after law school, where she was able to gain most of her experience and real world abilities. Working with online fraud and abuse, she shares, concerned her, because it felt like governments could not protect organizations from threats occurring, which is how she got interested in cybercrime. From there, she moved to Noname Security, and in working there, she found that she is working with every group in the organization, creating a cross team collaboration, saying how much she admires that type of model. She says "We have to help other departments protect the data because the data's throughout an organization, it's in HR, it's in sales and marketing, it's in IT, it's in finance. So you have to be able to work with all these teams." We thank Anjali for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    10 mins
  • David Nosibor: Taking calculated risks. [Product Lead]
    Mar 29 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. David Nosibor, Product Lead for SafeCyber at UL Solutions, started his career in a unique way by not letting himself be pigeonholed. Within his company, David was able to grow to the position he is in now and says that his position feels like a lot of roles tied into one. He says that on any given day he is tackling all sorts of elements, such as marketing, operations, working with the engineering team, figuring out ways to acquire customers, retain them, and also working on sales and business development capabilities. He also says that constantly learning and getting new opportunities was how he ended up being where he is today. David states that staying focused and being on the lookout for ways to accomplish the mission is the best way for him in his company to democratize product security. He quotes the famous singer Sean Carter in saying that he firmly believes in taking calculated risks to get where you need to be going. We thank David for sharing his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    26 mins
  • Roya Gordon: Becoming a trailblazer. [Research]
    Mar 22 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Roya Gordon, a Security Research Evangelist at ICS cybersecurity firm Nozomi Networks, started her career as an intelligence specialist in the U.S. Navy. After her time serving, Roya spent time as a Control Systems Cybersecurity Analyst at the Idaho National Laboratory and then took the role of Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager at Accenture. She shares her story after the NSA accepted her and then quickly diverted, creating a new path for Roya to follow. She shares the jobs she went after along the way, leading up to Nozomi Networks and how she wishes to be a trailblazer for young black women everywhere. She hopes to shape young women's minds on what the cybersecurity industry is actually like, in hopes that she can be a figure people look up to. We thank Roya for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    12 mins
  • Christian Lees: It's not always textbook. [CTO]
    Mar 15 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Christian Lees, CTO at Resecurity, shares his story and insight on coming into the cybersecurity world. He considers himself a late bloomer because he did not go to college until he was 23. He wasn’t sure of what he wanted to do, and a family friend gave him a computer and the rest was history, he says. He fell in love with computers and started working at different companies trying to get ahead. He says it's not always textbook, and sometimes you just need to cut your teeth on something to get where you're going. Throughout his journey, he was constantly questioning whether he made the right decision, and in the end he says you have to be willing to "define friction points in it, you may join security field, not knowing what you're gonna do, but by being that curious person and breaking things and putting it back together, you'll find the right way and just never stop being curious." We thank Christian for sharing his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    10 mins
  • Anna Belak: Acquiring skills to make you into a unicorn. [Thought Leadership]
    Mar 8 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Anna Belak, Director of Thought Leadership at Sysdig, shares her story from physics to cyber. Anna explains how she went into college with the thinking of getting a physics degree and then for her PhD decided to switch to material science and engineering. Both were not something she enjoyed and ultimately decided to go into cyber. She shares some advice on how you should never limit yourself to your degree, as well as always learning new skills and honing in on skills you already have. She say's by doing these things it will make you into a unicorn, meaning if you are good at one thing and teach yourself to be good at something else, you will become that much more valuable. Anna hopes she makes an impact with the people she works with, she hopes they will want to work with her even long after she leaves a company. We thank Anna for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    10 mins
  • Larry Cashdollar: Always learning new technology. [Intelligence response engineer]
    Mar 1 2026
    Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Larry Cashdollar, Principal Security Intelligence Response Engineer at Akamai Technologies, sits down with Dave Bittner to discuss his life leading up to working at Akamai. He shares his story from his beginnings to now, describing what college life was like as a young computer enthusiast. He says "If you look at my 1986 yearbook, I think it was my sixth grade class, it says computer scientist for my career path. So I had a love of computers when I was really young. I guess I knew what field I wanted to get into right off the bat." He describes different career paths that all led him to his current position. He also shares his love for computers and technology through the decades of his youth, and how he is learning, even now. We thank Larry for sharing his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    9 mins