Thanks for this article. Though I am not part of infosec (other than a brief engagement with someone early in my career that almost led me down a infosec + nation-state intelligence services route) I could relate to much of what you wrote. The point about personality clashes masquerading as technical disagreements is well made and now, with the benefit of hindsight I can see that often it was me who was the problem!
Very nice writeup! A couple sentences really stood out for me:
1. "At any given company, there’s little overlap between your best-known employees and the ones you want to retain at any cost." So true. I've rarely seen those who want to be well known do the most valuable work for the company. I've seen occasional overlaps, but it isn't a high overlap.
"Most technical disagreements are personality clashes in disguise." I completely agree. I found that reasonable, collaborative people could work through technical disagreements and find resolutions, and, in the few cases they couldn't find resolutions, they'd respectfully escalate to get resolutions. However, in the common case of being personality clashes, problems continued to come up even if someone more senior resolved the current conflict.
Not all of the FAANG formers can retire in their 40's and 50's. Things happen for a reason and looking back now, I was actually fortunate to have been in terrible circumstances to nudge me out of the two of those lettered companies I worked for. While I learned a lot of specific skills at both, my love of infosec didn't match my skillset, so I never became the "hotshot" or "rockstar" and to be honest, was a bit too lazy to drive forward with some of my ideas. I think the industry has bigger issues in the near future and hopefully companies focusing on combating "Big Tech" will be successful in limiting the overwhelming domination in almost all aspects of everyday life. Unfortunately I'll probably work until I drop dead, living paycheck to paycheck in a partial infosec role because I'm not getting those RSU's and EPP's that I couldn't live without before. I like this article though, it does have some really solid advice. Thank you for sharing.
From antisec to maintaining life-perspective your writeup hits home. Solid wisdom to pass along.
Thanks for this article. Though I am not part of infosec (other than a brief engagement with someone early in my career that almost led me down a infosec + nation-state intelligence services route) I could relate to much of what you wrote. The point about personality clashes masquerading as technical disagreements is well made and now, with the benefit of hindsight I can see that often it was me who was the problem!
Very nice writeup! A couple sentences really stood out for me:
1. "At any given company, there’s little overlap between your best-known employees and the ones you want to retain at any cost." So true. I've rarely seen those who want to be well known do the most valuable work for the company. I've seen occasional overlaps, but it isn't a high overlap.
"Most technical disagreements are personality clashes in disguise." I completely agree. I found that reasonable, collaborative people could work through technical disagreements and find resolutions, and, in the few cases they couldn't find resolutions, they'd respectfully escalate to get resolutions. However, in the common case of being personality clashes, problems continued to come up even if someone more senior resolved the current conflict.
Not all of the FAANG formers can retire in their 40's and 50's. Things happen for a reason and looking back now, I was actually fortunate to have been in terrible circumstances to nudge me out of the two of those lettered companies I worked for. While I learned a lot of specific skills at both, my love of infosec didn't match my skillset, so I never became the "hotshot" or "rockstar" and to be honest, was a bit too lazy to drive forward with some of my ideas. I think the industry has bigger issues in the near future and hopefully companies focusing on combating "Big Tech" will be successful in limiting the overwhelming domination in almost all aspects of everyday life. Unfortunately I'll probably work until I drop dead, living paycheck to paycheck in a partial infosec role because I'm not getting those RSU's and EPP's that I couldn't live without before. I like this article though, it does have some really solid advice. Thank you for sharing.