"We will only hire cybersecurity pros with a minimum 35+ years of experience! Why do we keep getting pwned?"
I've helped build some VERY successful teams over the years..and I say helped because no one builds a successful team all by themselves. The very best, most cohesive, fun and amazing teams I have been a part of had four elements that allowed them to succeed wildly when we would watch other companies teams falter.
1. The Rookie... You NEED new people, they have passion, drive, desire to learn and become better. They ask questions others won't or have forgotten. They make the senior people BETTER simply with their inquisitive nature, drive and excitement. They also rekindle that in others that maybe have become salty or complacent because they've been doing this so long.
2. The Journeyman.. Every company needs some people who are just simply happy to work. They are stable, they know what they are doing, happy to help and are just generally solid. This group may or may not have any desire to go into management, many are perfectly happy just being a hacker, AND THAT'S OK! These people are the glue and are SO, SO important to a team. Never EVER underestimate the importance of this group.
3. The SME.. The subject matter expert, they LOVE their little portion of the world. It might be Applications, or Physical Red Teams, but whatever it is.. they crush it! They know things like the back of their hand and people look to them to impart that knowledge when asked. Now this doesn't mean your SME has to be THE BEST in the industry, it can simply be someone who is super passionate and simply knows more, and most importantly WANTS to keep learning and increasing that knowledge in there respective specialty.
4. The Curmudgeon.. I'm going to misuse this term a bit, but we all know this person! The salty hacker that's been around the block 100 times.. "Seen it all". "Oh that reminds me of the time when..." "Here.. let me show you somethings...." The curmudgeon also is the one that gets downright ANGRY with crap security.. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING? And loves to preach how the entire industry is going to hell in a handbasket.
If you have any one, or two of these without the others, you either have a wildly unstable team, or one that isn't motivate or excited. A team that is built with these four elements feeds off each other. The Curmudgeon NEEDS the Rookie to help them remember how much FUN this job is, just as the Rookie so many times melts that ice cold heart with pure joy and excitement when the curmudgeon teaches them something new. The Journeyman needs the SME to push them so they don't rest on their laurels, in turn the SME needs the Journeyman to realize that not EVERYTHING is Social engineering (or their specialty) and that sometimes being a jack of all trades can be a huge advantage!
Then something magical happens. The Rookie, Journeyman, Curmudgeon and SME disappear and a TEAM is born
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