A recent discussion between Gotara CEO, D Sangeeta and Trellix Global Chief Human Resources Officer Michael Alicea, explored opportunities for women in STEM, the importance of bridging the cybersecurity talent gap, and more. Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detention and response (XDR) will use Gotara’s global career growth platform for women in STEM. The partnership between Trellix and Gotara is crucial and progressive. Sangeeta sees this as a significant step toward addressing gender parity in difficult fields such as cybersecurity, where talent is always in short supply and women are underrepresented.
Cybersecurity Roles
Michael Alicea highlights that there are millions of unfilled cybersecurity roles, and the concept of diversity and inclusion is something that companies struggle with because they don’t think about it in terms of how to bring everyone to the table, or how to unleash the power of diversity. Trellix’s collaboration with Gotara allows it to help women in STEM advance their careers while also allowing them to be bigger players in the tech space, which ultimately benefits the cybersecurity industry.
Importance of leadership in workplace
Talking about his journey in Trellix, he points out the importance of leadership. Trellix CEO, Bryan Palma works towards making Trellix an employees’ choice workplace and a premier destination for diverse cybersecurity experts. He wanted to work with an organization that not only had the right vision, but also the right leadership, and that needed to do really, hard transformational work, and Trellix is one of those organizations that is leading in this space. This organization believes in the importance of culture and how to instill it in everything you do.
“We announced a partnership with Gotara to complement Trellix’s talent strategy by creating development experiences including hands–on and personalized opportunities guided by STAR Program advisors.,” – Michael Alicea
‘People First’ Approach in organizations
Discussing the most significant challenges that women face when pursuing or advancing their STEM careers in general, and specifically in cybersecurity, Sangeeta appreciated Trellix’s ‘People first’ approach. No company can be successful unless it has a proper talent strategy. It is significant to have spent time developing a strategy for recruiting and developing talent. Cybersecurity is a rapidly expanding field with numerous opportunities for advancement.
Underrepresentation of women in Cybersecurity
Addressing the issues that women face is very important. Women account for less than 10% of cybersecurity professionals. Based on data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), women represented 45% of students majoring in STEM fields in 2020, up from 40% in 2010 and 34% in 1994. So companies like Trellix are working hard to attract talent to achieve the desired percentage of women in the workforce. So knowing how to attract people is essential.
Lack of conscious effort to recruit in Organizations
Recruiting has become easier as universities have done an excellent job of graduating a greater number of women. Women who are already in the workforce represent the greatest opportunity for every employer because there is a nearly 40-50 percent attrition rate within the first 5-7 years of their career. They are leaving their jobs due to workplace issues. Organizations need to understand things that are critical for retaining women in the workforce. They must consider not only attracting talent, but also retaining, growing, and developing a pipeline of leaders with gender parity at every level.
Cybersecurity is one of the hottest areas of technology today, and unfortunately, the world is becoming more difficult rather than easier. A thriving industry with cutting-edge skills and a culture that values diversity and inclusion also represents something purposeful.
The work Trellix does culturally is purpose-driven. The job is to protect clients’ companies and competitiveness from bad actors.
Reasons for women to get into cybersecurity
1. Trellix hit the nail on the head on purposeful work. Women seek purposeful work. What does it deliver, and how does it affect society? And when it comes to cybersecurity, Trellix’s work is all about personal information security, financial security, intellectual property security, and other types of security that are important to all. Women don’t want their personal information spread across the internet, or their intellectual property stolen by someone else. Working with Trellix serves the bigger purpose and creates a direct impact.
2. Of all the jobs, STEM jobs are the most lucrative jobs. Getting into the field of cybersecurity is skill-based, culture-driven, purpose-oriented, and well paid.
3. More women working in this field will help to eliminate the bias that exists in AI/ML. Machine learning learns from the past, and if 88 percent of people are men and only 12 percent are women, they will learn men’s behavior. However, things are changing, and we must look to the future and incorporate diverse perspectives so that the algorithms that are built are better built for the future rather than the past. Consider the enormous influence and impact that women could have in this field. Cybersecurity is a great place for women to focus.
Trellix’s Partnership with Gotara
Gotara offers a unique blend of mentoring, coaching, and upskilling known as nano learning. It offers byte-sized, relevant, and applicable content. It provides relevant tools to address the issues. After 8 weeks of intensive training, the goal is to make women more productive, advance in their careers, and retain and grow. Trellix’s future development and growth, have entry-level opportunities for people who get Nano learning in place and graduate through the program. The goal is to create a culture of continuous learning.
