Veronica: My path to working in cybersecurity

Hi, I'm Veronica and I'm a security engineer at Google. My journey into cybersecurity has changed my life for the better in so many ways. The most important part is fulfilling work. I get to do something that I absolutely love and that I'm super interested in, and I feel very lucky that this is what I get to do for work. Before I entered my current field, I had no idea what cybersecurity was. My knowledge of cybersecurity was using secure passwords, and that was about it. So if you asked me, you know, would I be in cybersecurity five years ago? I would've said, what is that? Someone without a technical background can 100% be successful in cybersecurity. My path to my current role in cybersecurity started as an IT resident here at Google staff in Techstop. I learned a lot of analytical thinking skills, working on a help desk, troubleshooting, debugging. I didn't realize I had transferable skills until I got into my role in cybersecurity. And from there, I took it upon myself to bug a bunch of security engineers, interviewed a lot of them. I didn't get here alone. It took a village of mentors to get me here, so don't be afraid to ask for help. I don't think someone needs a college degree to go into cybersecurity. Some of the brightest minds that I get to work with don't have a college degree, so I think that's one of the best parts about the industry. Looking back at my career, I wish I would have known that I don't have to check all the boxes, that I don't have to be an expert in the area to shoot my shot, and I also wish I would've known that perfectionism can get in the way of what you want to achieve.