Why I still think my job is fun

I work for a Fortune 10 company.  My team is responsible for creating complex cyber defense solutions for my employer's Fortune 500 customers (which is about 95% of them).

I still like my job.

I like it because I can pick up the phone and go meet with just about any Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer or Chief Information Security Officer that I want to. Not a bad job.

In today's cyber-centric world, they agree to meet with me much more often than not.  They meet because of who I work for now and my previous background in the Pentagon. (I guess there is always a certain allure about how DOD defends itself in cyberspace.)

So I've met with a lot of them and they tend to change their employers pretty frequently. (My record is I have met with a certain CISO at 4 different companies.)

Over time these meetings became very similar to me, although they are never boring. (Based on similarity, I even started writing my meetings notes before the meeting! The before/after meeting notes correlation was about 80%!)

Hold that thought.

Now . . . it also seems more and more DOD and Intel tech executives are taking C level tech jobs in the Fortune 500. I suspect the pay is better. These folks can get frustrated when they realize enacting DOD/Intel approaches in the private sector is very challenging. (It just seems that way.)

Back to the similarities thread . . .

So somewhat frustrated, I called my team and yelled, "I can meet with any C level tech executive and they are thirsty for something better."

GENERAL PRINCIPLE: DIFFERENT ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER, BUT BETTER IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT.

That is how my team went on to develop and continuously improve both Adaptive Cyber Risk Management and Advanced Persistent Defense. (Both of which are being well received by the way.)

So what makes this fun?  I go out with my team into our customers world and help my team make something of value happen. Then I take evening and weekends to critically question if our different is truly better.

. . . AND THAT'S FUN FOR ME ! ! !