CyberSN at 12: The Clues Were There Long Before the Company

This month, CyberSN turns 12.

I have been thinking about what I wanted to say to mark the anniversary. Twelve years is a lot to look back on: the people, the jobs, the community, the company we built, the changes in cybersecurity, and the ways CyberSN itself has evolved.

Then this weekend, I was going through old memorabilia with my mother and came across a newspaper article from my junior year of college.

The timing could not have been better.

At the time, I was president of the Sociology Club. In the article, I was talking about bringing students together, making sure people knew about career opportunities, internships and scholarships, and helping them make connections that could support their futures.

Reading it all these years later was fascinating.

Because at that point in my life, I had no idea what recruiting was.

I had no intention of becoming a recruiter.

I was planning to become a criminal attorney.

And yet, there I was.

Already building community.

Already connecting people.

Already thinking about jobs, internships and career opportunities.

Already sharing information that could help someone figure out what came next.

Already trying to create opportunities for other people.

Looking at the article now, I can see so much of what would eventually become my life's work, and, many years later, what would become CyberSN.

The Company Is 12. The Instinct Behind It Is Much Older.

CyberSN did not start because I woke up one day and decided I wanted to build a recruiting company.

It came from years of caring deeply about people, careers, jobs and community.

That is what struck me most when I found this article.

Before I knew what my profession would be, before I entered recruiting, before cybersecurity became my industry, and long before CyberSN existed, I was already drawn to the same things that would eventually shape the company.

Those are not marketing words to me. They have been a pattern in my life for decades.

And when I think about what CyberSN has meant over the last 12 years, that is what I see.

I see the people we have connected to jobs.

I see the careers we have helped move forward.

I see the companies we have supported as they built cybersecurity teams.

I see the community we have invested in, learned from and grown alongside.

I see the relationships that have lasted far beyond any single search or placement.

And I see how the work continues to evolve.

CyberSN began with talent and recruiting. Today, our work includes talent solutions and Workforce Intelligence, looking more broadly at the people, capabilities and resources organizations need to execute.

The company has changed.

The industry has changed.

The work has expanded.

The reason I care about it has not.

Sometimes the Job Title Comes Later

We are taught to think about careers through titles.

What are you going to be?

What are you going to major in?

What profession are you going to choose?

What is your five-year plan?

My path did not work that way.

I could never have predicted that I would spend my career connecting people to jobs, build communities around careers, start a cybersecurity company, create a nonprofit, or eventually spend my time thinking about Workforce Intelligence and how organizations build the capabilities they need to execute.

What I can see now is that the things I cared about were already showing up.

The title was not there yet.

The industry was not there yet.

The company was not there yet.

The thread was.

Maybe Our Careers Leave Clues

Finding this article made me wonder how many of us have similar clues in our past.

Before you ever worked in cybersecurity, were you the person taking things apart because you needed to understand how they worked?

Before you became a leader, were you always the person bringing people together around a goal?

Before you went into sales, were you naturally building relationships everywhere you went?

Before you became an entrepreneur, were you always creating something, solving something, or questioning why things had to be done the way they had always been done?

Before you knew the name of the career you would eventually have, were you already doing pieces of it?

We spend so much time thinking about our careers by looking forward.

What's next?

What role do I want?

What skills do I need?

Where am I going?

Finding this newspaper article reminded me that there is also tremendous value in looking backward.

Sometimes the earliest clues are not about a profession at all.

They are about the things that energize us.

The problems we naturally want to solve.

The people we want to bring together.

The things we care enough about to do even when nobody is paying us to do them.

A Pretty Meaningful Anniversary Gift

I started out trying to decide what I wanted to say about CyberSN turning 12.

Then my mother and I opened a box of old memorabilia and I found an answer I never expected.

I thought I was going to become a criminal attorney. I did not even know what recruiting was.

Yet looking back now, the things that would eventually shape my career, and ultimately CyberSN, were already there.

So maybe the question is not only:

"What do I want to do next?"

Maybe it is also:

"What have I always been drawn to, even before I knew it could become a career?"

That is the question this newspaper clipping from my junior year of college gave back to me.

And for CyberSN's 12th anniversary, I cannot think of a more meaningful reminder of why I started this company and why I still care so deeply about the work.

The company is 12. The mission behind it started long before the company did.

Happy 12th anniversary, CyberSN. 💜