Unveiling the Path to a Career in Cybersecurity for Non-Technical Professionals-Richa Tiwari, Director Compliance, Trust Cloud

We dive into the world of cybersecurity with  guest, Richa Tiwari. Richa, who originally studied English literature, shares her unique journey into the field of cybersecurity and breaks down the misconception that technical skills are the only requirement for this career path. Together, we discuss the importance of diverse perspectives and how different backgrounds can contribute to innovative problem-solving. Tune in as we explore the skills needed in cybersecurity and the value of not self-limiting in our pursuits. Get ready to unlock new insights and discover the fascinating world of cybersecurity in this engaging episode.


Richa Tiwari started her educational journey at the Delhi open school of learning, where she completed her English Literature degree. However, she quickly realized that a degree alone would not lead her to success. Despite this, she learned valuable skills such as analyzing text and understanding different perspectives. She then pursued an MBA with a focus on IT, gaining experience through various jobs and discovering her true interests. Richa's first opportunity in the US was working as a recruiter, where she not only helped staff IT positions but also got involved in the implementation side of the business. This hands-on experience allowed her to understand data flow and mapping, sparking her passion for specializing in this field. Through her journey, Richa not only discovered what she liked but also what she didn't like, allowing her to focus on her true interests and goals.

**********************************************************************************************

You can subscribe to my Substack Newsletter by clicking here.

I'm a former tech executive, a podcast host and an entrepreneur. I work with Universities on Organizations to transition students to the corporate world and building successful leadership pipelines ensuring a healthy financial future.

If you're interested in coordinating or working with me on keynotes, workshops, or on a one on one basis, you can go to my website www.sirishakuchimanchi.com

Check out my other podcast "Women, Career & Life" where I share stories and practical advice to achieve your career & life goals as you strive towards financial independence.

All: https://solo.to/sirishak

Instagram: womencareerandlife

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirishakuchimanchi/

#womencareerandlife #podcast #paintlifetogether

Transcript

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: Hello everyone. Are you wondering how to enter a career in cybersecurity and you think you don't have the technical skills? Today here we have Richa Tiwari to unpack this and bust some myths. This is your host, Dr. Sirisha Kuchimanchi. Welcome to Live Beats with Sirisha on Radio Caravan, 104.

1 FM and 700 AM. I am a former tech executive, an entrepreneur, and a podcast host. You can check out my podcast, Women, Career, and Life, on Spotify or any other podcast platform. It is a top 30% Spotify podcast, essentially talking around leadership and building financial wealth. I work with organizations on building strong leadership pipelines and enabling women leaders to elevate themselves and with universities on getting their students ready for the corporate world and building financial strength as well.

If you want to contact me or work or partner with me, you can check out my website. It's sirishapoojimanji. com. S I R I S H A K U C H I M A N C H I. com. So let's dive in. I'm going to open up the phone lines at 214 817 3333 so that you can ask questions of Richa. So Richard is a director at Trust Cloud on cyber security, and she's originally an English literature major, which is what makes this conversation incredibly fascinating.

You definitely need to call in because you might be thinking, I don't have the technical chops to do a job in a technical field, but that's what we're here to talk about. We want to hear your questions, help answer some of those questions you might have as well. And Richard, let's get started. So what's your story?

Yeah 

Richa Tiwari: just like you said, like I started with. The Delhi Open School of... I did my English literature here and I think within the first semester I knew this degree would not get me anywhere. So I finished that one but I think looking back now I can see that degree just taught me one thing, like how to consume vast amount of text and come back to put meaning to it.

And understand what somebody is trying to portray. So in hindsight, it was a good deal. But after that I started with my MBA and emphasize a little bit on the I. T. side of it and then work for a couple of odd jobs and got the experience of what I want to do versus what I don't want to do.

One of my first opportunities here and the U. S. was working as a recruiter where I helps for it positions, but at a sister company of i So anytime they have thos

Get all the white boats into Visio. And I was like, I, that I get like that, that pieces of the puzzle I get I like this data flow. I like this data map. I can understand this. And that's what I want to specialize in. So I think it was more of a discovery of understanding what I don't like versus finding what I like and being able to be focused on what I really like 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: about it.

Ah, the ever conundrum. I know we are always told to figure out our five year goals and what you want to do, but I like how you handle that because. So much more important not to know what you don't want to do. But I do want this has been my experience. Sometimes you may not want to do it now, but in 5 10 years, it's something you might enjoy doing.

I think often that's the path that people take between being individual contributor and leadership, right? It's something that they dread when they're in their early years. And then as they elevate and keep going and get experience, it's something you might reconsider. But a great way to make a decision because you know what?

And let's people talk about, handling your weaknesses and working on it. But I think really leading it to your strengths is way more important than trying to figure out what 

Richa Tiwari: doesn't work for you. Yeah. And I think that's also like failures to or I tried something. I know I don't like it.

It's a simple way of saying yeah, I failed at that time, but then that means if there were a hundred ways to do this thing, I know one doesn't work. So I'm now 99% closer to making it work. So for me, it's more of those kinds of numbers to yes, I didn't learn, but boy, did I learn how not to fail again on the same instance.

It's always learning. You always get something 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: out of it. Yeah. So how did you get into cybersecurity? Now? You all figured out, you worked, like you said, with it and Visio. So what was your 

Richa Tiwari: journey there? Yeah, I think I understood more about the data side, like that thing came intuitively and I think it's a little bit more of a shell of Holmes and a lot of those mystery novels that I learned read when I was a kid too.

It's. It's like, how do you connect the dots? If you have some certain amount of data coming into your business and it's going out, how do you make sure that it's secure? What are the points somebody can touch it? What are the points where somebody can change it, change the integrity, the confidentiality or processing of that data?

And once you have that mindset and you are trying to see the flow from different system, different people, different processes, it's easier for you to come up with ideas about, Oh, this is how we should be securing it. So again, I think at the time when I was doing my English literature, I hated that. Those three years of my life.

But in hindsight, I think it just propelled me to again, consume a lot of data and figure out what are the points of connection, what where things can be compromised and then work with the teams to figure out how we can now consolidate and do something about it. And let's secure it. 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: We were having this conversation prior to sitting on the radio station, right?

You're talking with middle school students through talking about education And I think it highlights a whole point and the whole point of today's conversation is about not self limiting and drawing these boundary Conditions around ourselves and saying we can't do this We don't have the skills because your English literature skills taught you different ways a different set of skills that are not technical in the way we envision them, but you still need that skill to be able to do your job.

And I'm sure you bring a sort of different mindset, a different way of thinking that somebody who went through probably an engineering degree might view that information differently. And when people talk about diversity, what people mean by diversity is not just diversity as in gender, race, but really is the diversity of ideas and thought and interpretation because It's all about mitigating risk, especially for product launches and things.

It's about how do you get the best product out? Because you don't want to find out after it goes to market that it's going to fail. You want it beforehand. 

Richa Tiwari: You definitely 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: don't. Yeah. Yeah, so it's like how and then it's the viewpoint is so much that enables this so What skills do you see people bringing in when they're coming 

Richa Tiwari: into cyber security?

Yeah, and I think we are all the sum of the experiences we have gone through and one of the questions that I think it Was in my TOEFL exam one time. It's like which who's more Mature is it a eight year old and ten year old and I could not I flunked that question But it was what about an eight year old in the US maturity is far much different than the eight year old in India versus the 80 year old Who's living maybe in Iraq?

So the maturity is very much based on your e you watch everything thro you're able to process it and you cannot articula

yeah, each one of us has Coming at different angles. And I think that is the innovation. That is where the companies distinguish themselves. Because as you have more people with diverse thought processes, diverse lenses of looking at a problem, you have a faster track to a solution that is more widespread rather than just honing on.

This is a problem. This is how it should be solved because they've all been there. It's not just one problem. This is not just one risk. It's so much more collaborative. There are too many dominoes, too many irons in the fire, you can't just focus on one, there's just multifaceted approach that we need to do in real life.

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: I'm totally amazed that you remember your TOEFL exam question. I don't 

Richa Tiwari: remember. I think this was my speech thing and she was asking me this and I just said like it doesn't matter, it's a number. Maturity doesn't matter. Yeah, 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: true. Maturity is just a number. It doesn't matter. It's what you bring to the table.

So if you are tuning in, you're listening to Live Beats with Sirisha. I have Richa Tiwari here talking about cyber security and how it requires other skills that are what we might not consider technical to really do this job. So if you are thinking you want to get into cyber security, one of the hottest fields, tune in and listen to this.

And don't forget to call the studio to ask questions live. What a better way to then hear it from someone who's an expert and who's been doing it. At 214 817 3333. The number again is 214 817 3333. You are also part of a cybersecurity organization. So how can people, if they don't get the chance to call on the station now.

How can they find out about other avenues to learn about the ecosystem that's around cyber security, what's going on, rather than go through a traditional college 

Richa Tiwari: process? Yeah, and I honestly think, again, people who are in the cyber security field are probably watching this news too. The traditional ways of the degree and all of those things are becoming more and more eclipsed because you have all of these new vendors like AWS and GCP, Google Cloud Service Providers that provide their own certifications.

They have come out on the news and talked about I'm not going to the traditional route and stuff like that. But within Dallas, like I think Dallas has a very thriving security community. There are multiple different groups to be a part of. I belong to the ISSA, which is the International System Security Association, and I'm part of the North Texas ISSA chapter.

We have a special dedicated group of people who work with our college chapters as well. So I know Collin College is a big beneficiary of our sponsorship program as part of the NTX ISSA. And there will be some great connections there that you can leverage. And definitely we have some conferences that we show up as well too.

So on September 15, there's a conference on the Collin College in Frisco, and that would be a great one for anybody who's looking to Move it to the cyber security space to attend because that is again, everybody in the Dallas security thought leader would be there presenting their ideas and talking about it.

And that would be a great. And I think there's also a program for mentoring. So you can always have somebody to mentor you to coach you through it and there'll be other like minded people. So if you think that you are struggling with getting a break, trust me, I hear that we have all been through that.

I don't think anybody in the security can say that they applied and they got in and it was like, One hit, done deal. It never really happens in real life. We all have the scars to tell you that, but that would be a great conference for you guys to come and talk and share more about everybody's journey.

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: So if you're interested in learning more about this conference in Frisco, you get access to experts, you hear their stories, their real life stories of the skills they're bringing, their experiences. But I think the most important thing is the mentorship because most of us probably didn't hear of mentors till we started working or later in college.

And that makes such a huge impact to have someone to show you. What are the opportunities and avenues that you can pursue and keep you I would say on not necessarily on track, but provide you insight because the mentors job is not to tell you what to do, but to direct you. It's like a light that they shine on the path.

They are not going to hold your hand and walk you there. So it's about really understanding the difference about 

Richa Tiwari: what you can get out of it. And definitely. And I think that's. And I think that's where I want to bring down this phobia about being technical and cybersecurity. I think a lot of the people you meet in this industry, they talk so much jargon and it's so much book languages, but having a mentor and having a true mentor for you is somebody who can break down those complex problems for you, explain it to you in a very layman terms.

And if you find people like that, who can help support you in that learning journey, hold on to them. Thank you. Reach out to them. Always bombard them with all the questions because I think that is a problem within this industry to like we really hide behind so much jargons where things are not as complex as we make it out to be.

And there's this scarcity of people who can break those things down in very simple terms. And those are the people who will tell you when you're wrong, who will not sugarcoat things for you, and who will also play to your strengths and point out your weaknesses and it's a blessing to have them around.

And have those kind of conversations with 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: very true. And cyber security is everywhere, right? We all have a bunch of even personally, we have so many accounts. You hear of this hacking or that happening. So security and data is at risk. And all of us live online lives even as much as we think we may not have a social media account.

Everything is online. Yeah. And it's such a important field. So if you are thinking about it, know someone who's interested in a career in cyber security or one of these other sort of technical fields, this discussion is very much centered around cyber security, which really what you're saying is You can move and pivot your career into different fields.

Don't let the fact that it's technical or thinking that it's technical stop you from making these pivots. There are ways to upskill through classes through Google or Amazon. You don't have to go the traditional route. You can even take the skills you have in your current industry, do projects, come to these kind of conferences or events that other places have.

Access these communities this whole platform this radio show is all about bringing experts and others to come and talk about essentially, so you don't have to go curate your content and that you can hear their story, their personal experience. So if you have questions for Racha or for me, definitely call in the studio.

We are here for another little over 10 minutes. The number is 214. 817 3333, you're listening to Live Feed Switzerland on Radio Caravan, 104. 1 FM and 700 AM. So you've been talking about the skills and stuff. So what is the lay day in the life of a cyber security technologist, engineer and I know it probably depends on what kind of role they have.

So maybe you can give a description of different. basic type of roles that they 

Richa Tiwari: have. There are so many I think the cyber security is such a broad umbrella. There's just so many different kind of roles. And again, you can be very hands on. You can be a firewall config manager. If you want to be, you can be an architect and just dealing with how your different applications are talking to each other, how you're limiting them not to talk to outside world.

You can do a lot of that configuration, hands on stuff too. There is a big part of the GRC space too, which is government risk and compliance, where you are looking at things from a macro level and trying to understand based on your data flows, based on your kind of customer commitments you have on how you're securing those things and any kind of regulations you're into as well.

So if you're storing healthcare data or credit card data or children's data with all the schools now going online, there's different set of regulations that you have to maintain. So you have to translate what that regulation means. for a firewall configuration or security architect to implement into the process.

So there's a lot of those avenues and there's a risk management, obviously, which I feel like everybody does it in their day to day life anyways. So just doing that at an organization level, thinking about from all the angles, like your people, process, systems, tools, everything, bringing it all in house, understanding what the financial impacts of those things are.

And that is something that I do also at my day to day job with TrustCloud, because we are a trust assurance management platform. And that's what we help our customers to manage their risk, understand their regulatory and customer contractual commitments, and then also help with telling their story and being transparent about their security posture with their customers and prospects as well.

So yeah, no two days are alike, but it's a lot of fun. 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: Yeah. And Cybersecurity, like you said, is there in schools, in hospitals, government institutions, companies? I can't think of any place where cybersecurity does not exist. 

Richa Tiwari: Exactly. You cannot have an industry that does not have any kind of an IT.

Unless you're going under a cave and finding somebody, that's a whole another story. But there's no industry that you cannot go and get. I had somebody recently reach out to me about the hospice platform for hospice management. And I was like, that is interesting. Like we have really touched on most of all the industries in there.

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: Yeah. And personally, we have what cybersecurity through our sort of softwares that we put for firewalls and things, but everything data is out there. And I was watching this at it's got a segue outside, when there are restrictions in certain states and stuff about how you share your kids information online as well.

There are certain states I think you actually have to pay the children, which I think is one of the states, which I thought was like if only the kids found out about it when their parents were posting on Facebook on how much this was going to cost them. 

Richa Tiwari: Yeah. Yeah. Who owns the data is the biggest question, right?

You upload a picture on Facebook. Are you the owner of that? Is Facebook the owner of that? And where are you giving up that right of that ownership of saying, this is my data, do not use it in anything versus a lot of those terms and agreements that we just click away because they're not... meant for us to understand.

They're written intentionally in a very convoluted language and long stream of things. You just click it and that's where the ownership of data and then how can they use it? How can they for marketing purposes and all that? That's where a lot of those privacy regulations are coming in for the U. S.

We have some ways to go. We have every state do. Marching to its own tune and I think eventually we'll get something a lot more nationwide. But yeah, those are the fun challenges that you get yourself immersed into a lot of these places as well. 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: Yeah, as a content creator, because I do a podcast, the content is mine, but you're right, it depends where I end up sticking it out and how I end up working with somebody else.

If you have questions the number is 214 817 3333. You're listening to Live Beats with Sirisha. I work with organizations and universities essentially in building strong pipelines for entering the corporate world, elevating into leadership roles and building robust financial futures. You can check out my website or if you want to partner with me.

The website is sirishakuchimanchi. com. It's S I R I S H A K U C H I M A N C H I. com. Pretty big mouthful, if you can get it right. But it's actually very phonetic. Sirisha Kuchimanchi. There's lots of I's and A's in between. So you can't go wrong there. So Richa, what is it that we haven't got a chance to talk about yet from a cyber security or sort of your experience?

Or what are some of the questions other people are asking you in this 

Richa Tiwari: space? Honestly, like for me, Don't get bogged down by the technical. Whatever you're doing, this generation of ours, we are heavily technical. If I ask any one of you to tell me how much cash you are carrying, probably it'll be nil or less.

Because we are grown in the cashless age. A lot of us might not even have writing in us. have written letters in our lifetime now, or maybe just a few when we were growing up. A lot of us probably have Nest cameras Amazon doing all of our deliveries and stuff. Anybody telling me that it's so technical, I just, this is my pushback to you.

You guys are in the technical generation. A lot of the things that our parents used to do manually or the old school way, I don't know how to phrase, or traditional ways we have already used ways to automate that and do it. Don't me. Don't make this something that you self negate yourself.

Don't put this as a shackle in your brain that this is too technical. I can't go there. There are too many resources along with technology. I think the education system has warped a lot. Like there are too many resources available, not free of cost. Like you have MIT's and the Harvard's. They have their coaching programs.

A lot of their courses are I know I trust cloud. We created our own knowledge base with the talks about all GRC concepts, which is again publicly available. You can always go there and look at it if you're trying to get into the GRC space. But with again, with all this technology. There are more resources than ever before that our parents had access to, to upskill yourself pretty quickly and effectively and network and find people who have gone through that battles and have the scars to prove for it.

So just my only pushback for everybody is don't get that technical when you're reading a job description, don't just, and they write like technical experience required in Linux, and it doesn't really tell you what exactly they're looking for. So don't. Self negative yourself. Don't rule yourself out.

There are enough people out there in the world that are doing it to 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: you. Yeah, true. And, we are a digital generation. We live digital lives. Just as you said, everything is online, our groceries. In some ways, COVID pushed us into becoming much more digital savvy and enabling all those structures that are around us.

So the skills that you've learned the acumen that you have can really get you there. And there's places like Coursera and stuff where all these universities, all these classes are free and really take advantage of it and reach out to the people who have written it. I think we hesitate often on reaching out to who we consider experts and things, but sometimes they are.

Just as willing and want to hear what the impact they're having is. So if there's someone that you've been watching in the space or want to connect with or like the G R C training at Trust Lab, like just say take a minute and check it out and see if that's something you want to lean into.

Reach out to people. I tend to obviously talk a ton about LinkedIn on. Conversations that we have because it is a professional platform. That is where you'll connect with people. The one thing caution is though, don't go around asking for things in LinkedIn. That's what puts people off when you ask them for something.

You have to build that relationship. So Richard, if someone wants to get in touch with you or learn more about you Yeah. Where do they find. 

Richa Tiwari: LinkedIn. That's the only social platform that I have. So it's rich t that's my LinkedIn, U r L as well. And you can find me, , trust Cloud Dallas. Those are the keywords to search me with.

And that would be a good place to go. And again, go to our knowledge base called Flight School on our website too. That would be a good place to start with the G R C and then the N T X I S SS A or the, I Ss a organization as a whole. I think that's an international organization. No matter where you are in the world, you will be able to find an I S A affiliate near you.

And then the North Texas, what is the special is the local chapter that I'm part of? 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: So on September 15th, you said the Collin College has the Frisco sort of cybersecurity fair where they can find mentors. ISSA is the organization, the global one that they can find information and find all of these resources.

So if you're planning a career in cybersecurity or know someone, we are always going to need cybersecurity professionals just because of the way we live our lives now. There is, it is never going out of business. I can't see how it would go out of business. Yeah, 

Richa Tiwari: I don't think like you can be a doctor, you can be a mechanics, you can be a plumber, I think you would still need to have someone.

And I to protect that data that you are having around you. And it's not now I don't want to or I don't, it's hard, but you have to do it eventually. Or do it for your kids. Like you have, now with the kids getting access to the school laptops and have so much more, you have to be aware of what kind of dangers that their data can have access to.

And you have to start having those conversations earlier with them too. Eventually, I To your point you not learn about it. There is no way that you can sustain living without having an understanding of how and who can access you. Because previously you closed the door, life was shut, but now we have so many ways of somebody affecting our mental and emotional and financial peace now that you not learn 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: about it.

Yeah, to secure, Not only are professional carriers, but as you said, a financial and other mental health carriers, we have to be having this conversation. It's about protecting our data, which you're talking about doing it in a professional sense, but just how do you work as a cyber security specialist?

But in our personal lives, we all protect our data as we think is best. Obviously, we are limited by how much knowledge or resources we have access to, but there are ways to do this. So if you are tuning in, you're listening to Life Beats with Sirisha. We have about 30 seconds to take a quick call. But Richa, anything we one last push what else on 

Richa Tiwari: cybersecurity?

I always come back to the three points. Like you gotta be curious, you gotta be resourceful and you've gotta have a critical thinking. If you have these three, like basic personality traits, skills, aptitudes. There is no limit to what you can learn and grow. And if anybody says that they have done it in cyber security, it's always an ever evolving field.

So you always have to learn it here. So stay humble in that note 

Sirisha Kuchiamanchi: too. Yeah. So basically what she talked about, if you heard the three skills, there was nothing technical that called out in that, which is what we wanted to highlight today. Thank you for tuning in and listening to Live Beats. It's Sirisha.

You can check out my podcast, Women, Career and Life, or my website, if you want to partner. Sireesha Kuchimanchi. com. We'll see you next Thursday at three o'clock. Thank you, Richa, for being here. This was a really great conversation to 

Richa Tiwari: have. Thank you for having me.