{"id":22,"date":"2019-11-06T10:06:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/?p=22"},"modified":"2019-11-06T10:06:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T15:06:01","slug":"some-thoughts-on-dragos-and-imposter-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/06\/some-thoughts-on-dragos-and-imposter-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Dragos and Imposter Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After attending my first DISC conference at Dragos\nyesterday, I realize how easy it is to experience feelings of imposter\nsyndrome. Imposter syndrome is that feeling like everyone else around you knows\nso much more than you and you don\u2019t have much to contribute. A good description\nof it can be found in WebBreacher\u2019s blog and video from BSidesDC 2017 at https:\/\/webbreacher.com\/2017\/02\/17\/imposter-feelings-resources\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DISC conference is a yearly internal Dragos conference.\nDISC allows Dragos personnel to talk about some of their research and present\nsome levels of information that aren\u2019t always appropriate for public release at\nnormal security conferences. There may be semi-private releases about activity\ngroups, internal research projects, discussions about lessons learned from\ncustomer engagements, and other really powerful content. DISC 2019 was no\ndifferent. The lineup of speakers and the topics at this year\u2019s conference were\noutstanding and the presenters themselves were very engaging on stage in front\nof over 300 people, split about half staff and half customers and visitors. Listening\nto the amazing content, my feelings of imposter syndrome really kicked in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I come from an engineering background, not a cyber security, computer science, or networking background. About 5 years after I started working, I was given the opportunity to move into an ICS networking project. I was the only one working on this project for a number of years, so I didn\u2019t really have anyone to teach me networking, writing test tools, and the specifics of ICS implementations. I had to teach myself for the most part. I stuck my foot in my mouth multiple times while learning and got shutdown by multiple people who were \u201csuperstars.\u201d Even after being in the ICS cyber security world for almost 20 years, I regularly feel like I don\u2019t always belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined Dragos in August 2019, which means I\u2019ve been here a little over 2 months at this point. I\u2019m no longer the \u201cnew guy,\u201d but I\u2019m still not part of the old guard at Dragos. I\u2019m still learning the way Dragos does things and getting used to the flow of startup culture. I\u2019m getting there, and I realize I still have a long way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, I work with some amazing, smart, talented people.\nNot only that, they are all welcoming and willing to talk and teach the things\nthey are working on. I\u2019ve been told multiple times that people are excited to\nwork with me and feel that they could learn a lot from me. My normal imposter\nsyndrome kicks in often during these conversations. My internal voice is always\nlike, \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing isn\u2019t really that impressive. I\u2019m not as smart as all\nthese other people. Anyone could do what I\u2019ve done if they just thought about\nit a little.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I need to remind myself to fight the imposter syndrome\nis that Dragos doesn\u2019t hire mediocre people. We are all amazing in our own\nways. I wouldn\u2019t be here if they didn\u2019t see value in my experience, knowledge, and\ndesire to learn. I\u2019m also not a full-of-myself \u201csuperstar\u201d that\u2019s a walking policy\n#1 violation, like some people in the industry. I may not know what some of the\nother really smart people in the company know, but I\u2019ve got my own set of knowledge\nthat can help move Dragos forward. I belong here. I feel like I\u2019m part of the Dragos\nfamily. While my imposter syndrome will probably never go away, I feel like I\nbelong here more than any other place I\u2019ve been before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After attending my first DISC conference at Dragos yesterday, I realize how easy it is to experience feelings of imposter syndrome. I have to remind myself that I’ve got a lot to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[17,15,16],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","category-technology","tag-disc","tag-dragos","tag-imposter-syndrome","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgilsinn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}