What motivates you? Cybersecurity Edition

I recently had someone ask me, “What motivates you?” in regards to my job. This was when they were getting to know me and knew I was going through a tough spot. Honestly, I had not really thought about it too much recently, but in the moment I responded with what I feel was the most honest answer I could have possibly given. No hesitation, purely instinctual and from the heart.

I have been in IT for over 10 years now. I started with a 3rd party IT/MSP, the same company I was an intern for when I was getting my Network Support professional certificate (my ticket into the IT world). During my time with this company, I had the occasion to do work for some of the cornerstones of society. I was put in a position to help the “good guys” just like I intended when getting into IT. I was able to work on things such as setting up body cams for local police, recovering the CAD system for the firemen, fixing the wireless at a doctor’s office to allow them to provide uninterrupted care to their patients, and a slew of other professionals I was able to support.

If I were to venture a guess, I would say 80–90% of my knowledge was from on-the-job situations and the research that was born out of them. Most of what I worked on for the first part of my IT career was not something I had been taught or seen before. Most of those I worked with were not familiar with much of what we came across either, simply because we had to support literally anything our customers used. This could be a simple database for a 3-machine farm to the servers that run a waste-water treatment plant. This wide range of support required me to become a better researcher. It also instilled in me a refusal to settle for “I don’t know” as an answer. There was no one else that was going to figure out what was going on, no one to escalate the problem if I could not figure it out. That made me walk into every situation with failure not being an option and has continued to live in my approach to my work to this day. It also made me feel responsible for those affected by the work I was tasked with. My inability to resolve the issue would cause anything from a methadone clinic not being able to dispense, resulting in those on the path to recovery having a potential relapse, to a breast cancer clinic not being able to effectively treat their patients.

Fast-forward to today, where I work for a small/medium-sized business that provides an important service for many of the same type of professions. The nature of the business is different from where I started, and where I developed the determination for my work that I take pride in. However, I still have multiple groups of people that I am responsible for myself. Most of the employees of this business are individuals who often live paycheck to paycheck or rely on the pay they receive from the various quotas they must meet. If the company is impacted by a security incident or a network outage, those workers and their livelihoods would all be affected. The customers and vendors would not be able to conduct business properly, potentially impacting their financial standing or general reputation. Resting on my laurels and being satisfied with mediocre work that is just good enough to get by is not an option.

That was the answer I gave; the rank and file of the company and the clients/vendors that rely on us. If I do not put in the effort and something happens, I am the reason all of these various people are affected. I take pride in my work. I want to be able to look my boss, his superiors, the CEO, or anyone at that company in the eye and have them trust that when I say something is complete or safe, that is indeed the case. I have struggled with motivation on occasion in the past, but once I started looking at things from this perspective, I found the fuel I needed to keep improving and refining the processes involved in protecting the company and keeping the company functioning, day in and day out. I am always motivated to provide for my family and be a good example for my children. Finding this more holistic perspective moves me from a level of self-preservation to realizing that more than just my family is relying on my dedication and the high expectations in my work. Since starting this approach, I have never been lacking in motivation, and will continue to approach my work with that same zeal as I progress in my career.