Upskill, Reskill, Mentor & Support

Ted's recent post about training cyber defenders--the folks who actually do the monitoring that is the heart of your Cybersecurity Program (CSP)--touched on mentoring and Pythia Cyber's focus on Talent Acquisition & Upskilling (TAU). In this post I want to consider the why and the how in a little more detail.

Why is TAU so important to building cybersecurity teams? 

Talent acquisition, as opposed to recruiting based on experience, is so important because talent is adaptable while skills often are not as transferable as we would like. This means that you should hire talent when you can, especially in fields like cybersecurity where the only constant is change. Adapt or fail. In this field sticking the tried-and-true feels safe but is quite risky.

Acquiring talent means that you have people who can adapt by learning new ways to deploy their talent. Upskilling, as opposed to proficiency training based on previous issues, is so important because we are constantly on the defensive and we are constantly playing catch-up. We don't get to choose the playing field, the rules or the kick-off times. Our opponents do all that. We are forced to respond to evolving threats and that requires preparation. Upskilling is that preparation.

Upskilling is about raising your game: you are increasing your ability to do the job you currently have. I learned to write with a pencil but moved on to fountain pens and even dip fountain pens (I am not as old as that makes me sound). This was upskilling.

Reskilling is about changing your game: you are preparing for your next or new job. I learned to type on a manual typewriter, then graduated to an electric typewriter before tackling a computer keyboard. The progression of keyboards was upskilling. The shift from writing by hand to typing was reskilling.

Ideally your CSP is about upskilling because ideally your CSP is staffed by talented and experienced cybersecurity professionals who are getting better at a job they already do well. This is not the reality most of us inhabit because there are too many open positions in CSPs around the country and too few talented and experienced people to go around.

Many of us are forced to choose between talented candidates and experienced candidates. Talented-but-inexperienced candidates need reskilling. Experienced-but-lackluster candidates need upskilling and support. Which best suits your environment and your needs? That is not an easy question to answer.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. You need to match your candidate pool with your immediate needs, your intermediate needs and your long term goals. How much reskilling you can afford to do varies from organization to organization; indeed, individual organizations vary in this capacity at different times.

Mentoring is more general and usually requires a combination of upskilling and reskilling. In order to get that balance right you must be conscious of the difference and aware of the specific needs of your team.

Getting this balance right is easier with more and better data, which is why Pythia Cyber offers assessments to measure individual talent and team dynamic reviews to ensure that those individual talents are pulling together, in the same direction, and that the direction is toward your goals.

We really can demystify this and make it concrete. We can help. Ask us how.