Employee Spotlight: The Journey to Senior Director of Security
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a chance for organizations to put a direct focus on their cybersecurity efforts and evaluate what is working or what might need to change. At Egnyte, we offer solutions to help organizations protect and manage their crucial content from potential cyberthreats. We have a hard-working team behind the scenes to make sure that our product offers best-in-class security controls and continues to evolve with the changing market needs.
This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we want to highlight a few of those employees who develop the products that ensure our customer’s data and content stay safe on any cloud, anywhere. Learn how they got started in security, their journey to Egnyte, and advice for others looking to jump into cybersecurity.
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Dawid Balut, Senior Director, Security at Egnyte
As the first employee in Egnyte’s Poland office, Dawid has seen it all. Over the last nine years, he has seen the company grow from a team of one to now more than 250 employees in Poland.
Mentoring others as they enter or continue to grow in the field, he has gotten to work with some of the brightest folks and continue his own path for growth. For Dawid, the best way to stay up-to-date in the security industry is to connect with others. The field is always changing and not slowing down any time soon. Finding a network where you can share information and learn from each other has been crucial to his continued development and success.
From Blue-Collar to IT
Dawid had quite an interesting start in the cybersecurity industry. When he was younger, he worked mostly blue-collar jobs to pay the bills and didn’t expect to move to the corporate world. After watching his brother become successful in IT, however, he knew that he could do the same. Outside of his day job, he began to educate himself on security practices and eventually took jobs hunting security bugs for other companies. After a few years, he decided to take that next step and officially join an organization in the cybersecurity world.
Creativity, Imagination, and Collaboration Thrive at Egnyte
At Egnyte, the diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and skill sets among employees is what Dawid loves.
With team members around the world, Egnyte is able to create a more well-rounded product that can be effective for users no matter where they are located. As a global company, there is also a unique opportunity to learn from people with different backgrounds and opinions, which requires one to collaborate with an open mind. With an emphasis on creativity and imagination, this can lead to innovative decisions.
Learning from each others’ differences is beneficial for all teams across Egnyte, but especially our security teams, says Dawid.
Stay Curious and Follow Your Passion
For anyone who is interested in getting started or learning more about security, Dawid has key advice: don’t let anything someone says stop you from following your passions and achieving your goals.
With seemingly infinite resources and opinions to foster your education around security – be it courses, articles, and social media – it is important to focus on what drives you and find your people. You can always find a community to support you and encourage your growth. Social media in particular served as a great resource to help Dawid break into the industry as it makes it easy to connect with others.
Another piece of advice from Dawid is to not be scared to reach out to people. If you trust and admire someone in the industry, reach out – even if it’s simply just to talk to them. It can seem daunting at first, but having the courage to improve upon your skills and tap into the potential that a connection can offer will make all the difference. Don’t let imposter syndrome get you - your passions and your community are always there for you.
Finally, once you find your network, continue to grow together; one of the best ways to stay up to date in cybersecurity is to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge your peers can offer, and what you can offer in turn.
Take a Leap
Working at Egnyte offers employees the opportunity to explore their passions and work closely with others, in addition to developing their skills and educating themselves on the topics that drive them. Dawid says there is no way you could ever be bored!
If you want to join a company that holistically values your creativity, individuality, and lets you be YOU, take a look at our open roles and become an Egnyter!
