Meet Hazel Burton
Welcome to the first episode of Humans of Talos, a new video interview series that shines a spotlight on team members across Talos. Featuring their personal stories, career journeys and unique perspectives, you’ll get an inside look into what it’s like to work in our organization and the people who make the internet more secure for all.
Amy Ciminnisi: Hello and welcome to the first episode of Humans of Talos! I’m here with Hazel Burton, who should be a familiar face to most of you. I’m curious: What led you to your role at Talos? What made you want to join?
Hazel Burton: I’d always worked in small businesses before and always had a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset because of that. I just started doing things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing! I commandeered an office in one of the small businesses, turned it into a TV studio and started creating security content. That somehow led me on a path to joining Cisco.
I was doing a lot of storytelling and communications around some of the main challenges that people in this industry go through, but I was always finding excuses to work with Talos. I love the people at Talos, but I also love the ethos: doing the right thing, even if it makes no commercial sense whatsoever. So when I was asked to hop over the fence and work full-time at Talos leading content programs and and data-driven stuff, it was an opportunity to help a really strong organization rooted in that ethos to do what they do best and make things easier for people in this industry. So it was a pretty easy decision to make to join Talos.
AC: Following that, what advice you would give to someone who would want to join Talos?
HB: Ask bold questions would be my first piece of advice. This is a very safe space to be able to do things like that. Ask, “Could this work? What if we tried this?” I promise you, you will be hired based on you asking those questions and you will be trusted to find the answers, even if the answer is, “Yeah, that didn’t work at all, did it? Oh, well.”
The other one — I don’t know if I can say this, you might want to bleep it out — but don’t be an arsehole. The people that we work with are as generous as they are amazingly smart and talented. So sharing their knowledge, helping each other out, not mocking someone for not knowing something, saying, “I don’t have any experience in this, can you help me?” That is what Talos is about. If you are only looking after number one, then probably don’t join Talos. But if you do want to be part of something where everyone has your back, then do.
The third thing that I think is really important for people to know, because they might have been burned by this before, is that we do actually have a leadership team who fights to give Talos people the air cover that they need when they need to go out and do things. So, it happens quite often where we’ll have to drop something and go to a rapid response effort — because, you know, the world — and we’re given the resources to be able to do that and the air cover. So if you don’t have that at the moment, trust me: When you find it, it’s the most amazing thing in the world because you know that you are going to have a clear runway. That is the nature of how the organization works.
AC: Yeah. It doesn’t just help the person grow their own skillset, it doesn’t just help Talos — but having that airway helps everyone as a whole, the cybersecurity community and beyond.
HB: Also, bring your own nerdy self to work! Again, it’s a very safe place to do that.
For more, watch the full interview.
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