Week 9: Identify And Plan Your Career Growth Area

One last, but not least, task to complete your S4 month is to plan what area you will focus your career growth on over the next year. Hopefully your S4x25 experience and the tasks over the past two weeks have given you some insight on what both will inspire you and help your career.

I told new consultants with Digital Bond that OT security is such?a new field that they could be recognized as best in world in someaspect within three years. We gave them a copy of Tom Peters’?Brand You 50, and we would develop a plan for them to achieve that best in world status. Many of them did.

While OT security is more mature than 20 years ago, it also has more attention, resources, and niches. You can still be best in worldin a specific aspect of OT security in three years or less. This leads to?exciting opportunities. You will Create The Future.

The keys are 1) focus on a niche and 2) have a plan to learn, achieve, and share (promote).

Your career growth area can be:

• A technical niche. My initial focus back in 2004–2007 was intrusion detection systems (IDS) for ICS. Look for?something you believe will be important and you can’t find?information on.
• A business area. We have trouble finding expert speakers who?know OT security and insurance, law, economics, ... If yoursearches find only high level information and platitudes, then?there is an opportunity there.
• A communication skill. Podcasting, public speaking, interviewing, writing and other communication methods. There is an increasing demand for content. Much of what is out there is well meaning, and not that great. If you excel and enjoy a communication skill, this will serve your career and your mission well.

Career Growth Area (Give it a title and description)

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Career Growth One Year Plan Goal: ............................................................................................................ Metric:......................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................... Approach:.................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................

Goal: ............................................................................................................ Metric:......................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................... Approach:.................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................

Excerpted from my book A Week In OT Security. Be brave. Make your own decisions.