The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Alise Barron, Senior Customer Success Manager, ReversingLabs
The Cyber Security Recruiter PodcastShow Notes
From Bartending to COO: Hospitality Skills, Remote Work, and Critical Thinking in Cybersecurity
The host welcomes Alise Barron to the Cybersecurity Recruiter podcast and introduces her career path from hospitality and internet marketing into recruiting leadership roles at Experis Finance, Cylance, and Blackberry, and then multiple promotions at Cyvatar to COO.
Elise describes a typical remote-work day balancing family routines, early email catch-up due to time zones, constant meetings, and handling unexpected escalations in cybersecurity operations. They discuss why hospitality backgrounds can drive rapid advancement: strong work ethic, quick critical thinking, customer and stakeholder management, resilience, and learning to set boundaries without adopting a victim mindset. Elise connects these skills to project management, noting she later recognized she had been applying PMP-style practices.
They also discuss productivity tradeoffs between remote and office work, the value of networking, and how incident response requires structure, patience, and calm communication. 00:00 Welcome and Catch Up 00:42 Small World in Security 01:47 Elise Career Intro 02:59 COO Daily Routine 04:58 Remote Work Realities 08:44 From Bartender to COO 13:39 Hospitality Skills in Corporate 18:02 Boundaries and Ownership 19:24 Project Management Mindset 25:12 Hiring Through Networking 26:59 AI and Recruiting Filters 29:20 Closing Thoughts and Wrap
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00:00 Welcome and introductions 00:39 Lindsay career snapshot 01:41 Threat intel at Human 02:37 New book launch 03:33 Malware needs context 04:42 Spotting real people online 08:25 AI as attack amplifier 09:45 Phishing at scale 11:50 Democratized hacking risks 15:18 Path to VP leadership 20:00 AI proof risk communication 21:53 Time boxing MIT MBA grind 23:13 Writing a book discipline 23:49 Small wins and purpose 25:15 Book writing deepens mastery 26:39 Communication skills through practice 29:15 Behind the scenes struggles 32:02 Mentors versus sponsors 34:41 Security community collaboration 35:48 Whats next and book teaser 37:46 Boat go faster mantra 39:49 Final thanks and wrap up