Manahil Qureshi

I had a few mentors while I was at EY and even at my internship, and I honestly owe a lot to them. They were male, and again, it's a male-dominated field, so I owe some of my success to them. I definitely also owe my success to my parents for supporting me. My husband has also fully supported my career and my goals. Even this job that I have now, he helped me a lot to get to that place. That's a huge thing because a lot of people might not have supportive spouses, so having that support has been really important to my success.

The best career advice I've received is don't be afraid to try new things and kind of figure out where your niche is. I think that's so important because you never know what doors are going to open, and it's important to always keep an open mind.

I would say don't be afraid to get involved in things that you might think are not within your expertise. For example, when I was at EY, we would be put on different clients and we might not have the same role that we were brought into. I was sometimes scared to be in a more technical role, but there's no need to be scared. You know, I was provided the same training that I would be, so don't be afraid to expand your horizons when it comes to your role in cybersecurity. Also, just be true to yourselves and don't be afraid to speak your mind. As women, we have so much to offer, and a lot of people can learn from us as well.

One of the biggest challenges I've faced is being in a male-dominated field where it's sometimes harder to get your voice out there. That's definitely something that I struggled with. Another challenge is being in the technology field where we're changing every day, and there's so much that we need to catch up on. You have to be responsible for ensuring that you're familiar with what's the most up-to-date happening in the world right now when it comes to technology. As for opportunities, I feel like if you're from a technology background, it's actually pretty easy to get into cybersecurity. I know someone who ended up doing a one-year program at my old university, Ryerson, and that's simply how he got his foot into the door for cyber. So I feel like it's generally easy to get involved in this industry, which I think is a pretty good opportunity, whereas I know some industries require a lot of furthering education. If you have the basic knowledges of technology, getting into that niche is not too hard.

I would say always be true to yourself. Specific to working in my field, because I'm in cybersecurity and identity access management, there aren't too many women in this field. So I would say don't be intimidated by who you're surrounded by, and don't be afraid to speak your mind. I find that a lot of the times as women, we just assume that maybe a male would know a little bit more than us, or a little bit better than us, but as women, we have so much to offer. A lot of people can learn from us as well. So I would say don't be afraid to speak your mind and your opinion when it comes to being in a field that's highly male-dominated.