Tracy Maleeff

Not having a Plan B. That's pretty much it - I just committed fully to this path without a backup plan.

The best career advice I ever received was to not work on things your boss doesn't care about. Though I have to say, it's interesting how much career advice has changed over the years - early in my career, the advice was always about superficial things like how you dressed in the office, like don't wear open-toed shoes. But the advice about focusing on what matters to your boss has been the most practical guidance I've gotten.

Network with everyone. Your network should look like a mosaic - it should have people who look different than you, older than you, younger than you, from different industries. Build your network as if you're creating a mosaic.

The opportunities in my field are endless. There's always a new technology or a new product that needs to be evaluated for security and privacy, and there's always new people to reach to teach them how to be safe. There's just an endless opportunity to try to make things safe and private for people - it's a basic human right to have privacy and security.

Facts and integrity are the most important values to me. I believe in factfulness - being grounded in facts - and integrity is a big deal to me in both my work and personal life.