Cybersecurity Career Q&A: 6 Questions with Lauren Shartle, Technical Account Manager at Armis

Note to readers: This blog post is part of the Armis cybersecurity career Q&A series where we explore how people advance their careers in the industry by spotlighting some of the talented people that make Armis the leader in unified asset intelligence and security.

In this Q&A blog post, we meet Lauren Shartle, Technical Account Manager at Armis. Lauren served in the US Air Force, which is where her interest in Cybersecurity began. Lauren is a busy mom of three and enjoys spending quality time with her family, traveling, and reading (preferably romance novels, and preferably on a sunny beach somewhere).

Question 1: What’s your role at Armis?

Here at Armis, I’m a Technical Account Manager for our Public Sector customers. What I do is I work directly day in and day out with our customers and make sure that they are implementing the Armis solution, that they are discovering all of the different ways of using the platform, finding new ways to use it, and really just making sure that they are taken care of and that their experience with us is positive. We are ultimately here working at Armis for all of our customers, so keeping that customer focus and being customer obsessed is my number one goal every day.

Question 2: What does Armis mean to you?

First and foremost, I love my job. I love what I do, but I also really love the value and the mission and especially the people that I work with day in and day out. There’s never a time where there’s not a willingness to help. And we always talk about the one Armis value, and it’s really true. Whether it comes to an issue that we have to overcome, or if there’s a personal issue in somebody’s life, everyone is there to really step in and provide coverage during those tough times. That means the world to me, and having the knowledge and the validation that we are all valued as individuals goes a long way.

Question 3: What was your career path? How did you end up in Cybersecurity?

When I was in college, I was an Accounting major at first. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I mean, that’s a big decision to make. So I went into the military. I went into the Air Force. And I just went off of what my ASVAB said and I went into a Cyber field for Networking and Cryptography and that’s really where I started. I absolutely loved technology and how everything connects. From there I got my first job and have just been progressing ever since, but cybersecurity was always my number one interest point. That’s why I ended up landing with Armis, because of the interesting gap there is with unagentable IoT, IOMT, those types of devices that I always struggled with in my past roles.

Question 4: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into the cybersecurity field?

If you’re looking to jump into the cybersecurity field, I think the best way is just to get started and begin learning. There are so many opportunities for a career in this industry from roles in HR, to Marketing, to Sales, to IT. I know we have positions available globally in all departments, if anyone wants to Join Armis!  I think if you want to get into the tech side but don’t have the specific background or education, start educating yourself—whether that’s through formal education with a university or going out and doing cybersecurity certifications, which are helpful if you’re looking for something more immediate. But overall, the best way is to get on-the-job, hands-on experience. Finding a job, whether it’s part-time or full-time, that you can just immerse yourself in would be the best way to learn. Hopefully somebody can take a chance on you. I would recommend focusing on learning the ins and outs of computer systems and networks, because that’s really what we’re working on securing. When you learn those basic levels you can start growing from there as a cybersecurity professional.

Question 5: What are the challenges of working in Cybersecurity?

With any job there are going to be challenges, but the challenges that I most often come into is that every organization is different and every customer is different. Learning to adapt and be dynamic and flexible to those changes while being able to implement a solution based on that specific environment is often the biggest challenge I face. However, just approaching customers with that open mindset and being able to make modifications as necessary is the best way that we can make sure that they’re successful when implementing our product.

Question 6: What are you working on at the moment that excites you?

The most exciting part of my job right now has been working with our FedRAMP customers and onboarding them. Armis is new in the FedRAMP space as we just got our Moderate authorization and IL4.  So being able to take that success and move that into the success of our customers is really rewarding, even though it’s a little bit more challenging at times. There are more restrictions and limitations due to the security requirements of FedRAMP, but the challenge of being able to successfully navigate those really makes me thrive. That has been really exciting for me and I can’t wait to see where we are in a year from now.

Find out what Armis customers think about The Armis Asset Intelligence & Security Platform. Read Case Studies from our customers now.