Profile of Veterans - Mary-Jane - WithYouWithMe

 

By Chief Editor and Blog Manager- Amanda-Jane Turner

Thanks to Amy O’Connor from WithYouWithMe for enabling this article series on veterans and to Mary-Jane for agreeing to be featured in this Profile of Veterans article.

In her youthful fourth decade, Mary-Jane is an army reserve veteran, Mother, cyber security student and Cyber Security Co-ordinator at the WithYouWithMe Academy. Currently working part time she is looking forward to transitioning to full time work in 2019. Previously an Environmental Risk and Compliance auditor, Mary-Jane’s dream job is to work in Cyber security risk management in the Brisbane area.

Mary-Jane is an energised, motivated and intelligent person who is passionate about  raising awareness about privacy and cyber security. As well as her family, work and study she enjoys weight training and also loves to learn.  She enjoys watching security presentations online and cites Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure and Heather Adkins of Google as two of her favourite speakers. She is also an active volunteer supporting Australian Information Security Network and Australian Women in Security Network and she enthusiastically helped at the recent BrisSEC2018 security conference held in Brisbane.

Mary-Jane explained that she has always valued the Australian way of life, privacy, freedom and democracy and since having children and studying cyber security those values have become even more important to her. When asked about the challenges she sees in gaining her dream career she shared that she is motivated and wants to be productive but needs a flexible role. Juggling family and study with work Mary-Jane suggested that to support career progression there needs to be flexible working hours, available affordable after school care and online self-paced courses to support skill development.

Having had a career break and transitioning from her former career as an environmental risk and compliance specialist to cyber security roles, Mary-Jane knew she needed a good plan and support to return to work successfully.  She found that in WithYouWithMe. The organisation has helped her extensively with strategic career planning, industry mentors and training for skills in high demand.  She affirmed that subsequent to that assistance she feels much more productive than she would have been if she had had to do this on her own. 

When asked if there was any organisation she would like to promote as having made a positive impact on her life, Mary-Jane stated that she is a very proud cyber security graduate of the WithYouWithMe Academy and that the Rochester Institute of Technology has also changed the course of her life and connected me with cyber security people across the globe. She highly recommend their courses.

If you want to connect with Mary-Jane you can find her on LinkedIn and Twitter

(c) AWSN 2018

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.