My Journey From Lululemon to Cybersecurity
What it takes to break into a new industry.
Blog Post

JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com
Oct. 2, 2018
Nine months ago, this self-proclaimed creative generalist who studied studio arts and psychology in college thought of Mr. Robot and hackers in hoodies when she heard the term “cybersecurity.” But today? I'm the Head of Culture & Communications for Cmd, a cybersecurity startup that’s built a SaaS platform for businesses that keep the majority of their data in the cloud, designed to help them ensure their sensitive data stays safe. How did I connect the dots from liberal arts student to working for a cybersecurity startup?
An Alternative Education
When I think about what led me here, the first breadcrumb in my trail was choosing to attend Hampshire College. I chose this school specifically because of the way they allowed their students to shape their own path through higher education.
While at Hampshire, I designed my concentration around the intersection of psychology and studio art. I’ve always been obsessed with trying to understand the human mind. I see psychology as a fascinating attempt to quantify life’s most unquantifiable moments. My figure drawings allowed me to engage with the psychological concepts I was exploring in a more physical, visceral way.
My Intro to Tech: Lululemon
When you think of retail clothing giant Lululemon, “technology” probably isn’t the first word to pop into your head. But working for Lululemon’s flagship Vancouver store back in 2013 was my intro into tech. With the corporate headquarters nearby, this metropolitan location served as the testing ground for experimental business operations initiatives.
As an educator and product specialist, I learned about the testing and iteration process of tech when I got to observe and participate a massive experiment: overhauling the company’s approach to managing physical inventory using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors. They eventually rolled out these sensors to all the local Vancouver stores and then to the stores around the world, transforming many of the day-to-day operations of the company.
A few years later, I had an epiphany. Fear of failure had been holding me back from pursuing the work I most wanted to do: professional writing. To gain relevant experience, I started hustling on the side. At the time, I was doing business development for a creative agency that designed marketing collateral for the real estate industry. I saw a need for an in-house copywriter and managed to argue my way into the position. I spoke with a friend who ran a media agency and started moonlighting as an event correspondent, going to local events and writing recaps for their blog.
Breaking into the Tech Startup Scene
After a year of side hustle, I’d built up enough experience that it seemed time to quit my job and freelance while I attempted to find my first full time job in the field of writing. Eventually, I landed a dream role: Content & Community Manager for ShareDesk, a tech startup building SaaS products to support the coworking movement.
One particularly influential challenge came when I started running our tech support (at a tech startup, each person wears many hats). As the liaison between our customers experiencing issues and our developers as they pushed fixes into production, at first I simply relayed the information our customers were telling us verbatim to the developers. But as I adjusted to my new role, I began playing detective. I’d break down the subtext of inquiries to get to the root of the issue. I’d decide on a hypothesis about where there might be a flaw in the logic of our codebase, passing much more nuanced information to our developers. My time managing tech support opened me up to new facets of my professional interests.
Out of Stealth Mode, into Cybersecurity
At the end of December 2017 Milun Tesovic, the Expa partner in charge of Vancouver projects, reached out to me with an exciting new opportunity. He’d found my old profile through AngelList and was looking for a technical writer for one of the stealth mode projects, otherwise known as an early-stage startup that operates out of the public eye to keep competitors in the dark while the core product under development. Intrigued, I reached out to find out more and was asked to come in for an interview.
Milun told me more about the opportunity: a chance to join Cmd, a cybersecurity startup on the precipice of emerging from two years in stealth mode. They were already fielding interest from some large enterprise organizations, but had very little in the way of marketing collateral or product education that they could pass along. I told him—and Jake, Cmd’s CEO—that I knew next to nothing about cybersecurity but that I loved learning new things. Jake assured me that I’d be able to get up to speed in no time. Within a few days of my interview, I had a job offer in my hand. I was heading into a new role as a technical writer for Cmd.
Today—and Tomorrow
It’s been about eight months since I joined Cmd and about two since I transitioned into my new role as Head of Culture & Communications. I’m thrilled with what I’ve been able to create so far. But I don’t want to sugar coat it: the transition into cybersecurity was pretty rough. I’ll be elaborating more on the lessons learned in my transition into my new role in part two of this series, so stay tuned!