A Different Career Path Should Still Get a Fair Reading

Katie Hanahan described an uncomfortable contrast in her Fireside Chat conversation. She could recognize the value of work she had delivered and still encounter hiring processes that struggled to recognize the experience behind it.

Her career had not followed a single conventional route. In the conversation, she spoke about the frustration of feeling that a résumé with a different background might not be identified as a strong candidate. The concern was especially pointed when organizations said they wanted more varied experience in leadership.

When a fellow participant encouraged her to recognize her worth, Hanahan welcomed the support. She also explained why confidence alone did not answer the problem. A capable person still needs a process that gives their experience a fair hearing.

The job description makes a judgment

Hanahan urged security leaders to work more closely with their HR colleagues on a job description that:

“allows for transferable skills”

Katie Hanahan, Fireside Chat archive

That is a practical point about how an organization defines evidence of ability. Requirements tell a reviewer what to recognize. If they describe only one familiar route into the work, people who developed relevant abilities elsewhere may be difficult to see.

Hanahan was speaking from her own experience of trying to have an unconventional background understood. She asked leaders to examine the relationship between security and HR, and whether their requirements gave relevant experience a fair chance to be seen.

She also offered an example of someone moving from teaching into a technical training role at a cybersecurity company. The work drew on the ability to help people learn. It illustrated how a skill developed outside a conventional security role could have a useful place within the industry.

Look for the work behind the wording

For a hiring leader, the implication is to be precise about what the role actually needs someone to do. Different histories can contain evidence of the same capability. Recognizing that evidence requires attention to the work, not just familiarity with the titles on the page.

That does not mean removing necessary qualifications or assuming every skill transfers automatically. It means explaining which capabilities matter and being willing to consider how a candidate has demonstrated them. A fair assessment can still be a demanding one.

Hanahan’s story makes the issue personal without reducing it to a matter of self belief. Encouragement from a colleague mattered, and so did the opportunity to be considered on the strength of her work.

Organizations that want a wider range of experience need hiring practices capable of recognizing it. The invitation to belong becomes more credible when the route to an interview reflects the invitation.

Listen to the original conversation with Katie Hanahan → · Read the transcript →

From the Fireside Chat archive. This article is an editorial reflection on the original conversation, not a new interview or an update on the guest’s current role.