Talare DTH 15: Alexander Rautenberg

Alexander is working as an IT-Security consultant at Combitech. He started his career back in Germany when he worked as a software developer at a larger insurance company. Through movies, shows, and books he was always fascinated by hackers. So he went on his journey to become exactly that. After moving to Sweden, finishing his Bachelor (Network Security) and Master (Information Security) he realized that (as expected) most of what’s shown in movies is pure fiction but also that some is not that far from reality. At his current position he is helping their customers with security relevant problems, inter alia: penetrationtests, hardening, and security reviews.

The Journey of a Junior Penetration Tester

While Combitech wasn’t my first job, it still was the first one in a different country. Besides worries about my language skills and possible differences in work culture thousands of questions were racing through my head before I got started. Am skilled enough for the job? What are the expectations of the team? Will the colleagues be nice? Will I work with things I find interesting?

It is very common in the IT-Security field to feel overwhelmed by the tools, methodologies, acronyms, and required skills when starting out in the beginning. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you that it will get better after working for two years within the field. In my talk I want to give you my personal answer to the questions above, and give you my view on how to tackle the infamous imposter syndrome.”