Transitioning from telecommunications to cyber has proven a successful leap for ex-Telstra employee Haylee deGoumois.
After a 10-year career in telecommunications, Haylee deGoumois decided it was time for a change. Having attained the position of store manager for a Telstra licensed store, she was looking for new opportunities in a future-focused industry – and turned to cyber security.
“I had got as far as I thought I could within the Telstra role and thought cyber would be a really good sector to build a career as it’s going to be around forever and offers endless possibilities,” she says.
DeGoumois made the leap in the first half of 2021, taking up the role of account executive at Operational Systems (OpSys) Australia, one of the country’s leading names in cyber security. “I did initially think I would probably have to go to university for however many years to get the right qualifications to find work but I was very lucky,” she says.
“I was offered the role at OpSys and my boss provided on-the-job training so I didn’t need to have a degree or university study behind me. There was a bit of an adjustment period: I thought I would have it in the bag coming from telco but it took a bit of training and after-work study – but it’s been worth the effort.”
As account executive, deGoumois spends her days liaising between the OpSys technical team and the clientele. “Cyber can be overwhelming and a lot for some people to take in,” she says. “People know they need it but they don’t really understand it – with regard to decoding and navigating alerts, for example – so it’s good to have someone there who can explain it to them in a way that makes sense.”
She takes most satisfaction from a job well done. “Our customers might be a massive company or a little two-person company and it’s rewarding to know you’re keeping their business safe,” she says. The diversity is also a strong driver: “Each day is different, which is good.”
She already has plans to build her cyber career. “It’s not set in stone but I would like to be some sort of director of customer relations,” she says. “But because it’s an industry that’s continually evolving, who knows what roles will be on offer. Something else might come up that makes me go, ‘Wow, that’s for me’. I’ll just learn as much as I can until then.”
