 Alright everybody, we have our next speaker, Rebecca Long. She's a software engineer. Ooh, got some fans here. Very nice. Very nice. Well, she's a software engineer with 15 years of experience focused on quality assurance and DevOps. Her academic history is in computer science with her master's thesis on social engineering and fishing. Very interesting. And currently she's working as lead DevOps engineer at Risk Lens and runs a nonprofit called Future ADA to help support diversity and inclusion in science and tech. And on a personal note, she's a fancier of cats and champagne. Let's give her attention now, Rebecca Long, hacking your career through social engineering. Hi. Can you all hear me? Okay. Microphones and me don't always get along, so I'm going to do my best. Thank you. This is a great opportunity to be here and chat with you all. I will warn you, I do really like cats, so if that's a problem for anyone. Yeah, so just a warning, there's a lot of cats in my slides. Okay. Alright, so let's get started. As I mentioned, cats. Okay. So, who am I? Alright, so like, I'm Rebecca Long, as previously mentioned. So computer science background kind of skimmed through this. My master's thesis was in social engineering and fishing at a financial institution, so I got to hack a bank for academic fun, which I thought was, it was, there's a lot of paperwork. I wouldn't, yeah. So I have 15 years of tech experience, mostly focused on QA and DevOps. Right now I'm the lead, playing the role of lead DevOps engineer at a company called Risk Lens, where a cyber risk quantification and management company, we build software for that. And then I also founded a nonprofit called Future ADA. I'm president and founder of that, and I have a board member here with me, Emily. Thank you. So yeah, we advocate for and support women and non-binaries in STEAM. So that's science, technology, engineering, art, and math. So it's supposed to be a little bit more inclusive and creative for anyone who's curious. All right, again, more cats. Quick contact info, in case anyone's curious. Cats. All right, so why is this talk important? So I think this talk is important because social engineering, we're, I mean, everyone here's a social engineer, I assume, at some level, either professionally or, you know, informally. So social engineering skills can be helpful to minorities. As we, as people may know, minorities do have some extra hurdles to tackle through tech careers, amongst other areas of life. It's also helpful for introverts who have different types of hurdles for career and networking, which I imagine that a lot of us here can relate to. I'm actually an introvert. I don't know if all my friends would agree with that, but it's true. Okay, so I think these skills can be used for any industry. I don't think they're, so if you're a social engineer, that's great. If you do that professionally, that's awesome, but you don't actually have to limit using those skills in a social engineering role, right? You can use them in any tech role. You can use them outside of tech. You can use it regardless of who you are or what you do. At least that's how, that's my belief. All right, so what's our goal here today? So many cats. Okay, so I want to, I want to focus a little bit on how we can use social engineering in an ethical way to positively impact your work, so your job, your career, your company, your team, any projects you're working on, and then our industry, right? So if you're, I assume we're all in tech at some level here at this conference, but this could be used broadly so you can share with your non-tech friends as well. And then of course, let's all use our powers for good, right? So, all right. Quick for a few reminders, which you, this will be real quick. The social engineering skills that I'm mostly interested in for my talk today are like some basic ones like EQ, non-verbal communication, and then just the fact that to be a social engineer, you have to understand people, right? That's the whole, that's the whole point of it. All right, so let's get into career applications. So you have a career, first thing you're going to do is you're going to be job hunting. You're either job hunting for your first job, or you're going to be looking for your next job, right? So how do you, how do you apply that here? All right, so first thing you want to do is you want to do some recon, right? Okay, so that's key. First, find out like who is this company? Who are you looking at applying with? You know, who are they? What do they stand for? What are their values? What's their mission? What do they do? Who's the hiring team? Who's the hiring manager? Right? Do you know anybody who's on that team? Do you know the manager? Do you know somebody who knows the manager? What do they care about? What are their values? Are they, would they be recommended by people that you know and trust? So yeah, what would people say about the company as a whole? I don't know about you, but I have, I know I have like a list of companies that I wouldn't work for. I imagine most of us do. So if you're looking at a company, you don't know anything about them, check with people who might know, see if they're on anyone's blacklist, right? Because maybe find out why and see if that's, if that's something that you would agree with or not. All right, let's say you land an interview. Awesome. Okay. Again, more recon. Okay, so what kind of check with the hiring manager or like people who know this company? Is it a casual company? Can you show up in shorts and flip flops? Or is it something more formal? Is it like, are you supposed to show up in a suit? Like what, what do you want to do? You don't want to show up in a suit and everyone else is in flip flops, right? That might be awkward. So try and balance it a little bit. Also make sure you know, like, like what message you're trying to portray. Like if you want to show up in flip flops in shorts yourself, that's, that's your own messaging. And so you do you. But I mean, make sure you know. Be sure you have good questions ready. So do your research, find out information about this company. Like, do they have a mission statement on their website? If not, that's a good question you can ask in the interview that shows you did some research and shows that you care. Ask them about like what kind of projects do they use? What kind of languages if it's a software company? What kind of, you know, everything? Like you can literally ask almost anything. Their website's probably gonna not be the greatest because that happens a lot. So then there's a lot of, there's gonna be a lot of information that you can, you can pull out of the interview. Think of it as a, like when you're in the interview, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. So try and think of it like that and that might help sponsor questions. Alright, so when you're in the interview, you're in there, you're in person or you're on like a video chat interview. Try and connect with everybody like in that interview, right? So build rapport with everyone as best as you can. Especially the hiring manager, but for sure everyone. You don't want to piss anyone off in the interview. That's definitely not recommended. So try and avoid that. Pay attention to what's around the room, what people are saying, how they're dressed. Maybe they can give away some subtle clues on things that you can connect with them on, right? So maybe, and then you can, you can do things like where you share a little bit about yourself. Maybe a personal hobby. Hopefully they have that as a question, like what are your hobbies? And you're like, oh, I like mountain biking. And they can be, oh, I also like mountain biking. And then you can just, you can play off of that, that kind of thing. Read the room. Do people not like your answers? You should be able to tell, especially if you have social, if you're a social engineer, you're going to be able to read people and see if they're bored with your answers or if they are excited about what you're talking about. And if they're excited about what you're talking about, then play off of that and dive deeper into whatever it is that you're, that you're having that conversation on so that you can help, you know, build that rapport and that makes sure that they, they think you're awesome. That's the whole goal of getting it in every, right? And then appreciate everyone's time. Right? That's really key. People are taking their time out of their day, away from their projects, away from productivity, to be there to talk to you. And they might not hire you, right? So like they don't know, you don't know if you want to work there yet. So be thankful of their time. And even if they don't hire you, what they've done is they've given you a good opportunity to practice all of these skills and eventually you'll land the right one, the right job. So I would recommend thanking them when you show up, thanking them when you leave and thanking them in a follow-up note. All right. So once you have a job, maybe you want to get to the next level. You want a promotion, you want to, you know, climb that corporate ladder. So things that you can do to help with that is definitely networking. There's lots of things you can do to help with climbing the corporate ladder, but I'm going to stress networking is a key one. Network internally in your company, okay? So get to know who is in your company that's making decisions, who are the hiring people, who are the executives, who are the managers that would be, that are in the area of the company that you want to be in. What is it that they're looking for? What is it that they care about? What are their gaps? How can you help fit into that? Right? So network, build rapport with those people and, you know, kind of work off of that. And then I always advocate for everyone to network externally as well. Right? I'm a big believer in having a safety net. I don't trust any one particular company to last forever. And I wouldn't expect anyone else to either. So having a network outside of your company and knowing where the other opportunities might be, what companies you might be interested in working for, things like that, those are going to be really important. And then having rapport with people at those companies so that they already know ahead of time that you're awesome and that they would want to hire you given the opportunity, right? That saves a lot of time later, right? So you're doing basically that recon of networking, of getting that job up front. They're doing it before you need a job. Have an elevator pitch. So especially when you're, well, if you're networking internally or externally, you need people to know who you are, what you care about, what you do, what you offer. And you can do that in an elevator pitch. So in case you don't know what that is, it's basically you can explain all of those things while you're awesome in the length of time of a ride of an elevator, right? So like 30 seconds, something like that, maybe a minute depending on the elevator, right? So like try and condense it down, practice it, know it, have it ready. So when you have somebody who's like a key person that you're like, wow, this guy would be like really awesome to work for or this company would be amazing. Here's why you should hire me because I'm amazing. You just do it on the spot at a user group meeting or wherever you are, right? Have it ready so you don't have to stress about it. And then of course, be authentic. I think we all understand that it's really easy to see through someone who's not authentic, someone who's faking it, someone who's being, you know, disingenuous, right? So be who you are, make sure that comes through and then be genuine when you're meeting everybody. Okay. Day-to-day success. So how, conveying confidence. This is going to be really important, right? I don't know about any of you, but imposter syndrome is a big problem in industry and tech. It's really prominent with women and minorities especially, but really everybody I would imagine has dealt with it at some point in their career. I know I have, I struggle with it regularly still even though I've been around for a while. Okay. So what you can do to help battle that is have like this pretext of just being confident, right? Pretend that you're confident. Pretend that you have it already and you know what you're doing, right? Basically it's the whole concept of fake it until you make it, right? So just pretend, right? You don't want to be the person who is like overly egotistical in faking it that you get a job that you can't actually do, right? Because that would backfire. But have some confidence that you know what you're doing and people around you believe in you and lean on that. That will help. At least that helps me. And then if you need some extra help, there are some nonverbals you can lean on to help like having good eye contact with individuals. So like people around you especially if you're hiring, hiring managers, things like that eye contact have a strong handshake. That's going to be really important. People judge you off of all of this stuff, right? So conveying confidence is going to be done through a lot of these things and then good posture, right? Stand up straight. Standard things that your parents tell you when you're growing up. Take up space. So this is kind of a funny one. Men do this really well naturally. Women do not. Women are taught to be really small and take up minimal amounts of space. And so it's kind of funny. So when I learned this I started going to meetings and just like sprawling out all of my stuff. Taking up all the space, right? But it actually helps. It's kind of funny but I recommend it. Try it. Take up whatever space you need. You're like, okay, I'll just, you know, and don't worry about it. And it's kind of, it works. It works. I promise. You can also try power poses. So these are, there's a TED talk by Amy Cuddy who, and I have the link up here. It's kind of small. I'll have my slides online after so you can see it but you can look it up. She's great and her power poses she has a bunch of them but at least my favorite one is, is like the Wonder Woman pose. Just like, just do that before meetings or before you go into an interview or any kind of a difficult situation. And it will for some reason help you. It's kind of weird how it works. She explains it. So you can watch her talk if you want to know more information on that. But there are a few different power poses that you can try to help build that extra confidence. Including ones that just where you're sitting at your desk where you can just kind of spread out. Again, taking up space. Alright, so you get a job. You now have a new team you have to integrate into. So what do you, what do you do? Think about things that, what kind of messages you're conveying. Right? So like this, you can do this with like the clothes you wear. Right? So if you're coming in again, shorts and a flip-flops, those are gonna be like saying one thing if you're always dressed in a suit that says another thing. If you're dressed in a dark hoodie and shades, that's gonna say a different thing. If you're trying to connect with people, maybe the hoodie and shades is not the way to go. You know, so those are things to consider. Right? Being more open and welcoming in your appearance is gonna be more likely to get people to come and talk to you. And connect and management's gonna appreciate that a little bit more. I've never wanted to advocate for being anyone except for who you are and expressing yourself. So just making sure you understand what message you're conveying with that's that expression of yourself. I'm trying to find a balance. Okay, so again creating rapport with team members. So get to know them as people. Right? I'm pretty sure everyone in this room, mostly sure everyone in this room, or people, we're all humans. Okay? So get to know each other. Right? As people. And that's gonna help get to know them as what their families are like, what are their hobbies, what do they do over the weekend, what's their favorite restaurant, where do they go for lunch. Those kind of things are they addicted to coffee. Whatever, you know, do they love cats? Clearly they love cats. Clearly. Alright? So as you're doing, as you're building this rapport, that's gonna build trust, right? And then especially if they start sharing things in confidence and you keep that confidence, that's gonna build trust again. By being good at your job and working with them, that's gonna help build respect and some credibility. And then just, you know, sticking to any commitments that you make as you, as you go along your path with these people, your new colleagues, that's gonna help as well. And then of course, have empathy and compassion for one another. Again, these are people just like you, they have lives, they have things that come up, they get up on the wrong side of the bed, their kids keep them up all night or their cats. You know, things happen. They wake up, maybe they need some extra compassion for the day. Right? They're not at their best. Right? And that's okay. Like that happens. So being aware of that and not judging and being harsh on folks is gonna be really important. Alright, office politics. Again, going with this theme, focus on interpersonal relationships and building that rapport with people. If you have a rapport with people when there's struggles and like difficult conversations that need to be had or promotions that are being looked at and there's, you know, conflict, whatever, things happen. But having that rapport is gonna be really helpful in working through it. And again, since we have people, we can't have a company without people. We can't have teams without people. So there's gonna be conflict and there's gonna be stress and there's gonna be problems. It's just unavoidable at some point along your path. So like having that rapport, listening to all sides of the story, trying to get information directly from people versus listening to rumor mills or the telephone game, that's gonna be really important and that'll help keep trust and help further respect of you with the team. And then I assume everyone who's a social engineer also is a charming person at some level. So you can use your charm and persuasive abilities to fight for things that you believe in. So that might be you're fighting for a project to get pushed through or extra resources or whatever it may be, right? Those are things you can help push for. If you think it's the right thing to do and it's really important then you can use your powers to push for it. Just making sure you're aware of who you report to and any negative consequences that might come from that depending on where they stand, that's all important. But if you're doing what you think is right then any negative consequences are gonna be easier to deal with. All right, let's talk about meetings. So structure meetings, meetings are unavoidable also. Structure them in a way that is impactful and most efficient. Nobody, I don't think anyone here likes meetings so I'm gonna guess, I'm guessing, right? So maximize them so that they are, you can get through them as quickly as possible, right? So maybe that means that you have all morning meetings, maybe your team really likes that so you can like go back to back meetings and you have your afternoon free. Great. Maybe you want 15 minute meetings, maybe you want half hour meetings, be really efficient, you have an agenda, we're gonna stick to it, that's what it is and then we're done, right? And if we didn't get through it then we're gonna schedule a follow-up meeting and we're, whatever. That's gonna be really important, right? Know what your team likes and what's preferred, what that rhythm is for you. Read the room. Is everyone falling asleep? Is everyone like, are they fidgety, that kind of stuff? Pay attention to where people are at in the meeting. If they need to take a five minute break, if you need to just actually call the meeting or like we'll reschedule, we'll finish this, this is getting difficult. That's okay. It'd be better to have a reschedule of a meeting than to try and power through and make everyone suffer, right? Understand who's making decisions. Is the decision maker in the room with you and you need to make a decision? If not, then maybe you shouldn't have the meeting, right? Get that person in the room so that you can make sure that you have actionable things that come out of it. And when are those decisions being made? Are they being made in the meeting? Are they being made after the meeting? Is the decision being made in the meeting then changed? So those are all things to pay attention to and make sure that you can help kind of finagle the politics around all of that and getting the right people in the room and making sure that the correct meetings are being had. And if there's a lot of post meetings or closed door meetings after your meeting, what that is implying is that there's trust issues on the team and you need to work through that so that people feel comfortable and safe to share openly in the official meeting and so they don't have all of these little side things. We want everyone on the same page having a transparent and open communication policy is going to be the most healthy way to go about everything. And then if you need an example of what not to do, this is a common way of how we do meetings. And so don't do this. This is, this is bad. Okay. Stress. I'm not sure if you're aware but stress is unavoidable. We're in tech and it's just, it's going to happen, right? I'm pretty sure that's true with every job. So having those strong relationships in that rapport with coworkers and colleagues and managers and, you know, everybody, that's going to help ride through those stressful times. It's really going to be important. So Daniel Gullman, he said, is in his emotional intelligence book, quality of relationships as well as their sheer numbers seems key in buffering stress, right? So again, it's really important to have those relationships. All right. Let's talk about some leadership real quick and just a quick call out. A leader is not necessarily a manager. Managers and leaders are different. They do play different roles. They can be the same person but they are technically different, right? So you can be a leader at any level of the company at any role that you might be playing. So just be aware that this part of the talk can apply to you if you're not a manager. All right. Building a strong team culture is going to be key. Every team is going to have a different culture regardless of where you are. If you change the people on it, it's going to be a different culture. But the strong cultures are the ones that have similar traits and that's trust and empathy and compassion. So those are going to be kind of key similar traits across this talk. So here's another quote for you. Higher emotional quotients have greater sensitivity and empathy are rated as more effective, receive higher performance ratings, develop high performing effective teams and create a healthier culture. So having that strong emotional intelligence is going to benefit you and your team greatly. And if you're in a management role or some sort of an official leadership position, then you have an even better opportunity to apply this. Okay. So let's talk about empathetic leadership. Again, we're all people. So if you're a manager in a leadership position or something like that, people are people, right? So everyone who works here, make sure you know that they have lives, families, hobbies, passions, and all the like messy emotions that come with being a human, right? So that's all things that need to be taken into account. And like I've said already, get to know these people as people, right? They're not just colleagues, they're not just, you know, a job, they're not just a role or a designation, they're people. And create a safe space for them to bring their full selves to work. No one feels good when they have to hide part of who they are, when they go into the office or leave part of them at home. They don't, you can't go to the office and pretend that you're not a parent or, you know, something along those lines or go to the office and pretend that you're, you know, whatever. Like you, you have, you're going to be more efficient and more productive as a person if you're allowed to bring your whole self to work. And so helping create a space for people to do that is going to be really important. And again, we can all do that at any level to help create a space for that where it's, everyone feels safe and included to do so. And then recognize emotional impact on people when major life events happen such as like a birth or a death, marriage, divorce, that kind of stuff. I have a couple of quotes. I'm going to jump through these really quick though because I'm running short on time. But again, leadership and empathy go hand in hand and it's really, really important for us to do that, to, to keep those together. Team members to support each other, right? Ask people about their lives. What, when's their birthday? Do you know your co-worker's birthday? Find out. Remember when it is put it on your calendar. Remind them it has a happy birthday. And care about people at every level of your company, right? So the CEO and an admin assistant and a pen tester, in my opinion, are all equally valuable because we're all actually part of the same team and we're all playing a special role to help get us to, you know, a successful point. Make sure you appreciate everybody. You can create positive feedback loops that help support your team and encourage that feedback, constructive feedback, um, amongst each other and then also create a safe space for people to feel comfortable to give you feedback and then make sure you lead by example. So you give people feedback in constructive ways, request feedback and then don't forget to give lots of positive feedback. Don't just give, hey, wow, you could have done this better. You don't want that to be the only feedback people get. Alright, so to wrap up, um, social engineering and your career, all of this, it's really about people, right? Social engineering is using people skills. Cyber security is about people. Whole point of it is to secure people and their data, right? Otherwise, I mean, it's nothing why, what are we doing? Okay. Alright, so like you can, I think you can use all of these skills to positively impact your career and, you know, in also in your life and as we interact with each other outside of work, this can be helpful using our powers for good. And then kind of wrap up. We're stronger when we all care about each other. I know. So cute. Yeah. Alright. Thank you.