I’m a Gay HR Leader. My Bias Nearly Cost Me My Dream Job.

by Tommy Barth
June 9, 2017

This blog originally appeared on LinkedIn.  To view the post, click here.

I remember the excitement in my friend’s voice when she called asking me to meet her CEO for a job interview. “You’ve got to come work for Cybereason!” I was immediately incredulous. Only two ideas came to mind from our prior conversations: security and ex-military founders. “Hmmm, I dunno Rachel, I’m not really sure that is what I’m looking for,” teeth clenched, brow furrowed. Not wanting to dampen her energy, I explain that though the position sounded interesting – I’d be the first HR / Talent hire in the U.S. after a recent round of funding – I had my sights set on something a bit more, shall we say… “progressive.” Instinctively, my defenses as a gay man went up: Military plus Security did not an equal opportunity make. I only overcame my reticence after Rachel’s repeated assurances that Cybereason was a different type of security company.           

Two days and six hours of marathon interviews later, it was finally time to meet Cybereason’s CEO, Lior Div, a former leader of the Israeli equivalent of the NSA. I nervously prepared myself to be interrogated. Could I even pass a polygraph? He entered the room so quickly I barely had time to process his neon Converse sneakers and designer jeans. We shook hands, then he instantly pivoted: “So I hear you’re afraid we might not be gay friendly?” I admitted that as a gay American, I had a hard time imagining a military-led corporate culture – particularly in security - to be the progressive, open and creative environment I would need to build a world-class recruiting operation. I told him that I had great respect for military talent, and actually began my career in tech recruiting with a U.S. defense and intelligence operation. Despite that experience and recent progress in repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, military culture hardly felt conducive to the progressive leadership I would need on the front line as a Talent leader. “Tom, the difference is that in Israeli military, we ask… and trust me, we tell!” Over the course of the next hour, Lior spoke proudly (not to mention humorously) about Israel’s storied history of support for LGBT rights. Indeed, the same year Congress passed DADT here, 1993, the Israeli Knesset passed a law allowing open military service for gays. I listened intently as he explained that team building in the Israel Defense Forces is literally a life and death exercise; failure is not an option for a nation under perpetual assault. He painted cybersecurity as the challenge of our time and said together we would apply the IDF’s recipe to build a company that celebrates different perspectives and expects conventional wisdom to be challenged. Adding to the poignancy of the moment, the sun was literally setting over Copley Square as he made me the verbal offer (all that was missing was an actual rainbow). So… duh, I took the job.   

If this was simply a sweet (possibly cliché?) anecdote about how one CEO broke through a barrier, or how one gay man in HR overcame his baggage about working for a military-led security company, it might not merit further discussion. But I’ve come to understand my personal experience as part of a much bigger, and frankly, serious problem. Cybersecurity is utterly failing to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds. And maintaining the status quo on this subject will likely rob the world of a secure future.

It is not hyperbole to state that the safety of the world as we know it depends on our industry’s ability to innovate faster. Yet, as Cybereason’s Chief Product Officer Sam Curry often points out, the cybersecurity industry is consistently failing to keep pace with ever-evolving, more dangerous threats (insert WannaCry reference here). Is it any wonder? Study after study shows that cybersecurity is woefully underperforming on diversity. With only 11% of cybersecurity jobs being held by women, there is a shocking gap even when measured by the pitifully low standards of tech overall (even at Google only 31% of employees are females). When other industries fail at diversity, Kendall Jenner endures a tweetstorm; when ours does, we fail to understand the motives of rogue threat actors who then wreak havoc. The exact industry that needs innovation the most is starving itself of a key nutrient.

I don’t have all the answers, and Cybereason is also behind where we want to be on diversity. We’ve grown from 40 to more than 300 people in the almost 2 years since I joined. And while we are proud to be ahead of the industry by some measures (roughly 20% of technical roles globally are held by females), we are deeply dissatisfied with our own progress. Like any problem we intend to solve, we’ll start by openly acknowledging that we have one. Today we are launching an internal effort called “UbU” to coincide with and celebrate Boston Pride weekend; our headquarters are in the Hancock Tower. While the act is simple, we’re codifying basic principles on diversity and announcing a full-throated effort to identify and drive programmatic efforts to attract and retain a diverse workforce. Follow us as we chronicle our efforts to turn the tide.

Cybereason's Diversity Mission:

Cybereason strives to solve some of the world’s most complex technology challenges. We can only do this by unlocking the full talents of ALL our people. To ensure our employees realize their fullest potential, we are building the most open, affirming workplace possible. UbU reflects our commitment to deliver on this goal.

 

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