Member Spotlight: Eloise Roberston

Eloise Robertson is a new member of our WiCyS Australia community, and is a budding member of the cybersecurity industry! Like many of our members, Eloise is starting from scratch to launch her career in cybersecurity from the ground up, and has learned important lessons along the way that she can share with our members.

“I grew up in a small town of about 800 people in regional Victoria. When I hit VCE, I felt like I was limited in what I could choose to study to set me up for university. A lot of classes I didn’t even know were an option, because they weren’t hosted at my school and would have to be done via correspondence to Melbourne, like legal studies or accounting.” Eloise told me that, uncertain of her future path, she chose to do something broad, unsure of what her long-term plan would be. “So I settled on a Bachelor of Arts; a double major in History and Literature.”

However, on completing her studies, Eloise quickly realised that there were very few jobs in her chosen field, so she started as a waitress before moving to office work. “I accidentally ended up in IT.” Eloise jokes. “Covid had a huge negative impact on a lot of people, but it was a time of opportunity for me.” Eloise was working a junior role in a large financial institution in Melbourne when lockdown hit, and her department shifted her to help the Level 1 IT Support team when offices across the country moved to remote home working.

“Much to my surprise, I didn’t find IT boring, nor did I find it too complicated.” Despite feeling intimidated by her relative lack of an IT background when compared to her colleagues, Eloise found her other skills carried her through to success. “I did well, and played an important part in rolling out new laptops to the company and supporting 400 staff working from home, while I went into the office every day to maintain onsite tech.”

Eloise tells me that many skills needed to succeed in other roles were readily transferrable to the world of IT, and even if you don’t consider yourself a techie, relying on other strengths can see you through while you learn. “The tech part comes as you go! I happen to be in a service role talking to users a lot, and I found I was able to do really well because of my customer and interpersonal skills. I didn’t start with a huge amount of technical knowledge, but you pick up the tech side as you go.” Eloise credits her initial success with being in a people-facing role, and was able to succeed in her junior role over time.

“Then, I got offered a job in the IT Operations Infrastructure team. My position became ‘Service Triage and IT Security Analyst’, but I have plans to shift over to cybersecurity.” Eloise says that she initially became interested in cybersecurity after having worked in IT for a while, but her passion and interest developed greatly after having attended the AISA Melbourne Cyber Conference 2022. “I went to cybercon and absolutely loved it! What really surprised and impressed me was how broad information security is – it’s not just response and defence. There is so much that I had no clue even existed; forensics, physical penetration testing, ethical hacking… Part of the draw of cybersecurity for me is the industry is so dynamic, it is always changing; I just need to decide where to start!” Eloise is continuing her journey into cybersecurity by doing online courses and upskilling herself professionally where she can, as well as making use of some free short courses which she availed of as promotional offers from the sponsors of AISA Cybercon. “I loved the WiCyS stall at cybercon – the team there are great, and WiCyS has helped me on my path to the cyber industry.”

When I asked Eloise what her advice would be to women seeking to get further into the cybersecurity industry, she was quick to say this: “Don't think it's a man's world. Even though women are in the minority in cybersecurity, this game doesn't belong to men.” Eloise was resolute in telling me from personal experience, that women can thrive even if a classroom or an office or even an industry looks male dominated. “I promise you, there were plenty of women at the Cybercon, and some of the best performing, most inspiring, and most senior people I’ve worked with are women!”

Eloise certainly is an inspiration to our WiCyS members, and we will eagerly be watching her progress to see her succeed in future.

Eloise was interviewed by Kevin Crowley, our Director of Communications, who authored this article