From Liberal Arts To InfoSec, How A Diverse Background Helps In Cybersecurity

Theresa Abbamondi, Director of Product Management for Arbor Cloud and Services at NETSCOUT, chats with ITSPmagazine's Selena Templeton about how having a diverse background — in this case, liberal arts — has helped her tremendously at Arbor Networks, the security division of NETSCOUT.

This podcast is all about diversity, and the hot topics in that context are generally gender and race. But, of course, diversity is so much more than that.

And that includes different backgrounds, different perspectives, different ways of thinking or learning. Which is why I’m excited to have Theresa on Diverse IT. She came to product management and security rather circuitously — she has two degrees in political philosophy and intended to get a PhD and become an academic.

While her background was not in a STEM field, Theresa believes her ability to write coherently, to think critically and to approach problems logically — as well as several other skills — have transferred well and have ensured her success.

She also talks about Arbor's Women on Their Way (WoW) mentorship program, which focuses on empowering young women to help themselves professionally. WoW has also served to highlight the unique challenges that women face in the tech and security industry and in general.