7 Stages of Security Man - Part 4 - Settling down

Working at Vormetric was fun, but I was never particularly mentally stretched. Whereas my previous job had been a constant learning experience I now had one product to learn everything about, or at least as much as I needed to sell it, which it turned out wasn't that much. However, I did start travelling, a lot. My particular most painful memory is flying to Munich for a 10am start, which meant leaving my house at 4am. I finished around 7pm in Munich and finally got back home to my cold damp flat in the UK at 1am the next day.

There wasn't much business coming in to be honest, and I had to take what I could, where I could, often at short notice. The market for file encryption in Europe is limited, it isn't really driven by PCI like database encryption is. It is very much event driven, and that is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Vormetric is a fantastic technology, but I think it is better suited to becoming a feature of something else as this is a much easier sale. Symantec (Veritas) would be the perfect acquirer as it is something they need and can't do as well themselves.

There was a lot of down-time between engagements, so around this time I decided to do something to keep me focused on security. Working at a vendor can make you very blinkered in one direction and I wanted a broader view. I studied for, took and passed my CISSP in 2 months. I wouldn't say it was easy, but I was in the right position to do it. I was very focused and knew what I wanted from it.

I had just moved into a new flat, a bachelor pad I suppose you could call it, although my ex-flatmate's sister was increasingly there, cramping my bachelor style. I suppose it's my own fault for proposing to her. It was around that point that I decided if I was to be a responsible married type, I would need to be a bit more home-based.

So, when I got a call from a local recruitment agent saying that there was a management position coming up at a distributor near me, I was really interested. When I went to interview to meet the Director of Client Services, I was immediately interested further. He was another genuinely nice guy, I knew I would get on with him from the second we started talking.