My non-traditional path to a cybersecurity career at EY Sweden

From business administration to cybersecurity 

Looking back, I realize that my career journey seems different than that of a regular cybersecurity person.  

From day one at EY, I was introduced to and worked mostly with IT risks— as I had studied company risks and several types of them—in areas such as access management, change management and incident handling. This gave me a better foundation on the more technical side of things. By that time, I was already touching on security, but it was still more about risk than about security. 

But gradually, I started trying out a few cyber projects as my interest in regulations such as GDPR grew. This unlocked my access to more cyber projects and led me to where I am today, focusing on security in the telecom industry and product security in general. 

As I have had no former training in security and had to learn a lot of things myself, my journey has been a steep upward climb. But this is also what energizes and inspires me—the steep learning curve keeps my adrenaline going and I am always proud of how fast and how much I’ve been able to grow within my role so far. All the opportunities provided by EY and a talented team that supports me at every turn have helped me greatly in my career journey. 

A day in my life at EY

At work, every day is different for me. A large chunk of my day goes to advising clients and working with product security. This includes sitting in client meetings, supporting and advising on initiatives related to areas such as vulnerability management, secure coding or handling third-party components. 

But then there is also the internal work, which for me is one of the best things about being at EY. I am planning a winter conference together with my team at the beginning of next year in Åre. We’re all excited!

I am also the lead for all the people-related questions regarding cyber in Sweden. We have three different streams there—recruitment, well-being and competence development—all being led by different project managers. As part of my role, I coordinate with them and oversee the processes. That is also a big part of my day—just ensuring we have the right people in the right places. 

I love how we invest in ensuring that our people are continuously learning new things and are feeling happy and healthy. Our people are our number one resource. Without our people at EY, we cannot do what we do so well today.

The hybrid way of working is something I find helpful. I'm usually in the office unless I have a day filled with virtual meetings, in which case I might decide to work from home. But every other day, I love being at the office so that I can see my team and have conversations with them face-to-face. It is especially wonderful when you have new colleagues who might need just one familiar face to ask questions to or grab lunch or a cup of coffee with. This beats doing the same via a virtual call!

A team that supports and inspires 

I think we've been on quite a journey now with the cybersecurity team in Sweden, as we have expanded quite rapidly. We were quite a small team when we started, but now we've grown so much to include people with experience spanning diverse areas and many years. We have seen new people come in and new team dynamics take shape. 

Without this “team” feeling it's difficult for us to function. Working together, growing comfortable with each other, and enabling the feeling of trust have all helped ensure that we have a tightly knit team that supports and inspires each other every day. 

When I revisit my journey from business administration to cybersecurity, I feel prouder about my team. Of course, EY provided me with all the tools and training I needed to excel in my new role but having colleagues to lean on made the experience a lot easier for me.  

I also believe that diversity in all dimensions is extremely important and is something that we should strive to have—be it concerning career, gender or anything else. At the Swedish cyber team, we always strive to maintain a gender balance. Just taking myself as an example, I think it's great that I come with a diverse career background. The people that we often talk to in our projects come with a business background, which allows me to communicate cyber aspects in a way they understand. 

A glimpse at what I do when I’m not working

When I am not at work, you will certainly find me spending some quality time with my family—we are very close, and I love every moment I get to spend with them! In my free time, I also like to do various types of sports—I play a lot of golf during summer and try to test new ways of exercising because I find it fun. Before I forget to add, I am a big TV series buff as well!

I also love listening to podcasts on my way to and back from work. Walking to and from work every day takes me two long hours. So, I usually spend this time listening to various podcasts. Darknet Diaries and IT-Säkerhetspodden are two podcasts I always try not to miss. It is natural that when you have an interest in something, you just read about it. If there is a big cybersecurity incident, it usually pops up in the news feeds and I quickly read about it. 

It’s nice that among our team we are all equally keen on these news stories, so we’re always sharing news and information about new regulations, helping each other keep updated as well.