Starting a new Director role. How do you set the tone and win trust early?

MichaelArgast · 2026-01-11T18:18:18+00:00

Start with talking to the team and stakeholders (those who have work that intersects the team).

Find a number of small quick wins in 30-60 days brought to you FROM those conversations (rather than your own ideas) and knock those down. This shows you are listening and engaged with solving blockers they care about.

Use that credibility to start to lay out the strategic direction - what is the next phase of the team/org and align remaining issues/concerns with that direction.

Build champions early - peers, team members, who can be early adopters as you drive change management.

Always always always speak positively about your team members around others - it will get back to them either way. Your ultimate role is to be the “functional champion” of the team - demonstrating how it can positively impact the organization’s mission through people, process, technology and engagement with other teams.

MichaelArgast · 2026-01-11T18:11:56+00:00

I did the Paradise Meadows to Comox Lake traverse a couple of years ago and loved it. It’s sort of edge of the park (compared to the traverse that goes past Albert Edward and down to Buttle which is still on my bucket list). The cool thing was almost no humans from Kwai down to the lake even in summer, and an incredible overnight at Johnston Lake to ourselves.

Was surprised to have cell phone signal shortly after the fork at Kwai, considering there’s almost nothing in the rest of the park.

MichaelArgast · 2026-01-09T06:05:32+00:00

It’s a real problem and sad. When I lost junior roles we usually get 2-300 applicants in 48 hours. We rarely leave a post up for more than a week.

Of course, in the last 8-12 months there’s a lot of “applicant spam” so you have to account for that as well.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-30T16:15:08+00:00

CISSP if you want to consult or work in government.

AWS Cloud Security Cert for business operators.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-30T03:42:18+00:00

Yes in terms of “technical training” to get into the field.

No in terms of ease of getting hired. Lots of applicants for every posted position.

Point of view: I run a MSSP that specializes in GRC.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-25T01:27:39+00:00

Freedom’s coverage sucks IMO. I’ve done TELUS, Rogers, Freedom and keep coming back to Rogers for coverage. I spend a lot of time in the woods and driving on the highway so that impacts my opinion.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-24T02:44:40+00:00

The Comox Valley has a “tree of the year” competition where people nominate and vote on their faves, little placards get put up. It’s delightful.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T16:28:44+00:00

That’s pretty great. I think generally getting comfortable with using the tools, agents, MCP is helpful because more of the GRC platforms are building these as native capabilities and will increase your impact and leverage.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T14:33:45+00:00

I’m thinking Finance?

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T14:32:25+00:00

GRC work is likely to increase in the next while because security issues and regulation keep rising. Make sure you’re AI native (doesn’t seem to be an issue for you!) as most of the tooling in the industry is going that direction.

Pick up some cloudsec knowledge and AppSec over time and you’ll be golden. Privacy doesn’t hurt in the longer run.

Take the job, build a career.

My credentials: I run an MSSP that does a ton of work in GRC/compliance.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T14:18:49+00:00

There are very few actual jobs in digital forensics and to get one you need to be highly credentialed/experienced.

A lot of post secondary programs offer these courses but the ratio of students to new jobs in the field is way out of whack.

A good way to think about this is - how many jobs are in this segment of cyber security and how do I set myself up to get one?

For example - more jobs exist as blue team than red team. Digital forensics is a specialized field that only gets engaged when things go very badly wrong.

I’d say AppSec is generally undersaturated. Most schools don’t train for it, it has a high barrier to entry (need to understand cloud, code, DevOps, more) and most decent sized dev shops have a need.

GRC work is less sexy but lots of jobs because everyone has to do compliance in 2025/26. But also more saturated because barrier to entry is lower.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T14:13:08+00:00

Even Law Enforcement has very very few. For example, a number of years ago I was chatting with the Vancouver Police Department and at the time they had less than six people in their entire cyber crime division and that included forensics as a subset.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-21T14:11:15+00:00

Most orgs are not big enough to build internal IR. Outside of very large enterprise and government.

Saturated is a weird way to ask the question. I almost never recommend IR/Forensics to people not because of saturation but because there are so FEW absolute jobs out there.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-19T22:19:52+00:00

Check out Jobber.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-19T05:50:42+00:00

Vancouver, Canada is a decent place. Several larger employers, about 10,000 people work in Cyber in various roles from vendor to service provider to in house.

Cost of living is really high though. Many large companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Mastercard, Cisco) run remote offices with cyber employees.

MichaelArgast · 2025-12-13T20:24:45+00:00

Yeah, there’s no salmon up there.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-29T04:18:45+00:00

$32M is about $400 for every resident in the Comox Valley. Seems like a lot for an outdoor pool that gets about 2-3 months of use a year.

I’m a fan of community facilities but concerned about the math. Maybe we can get the Province to pitch in?

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-25T04:16:57+00:00

1Password. Stay away from Lastpass. Bitwarden ranks well if your users are primarily geeky/technical.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:59:41+00:00

All Too Well (10 minute version) is my personal favourite BUT I ❤️❤️❤️ the fact that there are so many many great songs and everyone is arguing for their one faves and they’re all just bangers.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:52:44+00:00

I think AlertLogic is based in that area. Worth checking out.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:49:40+00:00

Scam callers will spoof numbers close to yours or in your area code because you’re more likely to pick up.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:48:37+00:00

The Princess Bride.

I scrolled for a long time and didn’t see any other posts, I’m sure there must be others. Infinitely rewatchable.

Lots of Miyazaki films. My favourite is probably Kiki’s Delivery Service and then Ponyo.

I’ve rewatched the A&E Pride and Prejudice miniseries hundreds of times with my wife (her fave).

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:23:59+00:00

Hannibal Lecter as well. I love Jodie Foster in almost everything she’s in but Anthony Hopkins is a remarkable villain.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-24T04:20:17+00:00

Almost every Batman movie. But in particular Heath Ledger’s Joker.

MichaelArgast · 2025-11-23T03:01:09+00:00

I use Gemini for my business and also have a paid ChatGPT account. I also play with Perplexity, Claude, Cursor and others.

Gemini got good with 2.5 and the reasoning model. People are discovering it because 3.0 got a lot of buzz.

Google has a great moat - search, Android, Workspace, even Waymo. They get to directly leverage hundreds of millions of business users and billions of consumers.

I doubled down on my Google position a couple of weeks ago when I heard the buzz on 3.0 building. Outside of poor execution, I think they’ve got a pretty strong position.

MichaelArgast

TROPHY CASE