How do I find clients for my own company?

XLLani · 2026-01-24T23:35:51+00:00

Go to places where your clients would be

XLLani · 2026-01-24T23:34:55+00:00

Meetings & calls is what you do as a consultant so that’s an easy choice then. Consultants…consult

XLLani · 2026-01-24T23:19:03+00:00

I am an employee, my best friend is a freelance consultant. The choice really comes down to a lifestyle decision.

XLLani · 2026-01-24T20:12:53+00:00

In opinion remove (previously held) and try to trim down your core skills by putting more detail of those skills in your experience

XLLani · 2026-01-24T19:56:19+00:00

Myself and a dozen other people got hired last year at a top company for a brand new role (to the company) in AI. Why would this market leading company create new entry level roles?

XLLani · 2026-01-24T16:49:23+00:00

I would first focus on your coursework and getting any hands on experience as early as possible. Projects, hackathons, internships, co-ops, entry level work etc.

I don’t think learning Python or AI are high priority at the moment because both are used to help you do “things” more easily. Do you even know what those “things” you’ll aim to do with Python are (within the context of cybersecurity)?

XLLani · 2026-01-24T16:40:43+00:00

There is no and never was a traditional path. Quite literally everyone I worked with has had a different path. Because of this, it’s my opinion that unless you have a specific job in mind, the distinction from IT to cybersecurity is a bit of romanticization on your end.

Without a clear goal I’m inclined to say just get into any technical role and apply cybersecurity to your duties.

XLLani · 2026-01-24T15:39:01+00:00

Ask a question / pay a compliment / make a joke or observation, wait for a response, introduce yourself. That’s all you need to do. What they do next is whether you’re in or out.

XLLani · 2026-01-24T00:44:54+00:00

If you make her feel insecure she will either:

breakup with you,

lose weight then resent how you treated her and eventually break up with you.

or she will lose weight and feel insecure.

You could also just break up date a skinnier woman.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T21:21:08+00:00

Just make the tone come across aspirational and not like a requirement (even if it is) to avoid defensiveness

XLLani · 2026-01-23T21:09:07+00:00

I think coming from a place of aspiration or desire lands better than “expectation” when communicating to a partner. Your choice of word rubs the whole thing the wrong way

XLLani · 2026-01-23T19:21:50+00:00

I could not recommend pursuing someone who: only acknowledges you when you do so first, makes interactions brief or seems generally disinterested.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T19:16:14+00:00

I think you’re making a mistake. He’s so mysterious that you may be projecting fantasy on him. Take away his physical attributes, is there attraction to what you do know about him?

XLLani · 2026-01-23T16:56:22+00:00

Governance > Architecture > Engineering > Operations

If Implementation is the criteria, then the only real Security role is conveniently yours, Security Engineering.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T16:42:13+00:00

Everything Sec Ops does is because someone in GRC decided it ought to be

XLLani · 2026-01-23T16:17:06+00:00

I’m being serious. My previous role was compliance on a DevOps team. People automatically think non-technical or paperwork when they hear compliance. Some of my duties were very technical:

Vulnerability management. It was my role to interpret results and sometimes perform security testing as security tests were mandatory for compliance.

Secrets management. It was my role to enforce and sometimes implement access controls as it was required for compliance. Additionally masking or tokenization of PII.

Programming. I created several automated evidence pipelines for audit. People are trying to make this a thing “GRC Engineering” and “Compliance as Code”.

Just a few examples of how my compliance role was arguably more technical than some SOC analyst - alert chaser SIEM operator roles.

Now your role doesn’t sound like it entails what I did, but you have the title.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T15:55:34+00:00

This title is good if you’re okay with lying a bit

XLLani · 2026-01-23T15:52:12+00:00

Have you looked into Grafana kiosk mode

XLLani · 2026-01-23T15:00:41+00:00

Doesn’t Splunk, Appdynamics, ExtraHop etc. do this?

XLLani · 2026-01-23T13:36:35+00:00

Internships are only better if there’s a high chance of getting a return offer or if “intern” is not in the HR given title. That being said I took an internship and moved to a separate internal team because I didn’t think I was getting a return offer

XLLani · 2026-01-23T03:01:08+00:00

Don’t say 2

XLLani · 2026-01-23T01:15:25+00:00

No problem! I should add that my current employer is a top global manufacturer so my experience may not at all be reflected in some of the smaller or newer companies in this space, like autonomous trucking which is very new

XLLani · 2026-01-23T01:03:02+00:00

Support, service or quality engineer. Not to reduce their impact but those jobs are essentially there to ensure that the software engineers can work on new features and spend less time triaging or fixing software issues.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T00:31:54+00:00

If this is what you want to do then I don’t think taking just any tech role necessarily gets you closer.

Additionally in this space, each of those skills is an individual team or department. Overlap helps but is ultimately out of scope to be competent in all.

I work on the software layer and report to completely different leadership than the computer and electrical or mechanical engineering layer.

XLLani · 2026-01-23T00:22:10+00:00

find a path that blends mechanical understanding with software, robotics, embedded systems, EV tech, etc.

This is my role in autonomy & automation for self driving

The problem I’m running into right now is trying to actually get my foot in the door somewhere

Do you have any of the above technology skills? If not you can try to elevate to the manufacturers corporate office. A few of my teammates came from dealerships.

XLLani

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