“In less than a year, this mother of two went from being a high school teacher to getting her first job in cybersecurity.”
Modupe Oladiran
In less than a year, this mother of two went from being a high school teacher to getting her first job in cybersecurity. Modupe Oladiran’s story is one of determination, sacrifice, and tenacity. It shows that all women need is a little help to fly in cybersecurity, and they will do it.
Modupe taught English language at a school for three years before she began to think about switching career to technology. “My life took a turn when I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a link to sign up for Cyber Girls 2.0 on Mrs. Confidence Staveley’s Instagram story,” she said. Modupe signed up, went through the process of applying, and was accepted.
“Because it was a new field and I didn’t know much about it, I put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into learning and gave it my all to make sure I got the most out of the training. This initially impacted my family because I started spending more time on my laptop at their expense” said Modupe. Over time, she found a good balance between learning and taking care of her family.
For each cohort, the CyberGirls Fellowship holds an Open Day to help girls improve their soft skills, such as working in a team, speaking in public, managing their time, etc. Modupe’s team gave a demo presentation about how to use Splunk to investigate Microsoft Office Macros malware events. Her team came in third, which gave her more confidence.
Her Open Day coach was so impressed by how well she did that he told her about an opening. She applied and landed her first job in cybersecurity before the end of the CyberGirls Fellowship. Modupe now works at Esentry (now known as Cybervergent) as a SOC Analyst.
We’ll keep rooting for you, Modupe!
CyberGirls is Africa’s biggest female-focused novice-to-professional, free cybersecurity training, mentorship and internship program, an initiative by CyberSafe Foundation .
